Plan Don’t Cram (Ep. 125)

Thanks to you, dear listeners, our inbox experienced a wave of new listener mail and the guys get to work answering your LSAT questions. But first, exciting LSAC news! It turns out LSAC will add another LSAT test date this year—in July. The guys talk about what this means for test-takers. Mostly that it’s a boon for students who now have three chances to tackle the test before the fall cycle begins. Plus, Nathan and Ben speculate on the status of the Digital LSAT, talk Movie Pass, and Nathan gives his critical review of The Phantom Thread.

14:28 – A former student of Nathan’s writes to ask about going round two for law school. What happened with round one, you ask? In their first year of law school, they lost their scholarship, and then their seat due to poor grades. Now that they want back in, the law school is demanding they retake the LSAT. See if you can guess what Nathan and Ben recommend before you tune in to hear for yourself.

20:56 – Email 1—Thank goodness for Florida Coastal School of Law. If not for them, we wouldn’t have a handy “Three Days to Go” stress-reducing 3-day prep plan leading up to the February LSAT. Only thing is…they accidentally sent it 10 days early. Hilarity ensues as the guys skewer this enormous turd-bomb of an email. Find out exactly what not to do before test day, including doing one full test a day for the three days prior to the official LSAT (WTF?). For an email whose subject reads “Plan, don’t cram,” that sounds an awful lot like cramming to us. Thanks to Wes and Avery for sending in this gem.

34:35 – Email 2—Juan recently missed the deadline to apply for accommodations for the February LSAT. He’s struggled with Attention Deficit Disorder for several years, and realized accommodated testing may be an option for him after listening to the pod. With scores in the 140s and 130s on record, he’s wondering if he should sit the February LSAT out and wait to apply for the June test with accommodations? Ben and Nathan unanimously agree: absolutely wait. But there’s more to the story than just getting accommodated testing. Where are you struggling on the exam? What does your practice regimen look like? Going from the 130s to a 160 requires a lot of work, dear friends, and one’s best bet is to plan, not cram.

39:21 – Email 3—We get an exciting update from correspondent Wicked who lets us know that her GPA has bumped from 3.81 to 3.84. Along with her 179 LSAT score, that makes her a pretty strong applicant. She let’s us know that since her last email she’s been accepted to UCLA, University of Chicago, and University of Michigan where she just interviewed for a full-ride scholarship. Looking pretty good so far, Wicked! No news from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and UVA, and she’s waitlisted at UPenn. She’s nervous that a few typos in her admissions essay are holding her back. But the guys agree Wicked has little to worry about. Thanks for the update, Wicked!

43:04 – Email 4—A few weeks ago, Sarah wrote in to let us know a friend had applied to law school late in the cycle and was still excited to pull out a 50% scholarship. Pretty cool, right? How about: pretty un-cool. A 50% scholarship still means paying 50% tuition, which still means a shit ton of debt after law school. Sarah writes in with an update and confirms that both she and her friend agree that the friend was ripped off. After a short time in law school, the friend switched to a degree in poli-sci and is much happier and far less in debt. But the story doesn’t end there. Sarah catches us up on her own application process. She jumped from a 152 to a 157 on December’s LSAT (congrats, Sarah!) and applied this cycle with hopes of nabbing a scholarship for school in the fall. The guys discuss the price you pay for applying late in the year, but hold out hope for our correspondent.  

53:58 – Email 5—What happens when you’ve got a number of charges to your name? Can you still sit for the Bar? Does it make sense to even go to law school? That’s just what Jasmine wants to know. She hopes to one day be a lawyer but has four criminal charges against her from the past five years. Nathan and Ben review Jasmine’s rap sheet and make some recommendations on how to frame her story, but the bottom line is: you’ll need to call the Bar, show your cards, and ask them the best path forward.

1:09:45 – Email 6—Long-time listener Peter hits the guys up with an update and a question. With a 170 LSAT score and a 3.4 GPA, Peter has scored entry to UVA, but without any scholarship money. He’s weighing a decision between the higher-ranked school and slightly lower-ranked schools who are offering substantial scholarships. Ben and Nathan weigh in, but here’s the pro tip: don’t pay for law school. Oh, and don’t just lie there and take sticker price at UVA! Ask them for some money!

1:15:53 – Email 7—Lame on Games (L.o.G.) is bummed. When they first started studying for the LSAT, they would breeze through the logic games without missing hardly a question. The games were so simple. They came to L.o.G. so quickly. And in fact by comparison, they’d suffer a bit in LR and RC. But in the past few months, L.o.G.’s LR and RC skills have strengthened, while they’ve watched their LG sections take a hit. On a recent practice test, they had a -8! What gives? The guys weigh in on how to regain the confidence to start crushing LG sections once again. And you can probably guess the primary piece of advice: slow down, dear listener. Slow down.