Since I've purchased both The LR Bible and The LG Bible, I am considering taking the Testmasters course. I've been told that the Powerscore course is an identical outline to the Bibles (which I think would defeat the purpose of taking the course and be a waste of $$$). However, the Testmasters program may teach information that conflicts with The Bibles and result in a great deal of confusion.
What do you guys suggest?

screw the courses, my friend.

Buy lots of practice tests. go through the bible, and REALLY learn the techniques.
if you scored about 155 on your first test, then I think you can study by yourself and be fine.

I used to be skeptical of claims like this a year ago, but the closer I come to taking the LSAT...it really is quite true. It's more about how many practice exams you take and how well understand and correct the mistakes you made. Though if you do lack motivation, the prep course is probably the way to go. The consensus, on this board at least, seems to favor Powerscore.

Thanks ErissaK and longhorn350z. I feel a bit lucky that the 2 hottest girls on TLS said something insightful to my post. Have a good weekend.

I actually disagree about the whole "screw the courses." Unless you're really a disciplined person, the courses provide structure to your studying. I honestly don't know that much about powerscore, but I took the testmasters course and really loved it. I started with a 164 on my first cold exam and got a 170 on the actual exam (a bit lower than my last few practice tests). I think I probably would have done even better if I'd actually done all of the homework.

The testmasters philosophy isn't to teach you "tricks" which, if i remember correctly, seemed to be what the bibles advocated. Rather, they teach you the logic behind the questions and to understand why the right answer is right. They also offer free additional seminars to people who want more time out of class.

Hope this helps.

I disagree with the "screw the courses" comment, unless you can commit 3 hours + per day to your own study, and you easily learn from your mistakes.

The courses can't hurt you. Sure it costs some money, but a few points on the LSAT offsets that in scholarships easily.

take the course for the main purpose of having a professional tell you upfront what you did wrong. testmasters also gives you a lot of material! and a lot of explanations. i studied on my own after taking their course, but i honestly suggest taking testmasters

Testmasters and PowerScore are extremely similar (based on the same idea), so you'll be good with either course. Both supply you with actual LSAT questions and prep material too.

I agree with the latter half of the posters. Unless you can devote 20+ hours a week (class + hw time) for two months and not "just skip it today and I'll catch back up with it next week", take the class. Also if your scoring badly in 1 (or more) sections, the instructor can find out what's wrong and fix it.

I have to agree with the screw the courses suggestion at least on a partial level. For my case, such courses have been a waste since I am looking to score in the top percentile. All instructors I've had scored lower than what I wanted (and what I eventually scored). For the LSATs I am aiming for a 172+. The majority of students in the course are looking to pull a 165 and the instructors rarely score over 173 (aside from Testakers instructors who have to at least score a 173). So are you looking for any law school or Harvard Law? A course isn't going to help you but may weigh you down. I remember my Kaplan GRE teacher (I have an MFA) telling the class to skip the hard ones. F%CK that I wanted a perfect score and ended up studying on my own and demanding a refund since the course was geared toward achieving a good score not a perfect one. So its up to you but none of the instructors, though all presumably intelligent are rocket scientists either (if they were they wouldnt be teaching now would they?). Sorry to sound jaded or cynical but the truth is if you dont have gumption nothing will help you and if you do have gumption you dont need a course you need to drill your head off.

you can get virtually all the material on your own (amazon, craigslist, etc.), and have you seen their coursebooks? almost nothing in the way of explanations...

Explanations should be used only after you have made an honest and thorough attempt to explain the answers yourself. And once you have done enough of these things, you can explain the vast majority yourself without relying on the books--and this is where the real gains are made!

I think the benefit of taking a class has a lot to do with motivation and how you learn (much less to do with raw intelligence). I studied my ass off for the Sept LSAT, entirely on my own. What I didn't realize then that I see now looking back, is that I was not efficient or as effective as I could have been. It is easy to delude yourself when you have no one but yourself to be accountable to for your study habits and honesty with where you're at. A course instructor can serve as a coach, if that's all you need, and it's worth it.

I started out with the PowerScore Bibles and developed a good foundation from them. But it is just harder to learn from a book in the same way interacting with a live expert. I've heard that Testmasters is the absolute best, but they weren't offering any courses when I needed them (and don't offer an online option). So I ended up taking Atlas LSAT's online course. They have some great techniques, and it is very beneficial to see alternative approaches to the same problem types I had previously tackled using the PS methods. I think even more important though, is the live interaction with a live teacher.

If you think you don't need a prep class and can get to where you want to be by simply taking 57 prep tests, you're probably right. But if you are strongly considering taking a course, just do it. Do your homework up front to make sure you don't pick a bad course (ahem, Kaplan), and do your homework during the course. It will pay off.

+1 Testmasters FTW, but I had an awesome instructor (shoutout to Anthony for Arlington Testmasters)

what's wrong with kaplan???? i did some research and according to their web site:

"more people get into law school with a Kaplan LSAT course than with all other major courses combined."

isn't that a good sign?

That is because more people take Kaplan than other courses.

This is a classic "identify the flaw" Logical Reasoning question. Confusion of number vs. proportion...



They are the biggest with greatest volume of future law students. But does that mean they are the best? What about comparison of score increases, or overall LSATY score, or ranks of admitted school of their students compared to smaller prep companies?

The truth is, I've only heard that Kaplan is bad. I don't know first hand. That's why I said do your homework, which should include research beyond their website. Look around these forums, talk to people who have beeen there, and make an informed decision.

I took TestMasters and highly recommend it. My score went up 13 points but that was on the low side...many people in my class had improvements of 18-25 points from their initial diagnostic. Good luck!

ah thanks that is a good point i definately need to do some more studying lol

Testmasters was excellent, went from 159 to 177. Highly recommended if you do the work.

Interesting additional thought to this topic:

If someone has a strong grip on the exam but is suffering with one kind of section or kind of question it could be worthwhile to get private tutoring instead of taking a whole course. I am doing this since my average on prep tests is not bad (165-171) but I have a mental block on some LR questions. Ten hours of private tutoring from Testmasters is around $800 I think and that's less than the price of almost any course. I'm waiting 2 more weeks before I commit but unless I bust pass my wall I think I have to.

I paid $900 for Atlas LSAT for their 12-session course (44 hours instruction). It's online, but the format works well. If you need face to face interaction, I think their in-person classes are similarly priced.

Kaplan isn't bad if you have a good teacher (my tutor had a 178, FWIW). I went up 9 points from my diagnostic and a friend of mine went up 12 points. The consensus is that if you're starting with a lower diagnostic (130's-low 150's), Kaplan isn't a bad choice because everything is simple to follow. If you're starting out at a higher level, Powerscore/TM seem to be the better choices.

I'm re-taking in February and using the bibles to see if they make a difference. So far the LR Bible doesn't seem all that much different than the Kaplan stuff, but I'm only a few chapters in. I haven't started the LG Bible, but will see about that as well. It can never hurt to try different techniques to see if something works better for you personally.

Yeah, most LG approaches are necessarily similar, but wait until you get into the Games to really notice, and hopefully benefit from, the differences.

I already go -2 at most on games; just went to quickly on the real thing, hence the re-take and I figured getting the LG Bible would just give me more problems to do. I'm skeptical that it will make too much of a difference, but maybe it will; we'll see. I really wanted more info from the LR Bible, which is why I started it first.

Those who took testmasters, did you take the test on the date that the course was for? Or did you take it at a later time?