The 2x Rule for Law School Rankings (Ep. 361)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.8 • 868 Ratings
🗓️ 1 August 2022
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How much should rankings influence your decision about where to attend law school? On this week’s episode, Ben and Nathan rebrand their “100% rule” as the “2x rule” for law school rankings. The name’s changed, but the rule is the same: When comparing one school to another, you shouldn’t consider their rankings unless they differ by twice as much or more. The guys also discuss how to study like a top scorer, advise a struggling student not to let the LSAT dominate their life, and write a GPA addendum.
4:37 - Yield-Protection Worries: Demon student Anna’s GPA and LSAT score are so high that she worries her top-choice school might waitlist her for yield protection. Ben and Nathan recommend that Anna visit the school to demonstrate her genuine interest and ties to the community.
16:27 - The 2x Rule: Ben proposes a new name for the 100% rule for law school rankings: the 2x rule. Follow this rule when comparing law schools. Rankings should influence your decision to choose one school over another only when they differ by twice as much or more.
18:37 - Getting to the 170s: Listener Hasaan has improved substantially from his diagnostic score and wonders whether he can make it to the 170s. Nathan and Ben’s advice? Start studying like someone who scores in the 170s. Forget the clock, focus on accuracy, and trust that speed will follow.
26:32 - Oracles of Common Sense: LSAT Demon student Ola finally understands Logical Reasoning and compares Ben and Nathan to Greek oracles. Are their teachings oracular insight, or just common sense?
28:06 - Follow Through with Something New: Anonymous is a self-described “serial studier with no follow-through” who’s been studying off and on for six years. Lawyers don’t lack follow-through, the guys note. They suspect that Anonymous might’ve been using bad prep materials and recommend trying LSAT Demon for a month. If it doesn’t start to click, Anonymous may want to reconsider law school.
31:41 - The LSAT Shouldn’t Dominate Your Life: Listener Robert describes his LSAT woes. Despite prep courses, a tutor, and 10 weeks of full-time study, his score hasn’t improved. His friends and family tell him to quit. Should he heed their advice? Ben and Nathan suggest some radical changes to Robert’s approach.
46:29 - Be a Big Fish: LSAT Demon student Kash wonders whether earning a high class rank at a less-competitive school might serve him better than attending a top-ranked school. Nathan and Ben reiterate the benefits of attending the highest-ranked law school you can go to for free. They also discuss a 2010 Above the Law article about Shell Oil’s tiered ranking system for evaluating job applicants.
57:18 - Ben Writes a GPA Addendum: Ben demonstrates how to write a short GPA addendum that focuses on the facts and doesn’t make excuses.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 361 of the Thinking Elsap podcast on Ben Olson, that's Nathan Fox together with the co-founder of |
| 0:14.7 | El-Sat demon.com and the El-Sat demon daily podcast if you're hearing this show on |
| 0:21.6 | Monday August 1st, 2022. You can get on our next episode by |
| 0:27.4 | emailing us today with any questions you have. Our email is help at thinking |
| 0:31.0 | L-Sat.com we will be recording tomorrow and that's always |
| 0:34.4 | the case. So if you're a day one listener you can get on next week's episode by |
| 0:39.4 | emailing us today. The next registration deadline is Thursday, September 1st. That's for the October |
| 0:46.4 | 2022, L-SAT. You can always find these dates at L-SAT. link forward slash dates. |
| 0:53.6 | We had an email today from somebody who was registered for both August and September |
| 0:59.4 | and just clearly wasn't ready for either of them. |
| 1:02.9 | You really shouldn't be registering for these tests |
| 1:05.2 | unless you know you're ready based on your practice test scores. |
| 1:09.2 | So that's why we're always gonna give you |
| 1:11.1 | these registration deadlines. |
| 1:12.8 | If you've been doing practice tests and you feel like you're |
| 1:15.6 | going to be ready for the October 22 test, |
| 1:19.4 | then you can take, you can register by Thursday, September 1st. |
| 1:23.8 | But if you don't know whether you're gonna be ready, |
| 1:26.3 | then don't waste $215 registering for a test. |
| 1:30.4 | Excellent. |
| 1:31.6 | On Thursday, August 11th at 4 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Eastern, Nathan is going to be teaching a class. |
| 1:38.0 | It's a free class, so all you need is a demon free account. If you've never sat in on a class with Nathan here's |
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