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So, Nora, I- I- I was talking to a student
last week who was practically

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hyperventilating.

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They had just opened up their portal to do
the practice run for the LSAT

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Argumentative Writing section and- and...

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well, they had this sudden, awful
realization.

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No paper.

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Anywhere.

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Wait, what?

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No physical paper at all?

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I mean, for the- the multiple-choice
sections, you get your scratch paper.

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You can scribble all over it.

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Right, but for the Argumentative Writing
part, it is strictly digital-only.

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Physical scratch paper and writing
utensils are totally, strictly prohibited.

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You cannot have a single pen or a scrap of
legal pad on your desk during that

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proctored writing session.

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That is...

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wow.

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That's a massive shock to the system.

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I remember when I was prepping, my
immediate, animal instinct was to reach for my

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yellow legal pad the second a prompt
popped up.

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If I couldn't do that, I'd probably flag
the proctoring software just by looking

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around my desk in a panic.

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But why?

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Why the sudden ban on physical paper just
for the essay?

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It- it really comes down to security.

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LSAC is terrified of people transcribing
the prompts.

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Because you're taking this at home,
unsupervised in a room,

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if they allowed physical scratch paper, it
would be too easy to write down the exact

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prompt, walk away, and leak it online.

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So, no paper.

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But here's where it gets truly messy.

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They've redesigned the format.

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It's no longer just, "hey, should this
town buy a tractor or a library book?"

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It's now three or four distinct,
ideological perspectives on a single issue.

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Oh, great.

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So they made the prompt three times as
complicated, and then they took away our

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pens.

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That sounds like a recipe for total
cognitive overload.

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You're trying to synthesize these
viewpoints on a crowded, split-screen interface,

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and your brain is just...

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melting trying to hold all those variables
at once.

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Exactly.

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It's what psychologists call
split-attention effect.

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You're bouncing your eyes back and forth
between the prompt,

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your draft, and the built-in digital
notepad.

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It's chaos.

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But- but think about it like this...

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in litigation, you don't always get to
look down at a legal pad.

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If you're in a fast-moving deposition and
the opposing counsel hands you a digital

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exhibit, you can't look down and start
drawing diagrams.

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You have to map the "clash points"
directly on the screen, in real time.

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Hmm.

53
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Okay, I see that.

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It's like...

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instead of looking down to think, you have
to learn to think directly on the glass.

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We talked about this with the 'No-Look'
reconstruction method for Logical

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Reasoning-translating everything into
plain, active English right there on the

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screen.

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But how do you actually do that when the
clock is ticking and you have fifty minutes

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to write a coherent argument?

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Well, this is where the structure of the
exam can actually save you,

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if you don't fall into the pacing trap.

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The writing block is fifty minutes, but
it's split.

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You have a fifteen-minute "prewriting
analysis" phase, and then a thirty-five-minute

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essay writing phase.

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Now, here's the trap.

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There is a five-minute mandatory lock at
the start where you can't write the essay

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anyway.

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And what do most students do?

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They get anxious, they stare at the
screen, and the second that five-minute lock

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lifts, they click "next" and start typing
the essay.

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Guilty!

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I would absolutely do that.

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You feel like you're losing time if you're
just sitting there not drafting.

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But that's the mistake.

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If you rush in, you hit a structural
dead-end twenty minutes later.

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You have to use that full fifteen-minute
prep window.

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And instead of writing a traditional,
linear outline-which is useless on a tiny

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digital scratchpad-you build what I call a
"Perspective Matrix."

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Right there in the built-in digital
notepad.

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A "Perspective Matrix."

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Okay, walk me through that.

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What does that actually look like on
screen?

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You- you type out a simple, three-row
grid.

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Literally just use typed lines.

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Row one: Perspective A's core value.

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Row two: Perspective B's primary flaw.

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Row three: Your synthesizing argument.

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You map the clash points.

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Because you've laid this out during the
fifteen-minute prep phase,

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when the thirty-five-minute writing clock
starts ticking, you aren't thinking about

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*what* to say next.

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You're just executing the plan.

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Oh, I love that.

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It's like building the skeleton first so
you aren't trying to grow bones while

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you're putting on muscle.

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And- and honestly, this seems more
important than ever because of...

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well, AI.

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Right?

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Exactly.

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With ChatGPT, admissions committees know
that personal statements can be- let's say,

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heavily assisted.

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But this essay?

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It's proctored.

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No phones, no physical scratch paper, no
external help.

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It is fifty minutes of raw, unassisted
brainpower.

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Admissions officers are looking at this as
the ultimate proof of whether you can

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actually write and analyze under pressure.

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So the unscored essay isn't really
"unscored" in terms of impact anymore.

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It's the only truly authentic sample they
have.

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Alright, so no paper, use the full fifteen
minutes to build your matrix on screen,

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and treat it like a deposition.

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I can dig that.

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Let's practice some screen-mapping.

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Let's do it.