Malcolm Gladwell LSAT Podcast - Some Thoughts

Anyone else listen to the Malcolm Gladwell LSAT podcast and feel like he didn't know what he was talking about?

He says, "why do we value speed?" as if it shouldn't be valued, but he doesn't give any compelling reasons WHY!

Just because the time constraint makes things harder for him or anyone else doesn't mean we should give everyone more time on the test. (And, if we gave *everyone* more time, those who do better than others now would likely *still* do better than everyone else - because they'd be getting the extra time, too!)

I don't find his arguments compelling - I think he's missing something crucial here. And this relates to his earlier work, Blink (kind of ironic that Gladwell "forgets" about this, actually). 

Being able to work quickly, efficiently, and see things *intuitively* under severe time constraints is important for the practice of law. 

Does all law require this all the time? No. But speed does indicate something about mastery of the content. And the LSAT is strongly correlated with 1L grades and bar passage (which is important if you're investing 3 years of your life and hundreds of thousands of dollars).

I heard his argument talking about how it rewards hares and punishes tortoises, but so does real life! Instead of complaining about having difficulty on the LSAT because he's not good at it, and saying they should get rid of strict time constraints, he should spend more time studying for it.

This is classic low-scorer thinking ("I can't do well on the LSAT, so the problem is with the exam, not with me.")

And not prepping with some random company hardly anyone's heard of (Noodle?) He could have at *least* gotten a few dozen actual LSAT exams and studied to the same extent as the average decent-scoring student.

I'm not saying book smart = business/life/street smart

But if we're getting rid of or deemphasizing the LSAT, we should do the same for the bar exam. We don't want law schools admitting students who can't pass the bar exam. And the LSAT's the best predictor of that we have.

The REAL scandal here is that the wealthy can afford to pay doctors for ADHD diagnoses to get extra time, giving them an unfair advantage over everyone else.I'll admit I liked him somewhat before this. I guess that it took him commenting on an area of expertise for me to realize he lets his idea of a "grand narrative" supersede the facts.

Just because the time constraint makes things harder for Gladwell or anyone else doesn't 
mean we should give everyone more time on the test. (And, if we gave everyone more time, those who do better than others now would likely still do better than everyone else - because they'd be getting the extra time, too!)

The REAL scandal here is that the wealthy can afford to pay doctors for ADHD diagnoses to get extra time, giving them an unfair advantage over everyone else.