The LSAT Simplified: A Hey Future Lawyer Podcast

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...

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,...

Scores drop tomorrow. For almost everyone, the right move is the one you don't want to hear: keep going. Ben breaks down the only score that ends the retake debate (176), why a 170 is just a B+, and why most law students are dead wrong about the salaries and the debt. Start free: heyfuturelawyer.com/free-class Run your target score: heyfuturelawyer.com/calculator Everything else: heyfuturelawyer.c...

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 q...

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 t...

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...

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...

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,...

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, cons...

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 t...

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 sch...

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-s...

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...

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 sch...

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...

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...

Study LSAT with us at HeyFutureLawyer.com In this episode of the Hey Future Lawyer podcast, Ben Parker breaks down Hey Future Lawyer’s new LSAT score guarantee and explains the logic behind it. He walks through the actual conditions, including study volume, consistency, accuracy, class attendance, and official score thresholds, while making the broader point that most LSAT students are not failing...

Study LSAT with us at HeyFutureLawyer In this episode, Ben Parker and Madeline Jesson break down what law school is actually like after 1L starts. Madeline shares what it was like to earn very strong first-semester grades, why that first semester matters so much, and how quickly law school can shape summer job opportunities, scholarships, and long-term career trajectory. They also unpack why law s...

Study LSAT with us at HeyFutureLawyer This episode is a blunt, practical breakdown of LSAT and law school admissions timelines, with a big emphasis on the idea that “starting now” is usually not early at all if you want optimal outcomes. Ben argues that the real goal is not just “going to law school,” but using the LSAT to control where you get in and what you pay, so you avoid six-figure debt for...

Study LSAT with us This episode of the Hey Future Lawyer Podcast kicks off with Ben Parker explaining a major LSAT shift: starting August 2026 , the LSAT moves back to in-person testing . He gives quick context on how remote testing became normal during COVID, and why that convenience is now ending. Ben digs into the real driver behind the change: test security . He breaks down how remote testing...

Study LSAT with us at HeyFutureLawyer.com In this episode, Ben and Madeline jump into a question almost every LSAT student fixates on: when you should actually retake the LSAT. They react to a popular LSAT company’s retake advice, agree with most of it, and roast how obvious and poorly written it is, while still pulling out the core takeaway: if you have points left on the table and those points c...

Study LSAT with Us at Hey Future Lawyer Nick Cohen on LinkedIn Matador Solutions Nick’s Email- nick@matadorsolutions.net Cohen Injury Law Group Nick Cohen joins the Hey Future Lawyer Podcast to break down an unconventional path to becoming an attorney while building a fast-growing legal marketing business. Nick is a partner at Cohen Injury Law Group in Los Angeles and the COO of Matador Solutions,...

Study LSAT With Us Ben Parker kicks off this episode of the Hey Future Lawyer Podcast on January LSAT score release day with a blunt message: treating a low LSAT score like “no big deal” is one of the most expensive mistakes a pre-law student can make. He frames it as “financial Darwinism” or “natural selection,” arguing that the consequences are predictable, avoidable, and largely driven by choic...

Ben sits down with Madeline, an LSAT instructor turned 1L, to talk about what actually works when you’re trying to raise your LSAT score and set yourself up to win in law school. They start by dismantling common “lawyer-adjacent” advice and replace it with a simple, repeatable plan: practice that mirrors the real test, disciplined review, and consistency that builds stamina. A big theme of the epi...

Ben Parker opens with a rapid-fire LSAT mailbag and a blunt reminder that the LSAT is a skills test, not a knowledge test. If you’re coming from a background like medicine and wondering whether you should “learn content” first, Ben breaks down why the information you need is already on the page and why real progress comes from doing questions, reviewing hard, and tightening your reading. Next, Ben...