The LSAT Simplified: A Hey Future Lawyer Podcast

A 175 is now the 99th percentile LSAT score. In 2014 it was the 99.5th. A 170 fell from the 97.5th percentile to the 95.5th, and a 160 dropped from the 80th to the 71st. Twice as many people are hitting the scores that used to separate you. Ben breaks down the new LSAC percentile tables and what score you now need to sit at median.

Also in this episode: the August LSAT goes fully in person for the first time in six years, LSAC stops...

One law school in San Diego charges $99,000 a year and sends 3.4% of its class to Big Law. 40% of students there pay full price. Here is the math on what happens to them, why the GradPLUS changes are about to end schools like it, and why UT Austin is the opposite bet.

→ CalWestern: $65K tuition plus $34K living costs, 3.4% Big Law, graduates owing roughly $350K on a $70K salary → GradPLUS loans are gone and the real fallout has not ...

Georgetown Law charges $87K a year, and 39% of the class pays every penny of it. Ben runs the full breakdown: a 171 median LSAT, a 3.93 GPA, $400K in total debt with interest, and why Georgetown might be the worst T14 in the country on debt to salary. Plus the case for taking a big scholarship at GW or George Mason instead.

Also in this episode: why the LSAT is a reading test and not a logic test, whether LSAC Forums are worth atten...

Blind review is making you worse at the LSAT. So is drilling by question type. This mailbag episode goes straight at the habits keeping you stuck below 170, why reading comp swinging from minus 1 to minus 6 is completely normal, and why finishing every section is a warning sign instead of a win.

Then the flip side: an international student whose first language is not English scored 176 on the June LSAT after five practice tests and ...

Most law school personal statements don't move the needle, and this episode proves it. Ben pulls three personal statements that went viral on TikTok, the ones captioned "the essay that got me in," and reads them line by line. The verdict on all three is the same: people get admitted despite these essays, not because of them.

You'll hear why opening with "What is the Constitution?" kills your hook, why writing about applying to law s...

Ben answers listener questions about LSAT preparation, law school admissions, artificial intelligence, and personal statements. He begins by explaining why most students take too many full-length LSAT practice tests and should spend more time completing individual sections, reviewing mistakes, and improving their understanding.

For Logical Reasoning, Ben argues that students should attempt fewer questions and aim for better than 90 ...

The LSAT isn't complicated — most people just don't want to do the one thing that works. In this episode, Ben Parker breaks down why the LSAT is fundamentally a reading test, one skill a mile deep, and why low scores are almost always self-inflicted rather than the fault of an "unfair" or "subjective" exam.

He opens with a mailbag question from a Canadian listener weighing UK law schools to skip the LSAT entirely. Short versio...

LSAC is rolling out a new LSAT testing interface starting with the August 2026 exam. The content of the test isn't changing — only the UI — but the new platform adds friction, like requiring an extra click to eliminate answer choices. Ben argues this is a vendor/contract limitation dressed up as a "technical constraint," not a real one.

The bigger story is the return to in-person Prometric testing, driven by security and...

In this episode, Ben Parker answers a listener’s law school application questions about undergraduate transcript breaks, medical disclosures, GPA positioning, and character and fitness issues. He explains how applicants should think strategically about what they disclose to law schools, especially when a break from school involved anxiety or another medical issue.

Ben also discusses why applicants should avoid oversharing pers...

In this episode, Ben is joined by Autumn Lockett to react to a law school admissions office’s ranking of nine application components.

We go through the list in order and talk about what seems right, what seems questionable, and what applicants should take away from it. The conversation covers things like GPA, LSAT scores, personal statements, recommendations, resumes, optional essays, interviews, and how much weight these piec...

Ben kicks off the episode with Madeline, who has just finished her first year of law school (1L). She breaks down why spring semester felt so much harder than fall — not because of the coursework alone, but because job interviews, appellate briefs, oral arguments, and finals all collided at once. (0:00) Despite the chaos, she kept mostly normal hours, backing up Ben's core point that focused, consistent study beats logging en...

In this episode of the Hey Future Lawyer podcast, Ben Parker breaks down what actually makes a law school personal statement work. Instead of treating the essay like a vague exercise in “being authentic,” Ben explains why the real goal is to convince admissions officers that you will be a strong addition to their law school class.

Ben reviews listener-submitted personal statements and points out the most common mistakes ...

Ben Parker breaks down the newly released 2025 ABA law school employment data and what it says about the current state of legal hiring. The big picture is surprisingly positive: BigLaw placement has grown over the past decade, private law jobs are up, public interest placement has doubled, and law graduate unemployment is meaningfully lower than it was ten years ago.

Ben also digs into the law schools with the biggest BigLaw gains o...

This episode of the Hey Future Lawyer podcast dives into LSAT logical reasoning strategies, using a custom-made practice question to demonstrate how to think through arguments step by step. Ben Parker emphasizes that success on the LSAT is not about memorizing tricks or “indicator words,” but about strong reading comprehension and actively engaging with each sentence. He walks through a paradox-style question, showing h...

In this episode of the Hey Future Lawyer Podcast, Ben Parker breaks down one of the biggest problems in LSAT prep today: bad advice. Using real examples, he walks through why so many popular strategies, from overcomplicated question types to memorization-heavy approaches, actually hold students back instead of helping them improve.

Ben explains what the LSAT is really testing and why most students struggle after weeks of studying. I...

The new U.S. News Law School Rankings are officially out, and in this episode, we break down what actually matters and what does not. If you are choosing a law school based on rankings alone, this conversation will completely change how you think about the process.

We walk through some of the biggest surprises in the 2026 rankings, including Stanford landing at #1, Chicago’s placement, and why schools like WashU and Vanderbilt...

In this episode, Ben breaks down the launch of Hey Future Lawyer’s new Law School Recommender Tool and explains how applicants should actually choose where to apply and where to attend. Instead of chasing arbitrary law school rankings, he argues for an outcomes-first approach built around BigLaw placement, federal clerkships, debt, scholarship leverage, and career goals.

Ben also explains why the usual safety / target / reach ...

In this episode of the Hey Future Lawyer podcast, Ben Parker and Madeline draw on over a decade of combined LSAT teaching experience to break down the most common mistakes students make while preparing for the exam. They discuss how many popular LSAT strategies are based on “received knowledge” rather than real teaching experience and explain how instructors’ perspectives evolve after working with thousands of stu...