LSAT Podcast Episode 14: Student Question Mailbag

The 14th episode of the podcast is a Student Question Mailbag edition, where Jon and Dave tackle submitted inquiries about admissions—including undergrad vs grad school GPA usage and why your college GPA and LSAC GPA may not match—as well as some big-picture curiosities about using older LSAT Bibles, when to read the question stem in LR, and the best guessing strategy to employ as time runs out.

Episode Timestamps:

0:00 – Intro

5:13 – This week in the LSAT world

6:06 – Mailbag background – how to get your question answered

6:34 – “Should LSAC and law schools have more flexible GPA policies?”

10:23 – “Why is it that your college will allow you to retake classes to get a higher grade without a penalty, but CAS calculates both in your law school report GPA?”

16:04 – “Why isn’t graduate school GPA more factored into your law school application and admission chances?”

23:00 – “I received a 2.8 my first year in college due to some personal issues and my mother's failing health. After that, I did extremely well. what can I do about my low first year grades, anything?”

26:40 - "I took the LSAT for the first time last year, and got a 156. I was going through some personal issues at the time and took a year to figure out if I really wanted to go to law school – turns out, I really do ? So after changing the way I studied (and making a career change that actually gave me the time to study) I just retook the LSAT in March 2019, I got a 163...I am trying to decide if I should retake the test in June? I am worried that the 156 score looks bad, especially if I took it again and did worse than 163."

34:46 - "I've taken the LSAT three times now, is that the maximum I should take it, or can I take it a fourth time?"

40:15 – “At this point is there even any advantage to taking the LSAT over GRE?”

51:55 – “Should I use older LSAT Bible Editions?”

1:01:24 - "I have read from different sources about when to read the question stem, before or after reading the stimulus. I know the LR Bible talks about reading it first. Are there any exceptions?"

1:12:32- “Suppose you are nearing the end of a section and you know you probably have one minute left and have let’s say a few questions unanswered still... does it behoove you to just fill in the bubbles for those ones you haven’t gotten to yet so that at least you have something answered... also judging from your bibles we should always fill in B correct?”

1:26:43 - Outro