Hi,

I'm trying to establish a short free LSAT course for students with financial need.

Since cost is an issue, I'm trying to find some decent materials to teach from (ie, a book to use in class, preferably with a lot of LSAT questions in it that they can do as homework also).

Cost is an issue. I'll be looking to find a source of marginal funding for materials - but the budget will be slim.

Do you guys have any suggestions as to books you've taught from in the past (if you're a tutor), or perhaps books you've used as a student that helped you? Again, cost is an issue, so I'm hoping to find something decent, that isn't going to break the bank. I don't want a junky book - but maybe there are some hidden gems out there in terms of value for dollar?

Thanks!

how many hours is this course going to be? I'd do everything I could to stick to official LSAC material. If the course is only 10-20 hours in class, I think you could do that with one copy of "The Next 10 LSATs" per person.

Not to start a Kaplan/PR/PS/TM/BP debate, but whatever the quality of their courses, Kaplan and PR books that you buy in the bookstore are not high quality, I would not teach out of them, unless you can find one which uses actual LSAT questions for the basis of their explanations.

You could spend a few hours going over the Next 10, find sort out all the must be true, strengthen, weaken, flaw in the reasoning, etc., then go over the basics of each question type. Then look for all the sequencing, linear and grouping games, give them the strategy for those.

Good luck!

I teach using the Logic Games Bible + the Next 10 LSATs, making sure to skip any questions in the LG Bible that are from PTs that students will be taking. I've been wanting to try the Atlas LSAT LG book as well, as I've heard okay things about that in conjunction with the bible, but haven't had a chance to yet.

I run a very similar free prep course. I just take a scanner and a printer and make my own materials. Use LSAC PT's and what not and just compile questions. Focus your approaches and type up a short summary. Collate them with paper clips/alligator clips and pass them out. End of prep-course preparation.

Ok very cool -

I've taught one of the 80 hour prep courses before (a commercial one), but this free offering will likely be three (3) six-hour saturdays. So 18 hours roughly. Plus a proctored practice test at the beginning, and at the end.

I think the LG Bible mixed with the Next 10, would be within our budget - might even leave $30 or so for a 3rd book.

My only concern would be that neither of the above will provide any sort of linear progression in terms of LR difficulty progression. I could jump around within the Next 10, but that might get a bit confusing in class, and difficult for the students to refer back to after the fact. For example, if we start with very basic Premise-Premise-Conclusion LR questions, I might have to pull a half dozen of them from different pages in the Next 10. If students then want to go back and look at just that question type, they'd have to have some sort of index of with the pages each example question was on, and that might get confusing to jump around so much.

I'm wondering if there is a source of LR questions that pre-divides them into question types, perhaps WITHOUT implanting a lot of the methodology of a particular (ie, Kaplan, etc) prep course?

I know this may be asking for a lot. I think we would be GOLDEN if we could use:

- Logic Games Bible for LG
- "The Next 10" for RC, and for the two administered practice tests.
- Something else that would lay out a progression of LR question types, for LR.

I'm 100% with you on not wanting to use "simulated" LSAT questions.

Also - re: scanning and copying, that wouldn't be appropriate here, as the course may be offered in conjunction with an institution - and copyright infringement would be a no-no

If LG Bible is in your budget, that's sweet. To work on easy LR questions first is tough.. the only thing I can think of is to create a document on your own to pass out that lists the skills you want to work on then a page and question number they can use to refer to their books.

Fair use? If you're not charging for it and it's for educational purposes, isn't that kosher?

I have had students use the Powerscore LR Bible. I'm not entirely sure how helpful it is to be learning how to classify this type of question or that type, which is a lot of what the LR bible teaches you, so I wonder if it's a waste of valuable time. But if you bought a copy and modeled some of your lessons on the different chapters in that book, you could focus less on identification and more on how to approach the questions.

If this is a not-for-profit event, you're not infringing, especially if you only use questions rather than methods. As long as you paid for the materials, i'm pretty sure you can use them.

still depends on how he's going to use it. Check this out:

http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml#copy

Lists some guidelines for fair use in educational settings. If GP's doing this with an institution, they'll want to stick to these guidelines. The section "What to Avoid" is intersesting:

* Making multiple copies of different works that could substitute for the purchase of books, publisher's reprints, or periodicals.
* Copying the same works from semester to semester.
* Copying the same material for several different courses at the same or different institutions.
* Copying more than nine separate times in a single semester.

Regardless of the "letter of the law", to secure some support for the program, and to keep everyone comfortable, it would be best in this situation to stay away from copying materials. Even if there may be a fair use / fair dealing exemption, I need to err on the side of caution.

I think the LR Bible, and the LG Bible might be a good combination. Then "The Next 10" would work for RC and the tests.

Amazon has the LG Bible for about $40, and I think the same for the LR bible. Add another $20 for the Next 10, and the bill is around $100. That's pretty much what I was targeting. To secure $100 per student in sponsorship, for a class that I'm going to initially keep at 15 or so, shouldn't be terribly difficult for anyone to swallow.

Man, if that was your budget, why you worrying? Yeah, LR, LG Bible, Next 10 for RC and supplemental tests, that's all anyone could ask for from an 18 hour course. Good luck, this should be done more often.

http://www.cambridgelsat.com/

i really like this site alot. they even have the rare tests.

Okay, I don't think that I've violated any of those. I compile different sets of questions each time, and all are snipped from different sections. I've never reproduced whole sections or even series of questions.