Retaking a 173 (Ep. 533)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.6 • 886 Ratings
🗓️ 17 November 2025
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A listener writes in asking whether they should retake a 173, worried that a future attempt could be lower. Ben and Nathan explain why they should be willing to use all four remaining attempts: law schools only care about your highest score, and every point, especially for higher scores, can turn into thousands of dollars.
Also in this episode:
- When applicants can expect scholarship responses from law schools
- Advice from Demon students who crushed the LSAT
- Another brave contestant steps up for the Personal Statement Gong Show
Links Mentioned:
Check out all of our “What’s the Deal With” segments
Get caught up with our Word of the Week library
0:00 - Following the Demon Way
3:30 - When Will I Hear Back on Scholarships?
9:31 - Medians Above 4.00
24:25 - Tips from Deparing Demons
31:40 - Should I Retake a 173?
36:35 - Light at the End of the Tunnel
50:56 - Personal Statement Gong Show
1:05:23 - Word of the Week — Anachronism
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You just have one mistaken assumption in your head. |
| 0:02.4 | And that assumption is that if you perform worse, that that is going to somehow hurt you. |
| 0:07.2 | It will not hurt you. |
| 0:09.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:10.0 | Your downside is a 173. |
| 0:19.6 | Hello and welcome to episode 533 of the Thinking Elseat podcast. I'm Ben Olson. With me is Nathan Fox. |
| 0:27.6 | We're the co-founders of Elsaid Demon.com and the ElsaDemon Daily podcast. Let's jump into this |
| 0:33.7 | first item. The subject is thank you with an exclamation point, and the editors, |
| 0:40.0 | the producers have said that it's following the demon way. |
| 0:45.3 | Hey, Nathan and Ben, I hope you're having a great week so far. My name is Timothy, and I used |
| 0:50.0 | El Sat Demon for roughly six months from December of 2024 through June of 2025. I ended up |
| 0:58.0 | sitting for the June test and I got my goal score of 168 from a diagnostic of mid-150s, two |
| 1:06.3 | exclamation points there. So far, the three schools I have heard back from have all been full ride offers, |
| 1:14.1 | and I cannot thank you guys enough for the immense help that LSAT Demon provided during |
| 1:18.9 | my LSAT preparation. |
| 1:21.0 | I primarily focused on drilling 30 to 60 minutes a day or doing one to two times sections |
| 1:26.4 | per day. |
| 1:30.8 | I did this five days per week and took a full length practice test every Saturday starting in March. I actually drove each time to a Starbucks |
| 1:39.2 | near where my testing center was at the exact time I was planning to take the test. So on test day, it just |
| 1:47.7 | felt like a normal practice test. Ha ha. Anyways, thank you guys so much. I'm excited to see |
| 1:55.4 | where I end up for law school, but the fact that it will be at a much better school for a much |
| 2:00.5 | better price is so exciting. |
... |
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