1 00:00:00,819 --> 00:00:03,919 So, Nora, the- the- the reality we are in now... 2 00:00:04,199 --> 00:00:05,579 it's- it's kind of wild. 3 00:00:06,259 --> 00:00:09,539 Since August 2024, the Logic Games are... 4 00:00:10,059 --> 00:00:11,219 well, they're dead. 5 00:00:11,759 --> 00:00:12,159 Gone. 6 00:00:12,799 --> 00:00:18,420 LSAC completely retired them, which means we now have two scored Logical Reasoning 7 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:20,979 sections and one scored Reading Comp. 8 00:00:21,699 --> 00:00:23,219 And what's fascinating is... 9 00:00:23,340 --> 00:00:28,599 Susan Krinsky, the Chief of Staff at LSAC, she- she released this data showing that 10 00:00:28,719 --> 00:00:29,179 across... 11 00:00:29,639 --> 00:00:32,819 I think it was two hundred thousand test sessions... 12 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:36,200 removing games shifted the mean score by just... 13 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:38,700 one one-hundredth of a point. 14 00:00:40,089 --> 00:00:41,369 One one-hundredth? 15 00:00:41,849 --> 00:00:42,329 That's... 16 00:00:42,549 --> 00:00:45,909 I mean, statistically, that is absolute noise. 17 00:00:46,569 --> 00:00:50,489 But, Adrian, for- for anyone aiming for those top-tier scores... 18 00:00:50,670 --> 00:00:52,209 like 170-plus... 19 00:00:52,909 --> 00:00:56,010 losing games is a massive, massive deal. 20 00:00:56,789 --> 00:01:02,029 Games were the one section where you could consistently guarantee a- a minus-zero if 21 00:01:02,069 --> 00:01:04,510 you just put in the hours and mastered the setups. 22 00:01:05,349 --> 00:01:05,689 Now? 23 00:01:06,529 --> 00:01:09,349 Reading Comp has become the ultimate gatekeeper. 24 00:01:10,008 --> 00:01:10,667 Exactly. 25 00:01:11,206 --> 00:01:12,566 Because RC is... 26 00:01:12,806 --> 00:01:13,626 it's slippery. 27 00:01:14,246 --> 00:01:17,286 You can't just diagram your way to a perfect score anymore. 28 00:01:18,146 --> 00:01:19,547 And what I see students doing... 29 00:01:20,286 --> 00:01:23,786 they- they get into these dense, terrifying science passages... 30 00:01:24,426 --> 00:01:28,246 you know, articles about porphyrins, or tectonic plate displacement... 31 00:01:28,927 --> 00:01:30,767 and they fall right into what I call the... 32 00:01:31,007 --> 00:01:33,026 the "Nouns versus Verbs" trap. 33 00:01:34,026 --> 00:01:35,886 They- they try to speed-read for content. 34 00:01:37,066 --> 00:01:41,366 Oh, I- I was the poster child for this when I started studying. 35 00:01:41,866 --> 00:01:43,746 I remember this one passage about... 36 00:01:44,286 --> 00:01:44,806 I don't even know... 37 00:01:44,906 --> 00:01:46,927 some cellular biology thing. 38 00:01:47,467 --> 00:01:50,986 I highlighted literally half the page in blue ink. 39 00:01:51,426 --> 00:01:53,507 I knew every complex noun by heart... 40 00:01:53,906 --> 00:01:55,927 "porphyrins," "ligands"... 41 00:01:56,466 --> 00:01:59,826 but if you asked me what the author actually believed? 42 00:01:59,886 --> 00:02:02,106 I- I had absolutely no idea. 43 00:02:02,706 --> 00:02:03,966 I was blind-reading. 44 00:02:05,813 --> 00:02:08,172 Right, because the nouns are just... 45 00:02:08,632 --> 00:02:09,732 they're just window dressing. 46 00:02:10,092 --> 00:02:10,812 They're noise. 47 00:02:11,592 --> 00:02:14,992 The test-makers want you to get bogged down in the vocabulary. 48 00:02:15,732 --> 00:02:16,252 The secret... 49 00:02:16,592 --> 00:02:19,352 the- the actual way to decode these passages... 50 00:02:19,793 --> 00:02:25,072 is to strip those nouns away and focus entirely on the active relation verbs. 51 00:02:25,772 --> 00:02:26,552 Is the author... 52 00:02:26,833 --> 00:02:28,372 are they *refuting* a theory? 53 00:02:28,712 --> 00:02:30,572 Are they *extending* a model? 54 00:02:31,152 --> 00:02:34,372 Or are they *qualifying* someone else's finding? 55 00:02:34,432 --> 00:02:36,812 Those verbs give you the logical blueprint. 56 00:02:37,392 --> 00:02:42,132 The nouns don't matter; the structural relationship between the ideas does. 57 00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:43,639 Yes! 58 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:44,500 It's like... 59 00:02:44,819 --> 00:02:48,099 instead of trying to understand the chemistry of a porphyrin, 60 00:02:48,559 --> 00:02:49,659 you just treat it as... 61 00:02:50,139 --> 00:02:50,920 "Thing X." 62 00:02:51,340 --> 00:02:54,460 And then you look at what the author is *doing* with Thing X. 63 00:02:54,960 --> 00:02:59,959 Are they saying Thing X *causes* Thing Y, or are they saying Thing X is just 64 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:00,979 *correlated* with it? 65 00:03:01,719 --> 00:03:05,819 Once you make that shift from what the words *mean* to what the words are *doing*... 66 00:03:06,519 --> 00:03:07,539 everything clicks. 67 00:03:08,059 --> 00:03:09,799 But to do that under time pressure? 68 00:03:10,139 --> 00:03:11,420 That's a whole other beast. 69 00:03:12,007 --> 00:03:12,527 It is. 70 00:03:13,007 --> 00:03:16,147 And that's why we need a strict pacing strategy. 71 00:03:16,688 --> 00:03:19,647 I tell my students to run the fifteen-twenty rule. 72 00:03:20,227 --> 00:03:21,727 You have thirty-five minutes total. 73 00:03:22,227 --> 00:03:26,267 You- you have to target fifteen minutes total for the first two passages... 74 00:03:26,727 --> 00:03:28,007 that's seven-thirty each... 75 00:03:28,527 --> 00:03:33,087 and bank twenty minutes for the final two, which are almost always the more complex, 76 00:03:33,367 --> 00:03:34,327 denser passages. 77 00:03:34,767 --> 00:03:35,607 Ten minutes each. 78 00:03:36,308 --> 00:03:39,888 If you're spending nine minutes on passage one, you are... 79 00:03:39,947 --> 00:03:42,667 you're setting yourself up for a train wreck on passage four. 80 00:03:43,382 --> 00:03:44,361 Absolutely. 81 00:03:44,782 --> 00:03:48,101 And to build that pacing muscle, you have to pair it with... 82 00:03:48,482 --> 00:03:49,002 what I call... 83 00:03:49,321 --> 00:03:50,961 dual-color blind review. 84 00:03:51,441 --> 00:03:53,062 This- this changed everything for me. 85 00:03:53,781 --> 00:03:57,621 When you do a timed section, you highlight your text support in one color... 86 00:03:57,901 --> 00:03:58,621 say, yellow. 87 00:03:59,321 --> 00:04:01,781 Then, when you do your untimed blind review... 88 00:04:02,101 --> 00:04:03,501 before you check the answers... 89 00:04:04,062 --> 00:04:06,802 you go back and highlight your support in a different color... 90 00:04:07,142 --> 00:04:07,701 like pink. 91 00:04:08,361 --> 00:04:10,201 If those colors don't overlap... 92 00:04:10,542 --> 00:04:14,201 if your pink highlights are in totally different places than your yellow ones... 93 00:04:14,861 --> 00:04:19,301 it forces you to face the brutal reality of how poorly you're reading when the clock 94 00:04:19,341 --> 00:04:19,821 is ticking. 95 00:04:20,566 --> 00:04:23,066 It's a very honest mirror, isn't it? 96 00:04:23,806 --> 00:04:28,746 It- it stops you from hand-waving and saying, "Oh, I just made a careless mistake." 97 00:04:29,526 --> 00:04:33,966 No, you- you literally looked at the wrong part of the text under pressure. 98 00:04:34,750 --> 00:04:37,209 Speaking of brutal realities... 99 00:04:37,629 --> 00:04:40,149 we- we have to talk about the writing section. 100 00:04:40,690 --> 00:04:41,569 Because, uh... 101 00:04:41,710 --> 00:04:45,389 well, the old "Option A versus Option B" prompt... 102 00:04:45,809 --> 00:04:47,250 that's completely dead. 103 00:04:47,829 --> 00:04:51,670 You know, the one where you had to choose whether a town should build a library or a 104 00:04:51,829 --> 00:04:52,209 gym... 105 00:04:52,829 --> 00:04:53,850 it's gone. 106 00:04:55,444 --> 00:04:58,404 Yes, the- the classic, low-stakes choice. 107 00:04:59,085 --> 00:05:03,545 Now, LSAC has rolled out this revamped, fifty-minute task. 108 00:05:04,045 --> 00:05:08,104 It is a fifteen-minute mandatory digital prewriting analysis, 109 00:05:08,644 --> 00:05:10,764 followed by thirty-five minutes of drafting. 110 00:05:11,524 --> 00:05:17,644 And instead of a binary choice, they hand you a complex, debatable issue with three 111 00:05:17,725 --> 00:05:21,324 or four competing, value-driven perspectives. 112 00:05:21,385 --> 00:05:24,584 You can't just pick a side and write a simple persuasive essay. 113 00:05:25,184 --> 00:05:29,264 You have to synthesize these viewpoints, construct an original thesis, 114 00:05:29,744 --> 00:05:29,864 and... 115 00:05:30,224 --> 00:05:31,024 and this is key... 116 00:05:31,704 --> 00:05:35,924 systematically address the structural weaknesses of the alternative perspectives. 117 00:05:36,613 --> 00:05:37,612 It sounds like... 118 00:05:38,073 --> 00:05:41,793 honestly, it sounds like writing a brief for a senior partner at a law firm. 119 00:05:42,432 --> 00:05:45,732 You can't just pretend the other side's arguments don't exist. 120 00:05:46,192 --> 00:05:47,652 You have to engage with them. 121 00:05:48,892 --> 00:05:52,412 But, Adrian, the actual test-taking environment for this now... 122 00:05:53,013 --> 00:05:54,872 it's- it's kind of a nightmare. 123 00:05:55,392 --> 00:05:55,992 There is... 124 00:05:56,013 --> 00:05:56,933 get this... 125 00:05:56,992 --> 00:05:59,212 no physical scratch paper allowed. 126 00:05:59,612 --> 00:05:59,933 None. 127 00:06:01,669 --> 00:06:02,009 Yeah. 128 00:06:02,509 --> 00:06:04,149 That's a massive shift. 129 00:06:04,889 --> 00:06:11,170 You have to draft and brainstorm entirely within a built-in digital LawHub notepad. 130 00:06:11,769 --> 00:06:14,789 And you're doing this under intense remote proctoring. 131 00:06:15,389 --> 00:06:19,309 We're talking a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree webcam room scan, 132 00:06:19,869 --> 00:06:21,489 active microphone monitoring... 133 00:06:22,069 --> 00:06:24,909 they even have strict operating system requirements now. 134 00:06:25,430 --> 00:06:29,909 If you're on Mac, you have to be running Sequoia fifteen point zero or higher. 135 00:06:30,529 --> 00:06:35,290 It is incredibly high-stakes, security-wise, for a section that... 136 00:06:35,689 --> 00:06:36,189 currently... 137 00:06:36,630 --> 00:06:37,529 is unscored. 138 00:06:38,191 --> 00:06:38,651 Right! 139 00:06:39,171 --> 00:06:43,831 Students always ask me, "Nora, if it's unscored, why should I care? 140 00:06:44,411 --> 00:06:47,991 Why not just write three paragraphs of lorem ipsum and call it a day?" 141 00:06:48,592 --> 00:06:49,971 And I- I tell them... 142 00:06:50,351 --> 00:06:51,611 do not do that. 143 00:06:52,191 --> 00:06:53,972 First of all, admissions committees... 144 00:06:54,091 --> 00:06:55,812 they actually read these. 145 00:06:56,271 --> 00:06:59,011 Especially now, with the rise of ChatGPT. 146 00:06:59,451 --> 00:07:04,311 They are using these raw, proctored writing samples to- to check if your personal 147 00:07:04,351 --> 00:07:04,811 statement... 148 00:07:05,151 --> 00:07:06,792 which might be super polished... 149 00:07:07,271 --> 00:07:10,251 matches your actual, spontaneous writing ability. 150 00:07:10,751 --> 00:07:13,711 They're looking for what's called "integrative complexity." 151 00:07:14,251 --> 00:07:16,332 Can you actually think on your feet? 152 00:07:16,962 --> 00:07:17,722 Exactly. 153 00:07:18,242 --> 00:07:23,842 They want to see the human analytical mind at work, not a- a polished AI draft. 154 00:07:24,602 --> 00:07:26,463 And there's a bigger storm on the horizon. 155 00:07:27,302 --> 00:07:32,763 LSAC is openly collecting data on this new format with the- the explicit plan to 156 00:07:32,862 --> 00:07:38,763 roll out scored writing assessments as early as the 2025-2026 testing cycle. 157 00:07:39,423 --> 00:07:42,083 So if you're- if you're planning to apply in a year or two, 158 00:07:42,562 --> 00:07:45,202 this is not a section you can afford to blow off. 159 00:07:45,583 --> 00:07:46,862 It is going to count. 160 00:07:48,526 --> 00:07:48,846 So... 161 00:07:49,326 --> 00:07:51,306 basically, don't slack off. 162 00:07:51,746 --> 00:07:55,726 The- the era of coasting through the writing sample is officially over. 163 00:07:56,526 --> 00:07:58,467 Alright, Adrian, good chatting as always. 164 00:07:58,686 --> 00:07:59,606 Let's do this again soon. 165 00:08:00,501 --> 00:08:01,279 Sounds good, Nora. 166 00:08:01,699 --> 00:08:02,239 Talk soon.