Every week we bring you a new movie that teaches us about a logical fallacy you’ll find on the LSAT. Who says Netflix can’t help you study? 

Wait a minute, Matt – don’t tell me there’s a logical fallacy in Return of the King!

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Every week we bring you a new movie that teaches us about a logical fallacy you’ll find on the LSAT. Who says Netflix can’t help you study? 

Originally scripted by Rod “I don’t have a nickname because you should know who I am” Serling, Planet of the Apes is the tale of when a group of astronauts stop being polite and start getting killed by walking, talking apes.

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Every week we bring you a new movie that teaches us about a logical fallacy you’ll find on the LSAT. Who says Netflix can’t help you study? 

Bought for the then-record sum of $20,000 after a professional script analyst called it “sophisticated hokum,” Everybody Comes to Rick’s was adapted by Warner Bros. studios to great success. Unlike many other classics, Casablanca received rave reviews, and word-of-mouth led to a solid initial run.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, Casablanca tells the tale of a motley assortment of people stranded in Morocco thanks to the Nazi invasion of most of Europe. Tensions exist between the Nazis and French Resistance fighters who live in the town, but Rick (Humphrey Bogart), a jaded American, runs a lounge and wants no trouble.

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Every week we bring you a new movie that contains a logical fallacy you’ll find on the LSAT. Who says Netflix can’t help you study? 

People didn’t know what to expect when J.J. Abrams was picked to helm the reboot of the Star Trek franchise in 2009. Would it be the gritty reboot of Batman? The campy reboot of Footloose? The angsty reboot of The Incredible Hulk? The Norton-y reboot of The Incredible Hulk?

Instead, we got an action-filled, heartfelt, somewhat confusing reboot of a beloved franchise. The movie made nearly $400 million dollars, and a sequel was all but assured. Four years later, we were treated to the second film in the series: Star Trek Into Darkness.

As is traditional in the sci-fi world (thanks, Empire), the sequel sees the crew of the Enterprise split up because of demotion (Kirk), reassignment (Spock), and arguments over weapons of mass destruction (Colin PowellScotty).

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Logical fallacies are present in our everyday lives. Sometimes, they’re tricking us into switching to Geico. Other times, they’re being used to argue against climate change or for doubling down on red. And they’re definitely used by the writers of the LSAT to create questions.

But they’re not only used for evil! They also appear in our favorite forms of entertainment. Writers of mysteries and suspense use logical fallacies all the time to misdirect the reader/viewer from the ending. Romantic comedies use them to ramp up the tension. Action and sci-fi movies often overuse them, leaving huge holes in their plots.

In our #MovieFailMondays blog series, we’ll take a look at movies that feature a logical fallacy and how we can use this knowledge to score better on the LSAT. You can also use it to smugly say, “Saw it coming!” at the end of the next M. Night Shyamalan movie. If anyone besides you goes to see it.

The Usual Suspects

Bryan Singer released The Usual Suspects in 1995. One of the movies that ushered in the modern era of the #SPOILERALERT, the movie had people discussing the twist ending incessantly. The movie, a story of five criminals (Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, that other Baldwin – no, not that one, the other one – and that guy who was in that thing…uhm…Jackson Pollock?) who carry out a heist after meeting in a lineup, is framed by Kevin Spacey’s Verbal Kint telling the story to Agent Dave Kujan.

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This is going to be a short post. It will also possibly have the biggest impact on your study of anything you do all day (or all month!).

When people ramp up to study for the LSAT, they typically find the time to study by cutting down on other activities—no more Thursday night happy hour with the gang or Sunday brunch with the family until the test is over.

There are two activities, though, that you should never cut—and, unfortunately, I talk to students every day who do cut these two activities. I hear this so much that I abandoned what I was going to cover today and wrote this instead. We’re not going to cover any problems or discuss specific test strategies in this article. We’re going to discuss something infinitely more important!

#1: You must get a full night’s sleep

Period. Never cut your sleep in order to study for this test. NEVER.

Your brain does not work as well when trying to function on less sleep than it needs. You know this already. Think back to those times that you pulled an all-nighter to study for a final or get a client presentation out the door. You may have felt as though you were flying high in the moment, adrenaline coursing through your veins. Afterwards, though, your brain felt fuzzy and slow. Worse, you don’t really have great memories of exactly what you did—maybe you did okay on the test that morning, but afterwards, it was as though you’d never studied the material at all.

There are two broad (and very negative) symptoms of this mental fatigue that you need to avoid when studying for the LSAT (and doing other mentally-taxing things in life). First, when you are mentally fatigued, you can’t function as well as normal in the moment. You’re going to make more careless mistakes and you’re just going to think more slowly and painfully than usual.

Second, your brain continues to form new memories as you sleep. When you are trying to remember a bunch of new rules or solution strategies, you need good sleep to help cement that information in your long-term memory. In particular, when you’re studying a bunch of new things at once, you need your memory to make strong and distinct memories. Otherwise, your memory won’t be able to retrieve what you need, or it’ll mix up multiple memories—and that obviously isn’t what you want to happen on test day.

Many people aren’t getting adequate sleep even when they’re not taking on a challenge like the LSAT, and their lives are messier as a result. Make sleep a priority. Your brain will thank you.

#2: Exercise

Stick to your normal exercise routine, whatever that is. For some people, that means walking to do all of your errands and carrying things home, or cleaning the house. Some people play sports. Others hit the gym multiple times a week.

The point is to keep doing what you normally do; don’t try to increase your study time by taking away from your second-best recharge time (after sleep). Exercise helps you to get rid of stress and generally gain a boost of energy. There’s even a two-for-one bonus: regular exercise helps you sleep better at night.

Reward yourself

A bonus piece of advice. I started this post talking about giving up some regular social activities to make time for studying. You are going to have to make some sacrifices, of course, but don’t become a hermit. You do need breaks and you do need to keep up with your social connections. When I’m studying intensely, my rule is that Friday is a no-study zone. That day, I take a break and do something that I want to do.

(Friday also becomes my “substitute” day if I’m burned out earlier in the week and want to skip a day of study. That’s fine—but then I lose my day off on Friday. Sometimes, this motivates me to push through when I’m feeling that I want to blow off my studies for a day. Other times, I do decide to study on Friday instead; if I’m willing to do that, then I know my brain really does need the break right now.)

Good luck and happy studying!

1. #whereisthesun #Ibrokemypencilsharpener #dreamedaboutanaloguewatchescomingtolifeandbitingme

2. Do lawyers put colorful balls in buckets in 8 min increments? #justcurious

3. Told my BF all the assumptions in his argument. He said assuming makes an ass of u and me. I said that has assumptions too #whatsbecomeofme

4. Don’t use webMD while studying for the LSAT. #hives #cancerorjustanxiety?

5. The individuals who construct standardized tests are called psychometricians. The psycho part fits.

6. My life has come down to a test that makes me crazy. #notmymarriage

7. Is it too late to be a doctor?

8. Dear Friends: I miss you. #waitforme #onedaywillhavealifeagain

9. I now read and respond to emails in 1 minute, 20 seconds or am filled with shame. #LSATsymptoms

10. Maybe there are some good logic games tactics in this pint of mint chocolate chip?

11. “How’s studying going?” If I get asked it again I am going to break a non-mechanical pencil.

12. Which argument is parallel to the parallel zits on my upper lip due to stress? #cannot

13. Some people cry when they fall in love. I just did my first logic game without missing any and cried. #nerdlife

14. I wish I had a nickel for every time I have said “practice test” in the last 3 months.

15. Good morning everyone else up at 7am on Sat. to take the LSAT. Let’s do this y’all. #EXPERIMENTAL SECTION #PLEASEDONTBEREADINGCOMP

1. How do you sleep at night?

2. Do you have any friends?

3. How much could your job possibly pay?

4. You’re in Mensa, aren’t you?

5. You tell people at parties that you’re in Mensa, don’t you?

6. Do you date online?

7. On your dating profile, do you put as your job, “Writes the LSAT?”

8. Do you get asked out people who only want you for your insider LSAT knowledge?

9. Do you yell at these people at some point, “YOU ONLY WANTED ME FOR MY LSAT SECRETS!”

10. Is your kid prohibited from taking an LSAT you write because that’s like really corrupt?

11. Do you dream in conditional logic?

12. Is the best answer B?

13. If Oliver gets a 160, and Miguel gets a 172, for how many people taking the test do you know their exact scores?

1. It’s too cold. No, too hot. No, too cold.

2. It’s too muggy, that’s the problem.

3. If it’s too muggy, then I cannot concentrate. What’s the contrapositive of that?

4. Where the *!& is the clock? Oh, there it is.

5. Um, why is the clock in the room not working? Oh, it is.

6. What am going to do with all the free time I’ll have after this? I should go to the beach.

7. The amount of construction going on outside cannot be normal.

8. Did I bring enough pencils because what if all seven break?

9. Who smells like Thai food?

10. I don’t even know how to feel about what just happened in that section.

11. I’m going to have the biggest margarita after this.

12. Stop thinking about margaritas.

13. I can already taste it.

14. It is disorienting how naked I feel without my cell phone.

15. Essay time! Almost done! Okay, focus. No, not sleep, FOCUS!

16. Where is my car? Wait, did I drive here?

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Years ago, I was at my mind-numbingly dull data entry job and taking my lunch break at my desk with the receptionist when I heard the strangest first date idea, ever.

“We went to Bikram yoga.”

I dropped my bag of pretzels—“lunch” on my salary. I had only just moved to New York but had lived there long enough to learn about Bikram. It was the really sweaty, hot yoga where people wore hardly any clothes, got bright red, and lost control of their bodily functions. I had even been to a class once, at the insistence of a friend. I hadn’t gone back, because I had been so thrilled to leave it alive, and because it cost twenty bucks per.

She went on a first date to Bikram?

“It was his idea. We both wanted to try it so we were like, sure, why not?”

Eventually, she tells me, she married him. She was talking about her husband.

That story came to mind recently and got me thinking. Why not integrate the LSAT into a first date in some creative way? If doing camel pose in 105 degrees can lead people to the altar, what else is possible?

Date Idea #1: Do a logic game together.

I know, I know. But talk about a moment of truth. Forget fake fake chatty chatty, “Oh I LOVE camping” (no, you don’t), “I would never treat a girl like that” (sure you wouldn’t)—you guys go for a full-on logic game showdown on your first date? That’s some authenticity, right there.

Also, how a person acts when he is outperformed can be very revealing.

Date Idea #2: Attend a free LSAT event.

There are so many reasons this makes a brilliant date that I don’t know where to start. Okay, I’ll settle on: afterward, you’ll be so happy to be out of there, you’ll both seem like the most charismatic people ever, post-event. You’re setting yourselves up to win with hardly any effort during drinks, afterward—all you have to do is be more interesting than four paragraphs about Canadian common law and a room of timid strangers.

Free LSAT event: the ultimate wingman.

Date Idea #3: Arrange to meet up after you take the LSAT.

Talk about lowered inhibitions.

You just finished the LSAT. AIN’T NOBODY BRINGING YOU DOWN!

Or, if on the contrary it didn’t go quite that well, what have you got to lose?

Either way, you are in a good state for a first date because seriously, the stakes are zero. This person may or may not be cool, but you’re just along for the ride, because you just took the LSAT. No matter what happens, you’re not going to sweat it. You have three weeks to kill.
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