1L strategy coach Angela Vorpahl returns to Thinking LSAT to discuss five common but misguided pieces of advice for incoming law students. She explains why these conventional 1L strategies fall short and suggests more effective alternatives.

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3:08 - Class Prep vs. Exam Prep - Law professors insist that students should thoroughly read each assigned case. But reading every line of every case takes a huge amount of time. Angela advises students to invest their time in study methods that have a greater impact on their final grade.

20:15 - Note-Taking Strategies - Research suggests that students who take notes by hand might retain more information than students who type their notes. But for Angela’s preferred method of note-taking, handwriting notes simply isn’t fast enough.

33:05 - Study Supplements - Some law school traditionalists vilify study supplements like hornbooks, and they label students who use them as lazy. But these supplements aren’t shortcuts; they’re vital study tools—especially when professors routinely fail to teach the material in a straightforward way.

46:33 - Outlining Is Not Enough - A good outline may be necessary to succeed on law school exams, but it’s not sufficient. Angela describes the extra study step that students should take after outlining.

56:21 - IRAC - “Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion” (IRAC) has long been the popular structure for legal analysis in law school. But Angela argues that IRAC misses the most important part of how students score points on final exams.

1:07:28 - Intermediate Conclusions - Don’t worry too much about identifying intermediate conclusions. Focus on what the argument says.

1:16:26 - Academic Suspension - Nathan and Ben follow up on last week’s story about an applicant who wants to remove an academic suspension from their transcript.

1:18:46 - Word of the Week - Halo Top is execrable.

Ben and producer Erik team up to offer guidance on overcoming a score plateau. One key tip: Don’t fixate on your practice test scores. Later, Ben and Erik debunk the rumor that applicants hurt their admissions chances when they withdraw and reapply. They examine law schools’ employment outcome disclosures. And they discuss what it means to overthink the correct answer—and how to stop.

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5:52 - Score Plateau - How do you break out of a score plateau? Stop worrying about your score, and focus on fixing individual mistakes.

16:20 - Downside to Reapplying? - An anonymous listener applied late in the cycle and received disappointing scholarship offers. Will law schools treat Anonymous unfavorably for declining these offers and reapplying next cycle?

22:07 - Judicial Clerkships - Must listener Alex attend a highly ranked law school to obtain a judicial clerkship? Erik and Ben investigate schools’ employment outcomes at abarequireddisclosures.org.

29:50 - Overthinking - We’re more likely to overthink answer choices when we rush our reading of the passage and fail to predict the answer. Avoid this trap by spending more time unpacking the passage before reading the answer choices.

36:50 - Group Classes vs. Solo Study - Ben and Erik suggest that listener Hannah try a month of Demon Live in preparation for the June LSAT.

39:37 - GPA Addendum - Erik and Ben help an anonymous listener write a GPA addendum to address an anomalous semester of bad grades.

40:57 - Transcript Error - Ben and Erik encourage an anonymous listener to be persistent in trying to remove an error on their undergraduate transcript.

44:24 - LSAT Survey - LSAT Demon now appears in the post-LSAT survey. Thanks to LSAT Demon student Laura for sharing the news.

46:23 - Words of the Week - Misers ascribe no merit to spending money.

Ben and Nathan chat with Nick Hafen, the Head of Legal Technology Education at BYU Law. They discuss what law students should know about leveraging generative AI tools like ChatGPT in law school and beyond. The guys also review a tip for managing test anxiety, and they explain why they don’t diagram in Logical Reasoning.

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0:43 - Generative AI - Nick explains some generative AI basics that law students should know. The guys discuss how the technology might impact lawyers’ jobs.

8:57 - AI and Law School - Law schools are still deciding how to incorporate AI into their curriculums. Students shouldn’t rely on their professors to teach them everything they need to know.

17:39 - Getting Started with AI - Nick suggests a simple Google search to start learning about generative AI. Ben and Nathan encourage listeners to experiment with new use cases.

24:49 - Nick’s Career - Nick outlines his career path from big law, to solo practice, to working at BYU.

32:19 - BYU Admissions - The guys look at BYU’s admissions and scholarship data using LSAT Demon’s Tuition Roll Call.

39:29 - Nick’s LSAT Story - Nick shares the story of his nerve-racking experience taking the LSAT in person while studying abroad.

43:44 - Word of the Week - Whoever invented Halo Top should be defenestrated.

46:17 - Pearls vs. Turds - Listener Henry provides a tip for boosting confidence on test day.

52:25 - Don’t Diagram in LR - Nathan and Ben explain why diagramming conditional statements in Logical Reasoning can be more harmful than helpful.