You’re Never Early with a Bad Score (Ep. 521)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.6 • 886 Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2025
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben and Nate break down the measurable cost of applying late in the law school admissions cycle. Your LSAT score has the most value on the day that applications open. By rushing your LSAT or applying late in the cycle, you sacrifice points and leave money on the table. With AI poised to disrupt the legal market, it’s more important than ever to go to law school for free.
Watch Episode 521 on YouTube
0:32 – AI Making Law School Obsolete?
Ben and Nate discuss an article from a former Google exec claiming AI will make law and medical degrees obsolete. The guys acknowledge that AI is improving, but it still makes mistakes. While they agree that a law degree isn’t a guaranteed gravy train, they also note that the law itself is a barrier to modernization, which will slow AI’s impact on legal education. The schools most at risk are bottom feeders churning out lawyers for grunt work. Their advice: don’t pay tuition at weak schools.
14:50 – LSAT Suspended in Mainland China
LSAC halts testing in China after evidence of cheating. A Reddit post earlier this year even advertised cheating services. While tough for honest test takers in China, applicants should appreciate LSAC’s effort to safeguard exam security.
24:03 – Cost of Delaying Apps
How late is too late? While early applications are stronger, it’s never worth rushing the LSAT. The best strategy is to get your best LSAT and then apply at the start of the next cycle. A University of Chicago Journal of Law and Economics article finds that delays weaken applications. Waiting 100 days is equivalent to dropping 2.1 LSAT points or 0.26 GPA points. Schools review applications in waves, and the earliest applicants are often the strongest. Missing the first wave, even by a day, can carry measurable costs.
Dynamic Decision-Making under Rolling Admissions: Evidence from US Law School Applications
47:43 – Main Point vs. Summary
A summary lists information, but a main point answers “why.” It’s what the author is trying to convince you of, not just what they said.
52:31 – Doing LR Backwards
Listener Blair wants to work backward in Logical Reasoning to combat fatigue. Ben and Nathan’s answer: If you’re scoring under 175, you shouldn’t be finishing sections anyway, so working backward means skipping easier questions to do harder ones. If you’re at 175 or above, then fatigue isn’t an issue.
59:28 – Score Plateaus
Listeners Trevor and Ireland feel stuck. The guys caution against chasing a single breakthrough. Progress comes from carefully reviewing and learning from every mistake, one question at a time.
1:04:42 – Personal Statement Gong Show
Listener Elena is the next Gong Show contestant. Ben and Nathan read her personal statement until they reach an unforgivable mistake—they then ring the gong. The record is 34 lines, set by listener Sophia.
Want in? Send in your statement by September 1, 2025, to be considered for the Gong Super Show.
1:07:20 - Word of the Week - Truism
The standard advice about writing is mostly truisms, like “Make a plan,” “Don’t use the passive,” or “Think of your audience.”
Get caught up with our Word of the Week library.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hardly anybody's paying full price. |
| 0:01.9 | And if you're paying full price, you're basically the sucker in the game. |
| 0:05.2 | You know, you're footing the bill for this whole charade. |
| 0:08.2 | Yeah. |
| 0:08.6 | And I would go further and say if you're paying anything at those lower schools, you probably |
| 0:13.4 | shouldn't go. |
| 0:14.2 | Yeah. |
| 0:25.9 | Hello and welcome to episode 521 of the Thinking Elseap podcast. |
| 0:27.0 | I'm Ben Olson. |
| 0:28.7 | With me is Nathan Fox. We're the co-founders of Elsaiddemon.com and the ElsaDemon Daily podcast. |
| 0:33.6 | Today we're going to jump into more AI stuff. |
| 0:37.3 | Is AI making law school obsolete? Yeah, we got an |
| 0:42.0 | article here from Forbes with a title, ex-Google exec says degrees in law and medicine are a waste |
| 0:48.7 | of time because they take so long to complete that AI will catch up by graduation. I think you found this. |
| 0:56.7 | Does this something your dad sent you probably? I know your dad is like an AI nowhere. |
| 1:02.0 | Yeah, exactly. He sent it to me among many articles, but this one stuck out to me because one, |
| 1:09.2 | okay, a former Google executive knows something about technology. |
| 1:14.1 | But two, it also rings true to some degree, right? We've seen how quickly AI is getting better. |
| 1:22.0 | There are obviously huge caveats to that and problems. But my reaction to this headline is it's not going to make law school entirely obsolete. |
| 1:34.2 | I think it will actually make competition at the top even greater, but it will put a lot of |
| 1:41.7 | pressure on the bottom schools to get out of the business. |
| 1:46.4 | Yeah. |
... |
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