Accommodations Gone Wild (Ep. 203)

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What if there was a way to really, truly absorb the things you learn about the LSAT instead of reading a ton of stuff and forgetting about it two practice tests down the line? Well, there’s a miracle cure, dear listeners. It’s called sleep. And Ben opens the show with an appeal to all y’all out there to get your damn rest, citing some compelling facts about catching zzz’s. Nathan and Ben talk about sleep and then talk about the breadth of questions you can experience across all of the available practice tests. Plus, they talk about LSAT accommodations gone wild, approaching games from multiple angles, and they answer another LR question from the December 2013 LSAT. 


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.


LSAT Demon

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Important Dates

8/1 – It’s your last day to register for the September LSAT—so get in there!

8/28 – Those July test scores are going to end up in your inbox

9/21 – Strap in and crush the September LSAT


12:52 – LSAT Demon Update

Recently, the guys hosted a live proctored LSAT on the Demon. But there were some shortfalls when it comes to keeping everyone’s timer consistent. It turns out that when you’re delivering a proctored exam across thousands of internet networks around the world, the timers don’t line up perfectly. Who knew!? However, takers of the Thinking LSAT practice tests reported that the timing seemed to work better than that delivered by LSAC…also who knew?! Ben offers some updates about what they’re doing to remedy the issue and gives some other Demon updates. 


18:33 – Question 1—Ezra writes in with an awe-inspiring tale of LSAT accommodations gone awry. According to this Yahoo! Finance article from 2018, one student received “stop-the-clock” accommodations and accomplished the test over a 16-hour period instead of the normally allotted three-hour period. Pretty wild, right? In fact, the same student took 150 breaks during the test—more than one break per question. The guys review some history on the topic and share their latest thoughts about LSAT accommodations.

 

35:29 – Question 2—Carolyn is having a tough time with games. And she’s confused about how Nathan and Ben approach games. She feels like the guys encourage re-tackling the same game over and over rather than trying to solve a variety of games. Nathan and Ben clarify their advice. The pro tip is to approach the same game a few times (especially if you get it wrong) to try different setups for the game because there’s no one perfect way to set up games. However, you shouldn’t just re-do games in lieu of doing new ones. Get out there! Do as many games as you need to prepare for that LG section on the day of the test.


45:24 – LR Question #5 from Prep Test 71 (December 2013 LSAT)

The guys jump into the next logical reasoning question from the December 2013 LSAT. In this LR question, the guys consider the overpopulation of earth, emigrating to other planets, and just what the hell “geometric growth” means. After an aside to talk about how totally sweet space travel, science, and Jet Propulsion Labs are, the guys slice and dice the question for your edutainment. 


1:01:12 – Pearls vs. Turds! And Too Many Worlds?!

Fred’s just back in DC after a lengthy trip to northern New Jersey to sit for the July LSAT. Not only was the round trip more than six hours, he had to sleep in his car after not doing so hot on the test. Talk about a bummer. One of the frustrating things that Fred found was that he kept overdoing it on worlds. Splitting worlds too many times. Making too many worlds. It extended his time during the section and made it difficult to get very far. He even found that he wasn’t able to use a number of the worlds he created. The guys tell Fred he’s got to reign it in. Just make a few solid worlds per game. They may not be complete, but they should get you far enough down the field that you can piece together the rest. The reality is, you don’t know what you’ll be asked, so you should try to understand and document the rules and possibilities as best you can and then dive into the questions!


But Fred doesn’t stop there. He’s putting up some hearsay wisdom for pearl-vs.-turd review. The advice is that, when it comes to “must be true” questions (or any question, really), if the answer choice uses extreeeemmmme language, it’s likely incorrect. The guys poke at this advice a bit and ultimately give it a pearl ranking. But just remember that extreme answers can still be correct, so long as the passage supports it. Furthermore, most answers are incorrect—80% in fact—so that’s something to keep in mind, too, dear listeners. 


1:11:32 – Desert Island LSAT?

Some listeners may remember that back in May, the guys said you could prepare for the LSAT by diving in to just one test. If you can learn that one test cover to cover and so deeply understand the concepts that you could teach the test, you’d be prepared to take the LSAT. A listener writes in to ask the guys which test is deserving of being a “desert island” LSAT. Ben and Nathan stick to their guns and indicate that you could indeed prepare for the test by devouring just one practice test. For them? Ben says the free prep test 71, because it has 101 questions instead of 99 (more bang for your…free bucks), and it had a generous testing curve, suggesting it was a toughie. Nathan says he’d go for the most recent test—86.