127: Brent Dunn | Volcano Hunter & LSAT Instructor (Part 1)

2024-03-11

Brent Dunn is one of the greatest teachers I’ve ever had. And I’m sure thousands of other students feel the same way about Brent as I do. Brent teaches people how to be smarter, or at least how to think more logically and critically. And it is because of Brent that I was able to attend Stanford Law School. Brent is the owner and founder of ACE Test Preparation, where he has taught more than 6,000 students how to “Ace” the LSAT. During his 27 years of teaching, his students’ average score is above the 90th percentile, and he even taught the first...

Brent is the owner and founder of ACE Test Preparation, where he has taught more than 6,000 students how to “Ace” the LSAT. During his 27 years of teaching, his students’ average score is above the 90th percentile, and he even taught the first person who got a perfect raw score on the LSAT in the current format. Brent has lectured on the LSAT around the country, everywhere from Harvard to Hawaii.

In Brent’s free time he teaches spin classes and pottery. He also made his own (and his daughter's) wedding cakes, has biked around Iceland, collected all of the original set of Pokemon in Pokemon Go, drove a Zamboni, and poked sticks into flowing lava. He is fluent in English, Finnish, and German, with basic proficiency in French, Spanish, Italian, and Icelandic.

In this first of two episodes with Brent, we learn Brent’s history, including both how became a volcano hunter and an LSAT instructor. And then we get to learn from Brent the same methods of reasoning that he has taught thousands of students. It is these teachings on logic and reasoning, which Brent teaches so clearly and entertainingly, that have helped thousands of law students achieve their dreams of getting accepted to the most prestigious schools around the world.

This episode will be required listening for my children because it will make them smarter. It will help them think more clearly and enable them to spot logical fallacies that are so common in journalism, politics, business, and even in school.

I believe Brent has improved my brain more than anyone else on earth, so I hope you enjoy learning from Brent Dunn today, because I always do.

In this episode we discuss the following:

Brent's rejection from a premier school, his acceptance, and his expulsion from chemistry for shooting projectiles toward his teacher
Moving to Finland for a church mission
Proposing to his girlfriend two weeks after their first one-on-one date
Defaulting into a philosophy major
Chasing volcanoes
Becoming an LSAT teacher
We also covered logical fallacies:
inaccurate word strength
insufficient evidence
faulty comparisons
fallacious appeals to authority
ad hominem attacks
confusing correlation with causation