Why We Don't Diagram in LR (Ep. 412)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.8 • 868 Ratings
🗓️ 24 July 2023
⏱️ 102 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Diagramming in Logical Reasoning is time-consuming, confusing, and error-prone. Ben and Nathan advocate an intuitive approach to Logical Reasoning that promotes real understanding and long-term growth. In this week’s episode, the guys warn listeners of the perils of LR diagrams and demonstrate a commonsense alternative. Later, they recommend an ASAP approach to reviewing mistakes, discourage school list disclosures on applications, and advise students not to skip “hard” questions in timed sections.
1:53 - Meditation - A listener praises LSAT Demon’s guided meditations and reminds fellow students to breathe.
3:31 - Don’t Diagram in LR - “It’s painful, boring, difficult, and confusing.” Nathan and Ben explain why they don’t diagram in Logical Reasoning. They demonstrate a more intuitive approach using an example from PrepTest J.
37:59 - Review Immediately - An anonymous LSAT Demon student struggles to explain their mistakes when reviewing questions they drilled hours earlier. Ben and Nathan insist on reviewing mistakes right away—especially in drilling.
45:24 - Where to Start? - Listener Aidan asks if he should master his strongest section before moving on to the other two. Nathan and Ben instruct Aidan to study all three sections from the start.
50:26 - Disclosing Your School List - Some law schools ask you to disclose the full list of schools to which you’re applying. The guys recommend that applicants leave this question blank if it’s optional. Your answer won’t help you, and it might hurt you.
55:35 - “Stated” Questions in RC - An anonymous Ask Button correspondent bemoans how long it takes them to answer Stated questions in Reading Comprehension. Ben and Nathan diagnose Anonymous’s problem: reading the passage too quickly.
1:08:26 - ChatGPT for Applications - In last week’s episode, LSAC’s Kyle McEntee suggested that some law schools will start asking applicants whether they used AI in the creation of their applications. Listener Fran asks why anyone would disclose this information if the schools can’t determine it on their own. Nathan and Ben discourage using ChatGPT for law school applications in the first place.
1:13:25 - Don’t Skip Questions - Skipping the hard questions isn’t just a bad strategy—it might not even be possible. The guys dismiss question-skipping as an unhelpful gimmick that stymies real progress.
1:18:00 - Soft Factors - Listener Noah asks whether his work experience will give him a leg up on other applicants with similar hard stats. Ben and Nathan advise Noah not to use strong softs as an excuse to slack off on the LSAT.
1:26:04 - Income-Driven Repayment - Listener Justin suggests a new consideration for the guys’ discussion about President Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan. Nathan and Ben are unswayed.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 412 of the Thinking Elsap podcast. I'm Ben Olson with me is Nathan Fox. We're the co-founder of |
| 0:15.2 | Elsat Demon.com and the Elsat Demon Daily Podcast. You can be Elsat Famous. Share news and |
| 0:22.0 | ask questions on our website that's thinking |
| 0:23.8 | El-Sat.com. This not coming when is this this Wednesday August 9th at 3 p.m. Pacific |
| 0:31.9 | 6 p.m. Eastern we're going to have a pre-test pump up with |
| 0:35.2 | Chris. Pre-test pump-up. Where do we come up with that name? Boy, I wish I could give appropriate credit for whoever came up with that. |
| 0:48.0 | But yeah, one of our team members, it might have been Lily actually, who is now departing for law school. |
| 0:55.0 | I think Lily came up with the pre-test pump up, and now Chris has taken over that idea. |
| 1:00.0 | It's just the, you know, everybody who's taking the August test get together get some last minute |
| 1:05.9 | advice and probably you know |
| 1:10.1 | Cultural references from Chris and yeah should be fun. |
| 1:15.0 | That guy is a jokester so yeah go just for the laughs with Chris. |
| 1:19.0 | Yeah really. |
| 1:20.0 | You can sign up for that at Elsat.link forward slash free. You can also just find all our free |
| 1:23.0 | you can also just find all our free classes by going to |
| 1:26.9 | else at demon.com forward slash classes and checking out what's there |
| 1:31.2 | uh... wow tomorrow checking out what's there. Wow, tomorrow, July 25th is the September |
| 1:36.5 | 2023 registration deadline. There's going to be a Demon Daily |
| 1:41.1 | podcast that's episode 572 where we talk about how to know if you're ready to |
| 1:46.2 | register for that test so go ahead and check that out you can find all the dates at |
| 1:50.6 | Elsat. link forward slash dates. Let's jump in. We have a comment here on |
| 1:55.8 | YouTube from a demon basic student. Says the meditation in the middle of drilling is a brilliant |
... |
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