Ep. 194: Gaming the System

Nathan and Ben are just back from a weekend in DC delivering a Personal Statement Workshop and they jump right into the show debriefing each other on their experiences teaching the class. And while Nathan laments he couldn’t spend more time causing mischief with Ben’s kids, they both had a blast going deep on personal statements with 2020 1L hopefuls. After the workshop recap, the guys touch on a bunch of topics ranging from how to properly time yourself during practice tests to whether community-college grades can be a boon to your LSAC GPA. They also take a look at a listener-submitted graph covering 5 months of practice-test data, and they break out the knives and blow torches for a personal statement review. 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. Thinking LSAT Facebook Group Instagram (upcoming events) LSAT Demon Strategy Prep Fox LSAT Personal Statement Review Package Upcoming Events 6/3/19 - The June 3rd LSAT! 6/4/19 - Last day to register for the July LSAT 6/27/19 - June scores released 7/15/19 - July LSAT Thinking LSAT Personal Statement Workshop If you missed out on Nathan’s and Ben’s personal statement workshop this weekend, don’t fret. The guys have posted the class online! Check it out here and follow along with the personal statements they cover in the workshop: The workshop. The personal statements. (https://www.strategyprep.com/admissions/ps-workshop-190518.pdf) 6:21 – Gaming the system? Listener of the show Will recently asked a question via the comments section on the Thinking LSAT website. Will’s sitting pretty with a 176 official score backed up by a 3.9 LSAC GPA. Pretty sweet, huh? But ‘not so fast,’ Will says. It turns out that Will had a GPA of 3.7. It was only when he factored in his good grades from (non-transferrable) community college classes that he got this boost. Now he’s worried that the elite schools he’s planning to apply to are going to scour his transcripts and determine that he “gamed the system,” with community classes. Should he worry, he wonders? Watch Episode 194 on YouTube