LSAT Burpees (Ep. 204)
It’s the dead of summer and the guys are cutting all over the place on this adventure and that adventure in the wake of the July LSAT. Ben’s been biking through the countryside, enjoying vistas of abandoned steel mills from the days of yore. Nathan’s getting ready to go on a family vacay where he’ll challenge his nieces and nephews to board games among the giant sequoias. And the two hunker down for an episode of serious logical reasoning. Nathan and Ben tackle two new LR questions from the December 2013 LSAT and take you on every step of their thought process as they do so. Plus, a listener writes in with a perhaps pearl of wisdom about exercising before the LSAT, and the guys shred a personal statement.
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.
Personal Statement Review Package
Instagram (upcoming events)
Important Dates
8/10/19 – The crew is proctoring a digital practice LSAT via the LSAT Demon.
8/28/19 – Y’all July test-takers will get your scores in your inbox
9/21/19 – It’s the September LSAT!
10:22 - LSAT Demon Update
Are you a premium LSAT Demon user? If so, the team is rolling out some pretty sweet new features you should check out. The LSAT Demon now has a “Course” option in the menu that serves up lessons on the test. If you’re thinking about taking an LSAT class, look no further—try this out and see how you dig it. And if you’re not a premium LSAT Demon user? It’s like…wtf are you waiting for? There’s a free trial right here.
11:44 – Pearls vs. Turds
It’s your weekly Pearls vs. Turds y’all. And thus far the chalkboard reads 3 Pearls, 16 Turds, and 10 Ties. And let’s be honest…one of those pearls was kind of a gimme. Today’s wisdom comes from a rather fit listener who says working out on the day of the test may result in better outcomes. After all, exercise improves brain function; why wouldn’t it have a positive effect on your performance during the test? To test their own hypothesis, this listener did a workout the morning of the test, and then during breaks—get ready—did lunges and burpees. The result? She scored five points higher than her practice score average. Pretty badass, right? The guys agree this is a straight-up pearl of wisdom, but also uphold the listener’s disclaimer: if you’re not already a regularly active person, this might shock your system or throw you off and have adverse effects on the day of the test.
25:56 – Prep Test 71, Section 2, LR Question #6
Long-time listeners of the show will know that ice-cream deliciousness has oft been a topic of much debate for the Thinking LSAT crew. So how apropos that the next LR question is about just that. The guys talk about the complexities of vanilla vs. chocolate, half-fat and full-fat ice cream, and bogus testing that places full-fat ice cream anywhere but the top of the heap. Then they jump into this classic strengthen question and pick it apart piece by piece. Get your ice cream spoons ready and jump on in.
46:14 - Prep Test 71, Section 2, LR Question #7
The guys keep truckin’ along and head right into the next logical reasoning question from the December 2013 LSAT, which can be found and taken for free-ninety-nine right here. They read through the LR argument about genetic research and share how you can pick up speed by predicting the answer before taking a look at the multiple choice. Knowing what to expect before reviewing the answer choices can help you weed out a shit (or even a tricky) answer choice within just a few words. If an option fails to satisfy your expectation for the correct answer, move the eff on! The guys also talk about the importance of expecting an answer choice to be wrong—because 80% of them are—rather than hoping it will be right.
1:06:01 – Personal Statement Review
Anonymous writes in to ask the guys to review their personal statement and the guys oblige. Nathan and Ben read through and critique the statement line by line, word by word, punctuation mark by a lousy punctuation mark. The guys find familiar areas for improvement—anonymous needs to write more about actual sh*t they did! They need more personal information to give the law school a sense of who they’re reading about. They need to stop embellishing weird stuff (the guys are reminded of Splitty from episode 123) and more lawyerly behavior exhibited in their essay. We know it’s there to be written about, but anonymous didn’t quite capture a compelling reason to be selected to law school based solely on their personal statement. Never fear, though, anonymous. The guys made similar mistakes in their own personal statements back in the day. They make some recommendations for your infotainment.