Surviving Georgetown Law with Michael Bongiorno (Ep. 258)
Ben sits down with a former student, circuit-court clerk, and recent Georgetown Law School grad, Michael Bongiorno for a wide-ranging interview. Michael shares what his law school experience was like and talks about studying for the Bar in the midst of a pandemic. The two go in-depth about the importance of picking the right law school, finding the right teachers, and performing well in your 1L year. They also discuss how to think about transferring, competing with your fellow students, and how to succeed even if your grades suffer in your 1L year.
As always, if you like the show and you want to get more from the Thinking LSAT community, check out the links below. You can connect with other folks studying for the LSAT, and get more useful resources from Nathan and Ben.
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Important Dates
8.21.2020 – Don’t sleep on it—it’s the deadline to register for the October LSAT
8.29.2020 – Can you beat the heat?! It’s the August LSAT!
6:27 – LSAC Update – Lifetime Test Limits
Just when you thought you could relax, LSAC is updating their policy around lifetime testing limits for the LSAT. The current policy is as follows:
You can take the LSAT
- 3x in a single testing year (June 1 to May 31)
- 5x times within the five most recent previous testing years (including the current year)
- A total of seven times over a lifetime
Until now, the LSAT-Flex has not counted toward these limits. You could take an LSAT-Flex each month since May and it wouldn’t count toward your lifetime limit. But as the LSAT-Flex appears to be the test of present and probably future, LSAC is flipping the switch. After the August LSAT-Flex, any LSAT-Flex will count toward your lifetime limit.
The policies around LSAT limits can be found here.
13:54 – Interview with Recent Georgetown Law Grad, Michael Bongiorno
In his early 30s, Michael Bongiorno knew he wanted to be a lawyer. And he knew he wanted to go into public interest law rather than big law. He also knew he needed to get the best LSAT score he could. After suffering a bad bout of test anxiety, Michael eventually knocked out a score in the high 160s and nabbed himself a spot at Georgetown Law. He just graduated, he’s clerked for a circuit judge in Maryland and is studying for the Bar ahead of a federal judge clerkship in 2021. Ben interviews Michael about his experience in law school. Michael doubles down on a lot of Thinking LSAT advice and has a ton of helpful tips for y’all 1Ls-to-be. Ben and Michael discuss how to succeed in your 1L year, how to course-correct if you kinda blow it, what you should think about when applying to law school and how to set yourself up for success after you graduate.