It's 8 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday, a little chilly, deep in downtown Manhattan,

streets are empty.

I'm standing on a sidewalk with my assistant, Camille Baptista.

First of all, Camille.

I need to know, did you sleep all last night?

I did sleep well, yes.

I did not.

Really?

I could almost no sleep and I had a nightmare about the LSAT that I left before I was over.

I had an exam nightmare from high school, essentially, high school.

You left before it was over.

I had a nightmare about the LSAT that I walked out before the test was over.

Oh, but my nightmare was just beginning.

This is Malcolm Gladwell.

I'm back with season 4 of Revisionist History, my podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood.

This episode is about what happened when Camille and I took the Law School admissions test.

We had three number two pencils each, a small pack of Kleenex, a package of trail mix,

all in clear plastic bags.

We lined up outside Pays University with hundreds of other nervous people clutching clear

plastic bags.

Everyone wanted someday to become lawyers, except us.

We were there in the name of science.

...