Test-Optional Admissions (Ep. 484)

Thinking LSAT

Nathan Fox and Ben Olson

Education

4.8 • 868 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2024

⏱️ 81 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The American Bar Association will soon allow law schools to admit more students without standardized test scores. Is that good for applicants? This week, Nathan and Ben discuss why test-optional admissions might not benefit students (and why you should probably still take the LSAT). The guys also outline the qualities of a successful law student, share tips on how to get faster, and investigate a well-regarded law school in New York City.

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9:21 - Law School Is for Nerds - Listener Steve struggles to shake off his underperformance on the November LSAT. Ben and Nathan question whether Steve is cut out for law school.

20:58 - When Should I Take the LSAT? - The guys double down on their advice not to register for the LSAT until you’re happy with your practice test scores.

31:29 - Test-Optional Admissions - Some law schools might soon bypass the ABA’s admission test requirement, allowing them to admit more students without LSAT scores. Nathan and Ben have doubts about whether this is good for law school applicants.

40:30 - Getting Faster - An anonymous LSAT Demon student asks how to get faster while maintaining high accuracy. Ben and Nathan advise Anonymous to pursue even greater accuracy and to dismiss wrong answers more confidently.

51:01 - There Can Be Only One - Fifty-fifty guesses aren’t good enough. The guys explain why the best LSAT students eliminate all five answers more often than they debate multiple answers.

56:40 - What’s the Deal With…? - Nathan and Ben examine the admissions numbers and employment outcomes at Fordham Law School, which has a reputation as a non-T14 pathway to NYC big law.

1:13:58 - Tips from a Departing Demon - LSAT Demon student Caleb writes: “To anyone that is beginning their LSAT journey or their time with the Demon, learn to love it. Make it a game.”

1:16:58 - Word of the Week - Not all law schools are located in cities with salubrious climates.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Be careful like what you're getting yourself into here. If you end up going to law school without an LSAT, you might waste three years of time, three years of tuition money, God forbid, and then never end up practicing law because you can't make it past the bar exam in your state.
0:28.6	Hello and welcome to episode 484 of the Thinking Elseat podcast.
0:29.6	I'm Nathan Fox.
0:30.6	With me is Ben Olson.
0:34.3	We are the co-founders of ElsetDemon.com and the Elset Demon Daily podcast.
0:38.5	You can be Elset famous by sharing news or asking questions on our website thinkinglsat.com. We've got a free class that we're teaching tonight. And by the time you hear this,
0:45.8	we will have recorded it about a week ago. But it's a big one that we think everybody should make
0:52.2	sure they check out. Ben, how do people go get the video of the Parents Night class that we're going to teach tonight?
1:00.9	Yeah, so just go to LSAT.com slash parents.
1:06.2	Again, that's LSAT.
1:08.4	Dot link forward slash parents. And that will take you to the class we just did.
1:13.7	Yeah. Yeah. What are we going to talk about tonight, Ben? I'm excited to do the parents' night that we did,
1:19.6	volume one was very successful. That was like a year ago or more than a year ago. We're doing it again
1:24.1	to update it with new information about the way the LSAT works. But what's the
1:29.0	point of doing a class that's targeted toward the parents of LSAT students? Certainly. Yeah.
1:36.0	I mean, we have several things on the syllabus that we want to cover Glad, which we've talked a lot
1:41.5	about on this podcast and why the LSAT's important and how it can help you go to law school for way less than most people think.
1:49.5	But I would say the main message that I want to get to parents is that the sticker price of law school is largely fictional.
2:10.3	And it's normal and expected to get a generous scholarship.
2:12.2	And by generous, we don't mean $5,000.
2:21.3	We mean close to half, more than half, potentially full, potentially a stipend. That's normal if you know how this game is played. And if you understand that system and how to leverage it, you can be a
2:29.9	great asset to your child, to your nephew, to your niece, or whoever you're helping on this
	...

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