Bob Verini is an LSAT educator and founder of Bob Verini Inc., with more than 45 years of teaching experience and over 10,000 students taught. He has personally earned multiple perfect 180 scores and helped many of his students achieve 180s as well. His students’ results include score improvements of up to 30 points, and many have earned full scholarships to some of the nation’s top law schools.
Hired by Stanley Kaplan, Bob spent 40 years at Kaplan, including time as a Director of LSAT. His responsibilities included authoring LSAT books, developing course materials, managing LSAT curriculum, and training other instructors. That experience gave him an extensive understanding of both the test itself and the challenges teachers face in helping students master it.
Today, Bob teaches privately through Bob Verini Inc., offering personalized, one-on-one LSAT instruction. His work focuses on understanding how each student approaches the test, identifying the reasoning behind recurring mistakes, and developing strategies tailored to the student’s goals. He emphasizes clear explanations, careful reasoning, and helping students become independent thinkers.
Beyond his teaching career, Bob is a five-time Jeopardy! champion and Tournament of Champions winner. He also has an extensive background in journalism and theater criticism, including work for Variety and New York Stage Review.
More information about Bob and his tutoring practice is available at BobVerini.com.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
The first thing I do each morning is respond to students’ emails and texts. As a test date approaches, students often need reassurance or help understanding why they missed a homework question. I want to address those concerns before they become distractions.
Then I prepare for each student I’m seeing that day, reviewing where we left off and what needs our attention next. I deliberately leave time between sessions rather than scheduling them back to back. That gives me room to write notes while the session is fresh, send homework when needed, and prepare for the next student. Those breaks help me give each student my full attention and keep their progress organized.
How do you bring ideas to life?
My ideas usually start with something a student is struggling to understand. If an explanation isn’t clicking, I look for another way to present it—a different example, a simpler breakdown, or a question that helps the student discover the reasoning themselves. Then I see whether they can apply that understanding to a new problem. That’s the real test of an idea in teaching: not whether it sounds clever, but whether the student can actually use it.
What’s one trend that excites you?
The ability to work with students wherever they live excites me. For much of my career, teaching meant being in the same classroom. Online tutoring lets students choose an instructor based on the help they need rather than who happens to be nearby. Over the years, I’ve worked with students temporarily living in 15 different countries, allowing them to keep preparing for the LSAT while abroad. For a specialized test like the LSAT, that access matters. I can work through a difficult question with a student across the world and have the same detailed, back-and-forth conversation we would have sitting at a table together.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
I take notes during and immediately after every tutoring session. With a large roster of students, I don’t want to waste anyone’s time asking, “Where did we leave off?” I record what we covered, where the student struggled, and what we need to revisit. Before our next meeting, I review those notes so we can pick up exactly where we should. It’s a simple habit, but it keeps each student’s instruction focused and makes our time together more productive.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell my younger self to embrace online tutoring sooner. The technology was available long before I fully took advantage of it, but it was easy to stay with the familiar classroom model. What I’ve learned is that personal instruction doesn’t require being in the same room. You can still build a strong connection, understand how a student thinks, and work through difficult material together. Starting sooner would have allowed me to reach more students and given them more flexibility in how they prepared.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.
I disagree with the emphasis many standardized-test tutors place on predicting the correct answer before reading the choices. On the LSAT, you have five choices in front of you. Your job is to evaluate them against the passage or argument, not guess what the test writer has in mind. Law schools don’t care whether you can read minds. They care whether you can read text. Prediction sounds like a clever strategy, but if your prediction is off base, a tempting wrong answer can reinforce that mistake. I would rather teach students to understand precisely what the question asks and judge each choice on the evidence.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Accept your mistakes cheerfully while you’re practicing. I remind myself and my students that preparation is the time to get things wrong, figure out why, and make adjustments. Too many students treat an early mistake as a verdict on their ability rather than an opportunity to improve. There’s a reason it’s called practice: the result doesn’t count yet. What matters is what you learn from it. Whether you’re preparing for the LSAT, rehearsing a presentation, or planning a project, use your mistakes now so you’re less likely to repeat them on the day that counts.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
I take a short break and go outside with my dogs. I deliberately focus on something other than whatever is overwhelming me—preferably something enjoyable. Sometimes trying harder to concentrate just keeps you stuck in the same frustrated loop. A little fresh air, time with the dogs, and permission to relax help me come back with a clearer head.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Being willing to earn less per session while building a steady client base helped me establish my business. When I started Bob Verini Inc., my rate was about 40% lower than it is today. I waited until I had consistent demand and steady cash flow before gradually raising it. I also accepted clients through referral arrangements that required me to pay a fee of up to 25%. Those fees reduced what I earned from each session, but they brought in students I might not otherwise have reached. Early on, my priority was building relationships and a reliable business rather than maximizing what I earned from every hour.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
One mistake I made was staying in a large corporate environment longer than I should have. It was safe and reliable, and I had never started a company before, so leaving felt like a major gamble. Over time, I became more confident that my plan for an independent tutoring practice could work, and I finally took that step. Building Bob Verini Inc. proved to be a rewarding decision, both personally and professionally. The lesson was that sometimes you have to take a calculated risk rather than wait until you feel completely certain. Mine paid off, and my biggest regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Business owners can build exposure and trust online with very little money if they’re willing to invest their time and share what they know. Offer yourself as a source to publications, especially trade publications in your field. Participate in relevant online forums by answering questions and genuinely helping people. Create useful videos or engaging social media posts based on your expertise. You don’t need to hire someone to do all of this. The knowledge you use every day in your business can also give people a reason to discover you and trust you.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
As simple and old-school as it sounds, Excel. Rather than paying to have a custom CRM and invoicing system built, I use a spreadsheet that keeps everything in one place: student names, contact information, session dates, the number of sessions, rates, and automated invoicing. It gives me a clear picture of the administrative side of my business without making it unnecessarily complicated. That means less time managing software and more time teaching.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
The best $100 I recently spent was on a video lighting kit for my online tutoring sessions. People often don’t realize how poor their lighting is, especially when they’re judging it from the tiny preview of themselves on screen. Since I spend so much time teaching over video, I want students to see me clearly. It was a simple upgrade that made an immediate difference in how I appear on camera.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Its exploration of intuitive judgments and more deliberate thinking connects directly to teaching LSAT reasoning. Students often choose an answer because it feels right, without examining the assumptions behind that feeling. A big part of my work is helping them recognize when an intuitive response needs closer scrutiny. The book provides a useful framework for understanding those habits of thought and why even very intelligent people can make predictable reasoning errors.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I recently enjoyed Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. It was incredibly well done, and being the first feature film shot entirely with IMAX film cameras made it a particularly exciting cinematic experience. Homer’s original can be a challenging read, especially for younger readers, and seeing the story brought to life on screen offers another way into it. I love when a film makes a classic feel accessible and sparks someone’s curiosity to explore the original.
Key learnings:
- Treat mistakes during practice as opportunities to learn, rather than judgments of your ability.
- Build a steady client base before focusing on maximizing your rate. Referral fees can be worthwhile when they bring in business you would otherwise miss.
- Keep detailed notes and leave time between appointments to give each client focused, personalized attention.
- Share useful expertise through publications, online communities, and videos to build visibility and trust without a large marketing budget.
- Take calculated risks when you have a credible plan; waiting for complete certainty can keep you in a comfortable situation longer than it should.