powerscore or atlas? Forum

[lolol10]

which is better? i have been using powerscore. I like the set up, it seems simple, intuitive and fairly comprehensive. I just came across this other brand of lsat prep called atlas. it looks confusing and somewhat backward. im worried i might be missing out on some vital strategies however. what have you heard? i want to be as prepared i possibly can be if i need to retake after the oct exam...

[rso11]

I think it depends. I had been using PowerScore and it just didn't work that well for me. I think I need the structure of a class (but damn they are hella expensive!) I'm actually signed up for an Atlas online prep class. I looked through their stuff and liked it; their approach to some things like Pure Sequencing games is different from PS, and for me makes much more sense. Take a look and see what you think - I think it depends on the individual person, though many on here will swear by PS.

[typ3]

I just signed up for Atlas, had used PScore before.. not overly impressed with pscore especially on loose sequencing games. Other prep companies do a better job of it...

I get my books in today (missed the fedex yesterday) so i'll write a full review tomorrow about the prep material.

[CanadianWolf]

I feel like I'm reading an Atlas ad. Although I don't know of any Atlas students, I do know several who took Powerscore courses & were confident of their ability to ace the Logic Games section of the LSAT. Whether or not Atlas is as good as PowerScore, I cannot say, but it's hard to improve upon results in the 170s.
P.S. If you take a PowerScore course & don't get -0 on the Logic games section, then you just didn't do all of the assigned work.

[lolol10]

I just signed up for Atlas, had used PScore before.. not overly impressed with pscore especially on loose sequencing games. Other prep companies do a better job of it...

I get my books in today (missed the fedex yesterday) so i'll write a full review tomorrow about the prep material.

awesome. please do! i would like to hear what you have to say.

[lolol10]

I feel like I'm reading an Atlas ad. Although I don't know of any Atlas students, I do know several who took Powerscore courses & were confident of their ability to ace the Logic Games section of the LSAT. Whether or not Atlas is as good as PowerScore, I cannot say, but it's hard to improve upon results in the 170s.
P.S. If you take a PowerScore course & don't get -0 on the Logic games section, then you just didn't do all of the assigned work.

yeah my LG has improved to nearly perfect after reading the LG wkbook. sequencing games are weak though...idk if that is due in part to their explanation or me being unable to accurately and efficiently work through them. hence, my q about atlas being better.

[dextermorgan]

In before prep company marketers.

I am actually considering an online class and am leaning towards Atlas (Manhattan). I have also heard good things about Blueprint the Movie,but it seems like too much of a production instead of a teaching tool for me (it would help if they had an actual sample and not just short blurbs).

[lsatgenius]

Agreed. I don't see how a movie can effectively teach you.

On the GMAT, Manhattan tells you to diagram critical reasoning (same thing as logical reasoning). Does Atlas recommend this? I found the diagramming a time waste.

[LSAT Blog]

LRB's big on diagramming. I find it to be useless for the informal logic questions, which comprise most of LR.

When I do diagram, it's for *some* Must Be Trues/Most Strongly Supporteds, *some* Sufficient Assumptions, and *some* Parallel Reasonings.

[Manhattan LSAT Noah]

Agreed. I don't see how a movie can effectively teach you.

On the GMAT, Manhattan tells you to diagram critical reasoning (same thing as logical reasoning). Does Atlas recommend this? I found the diagramming a time waste.

No, we teach diagramming LR only when it's heavy in conditional logic. We actually feel that diagramming too many LR arguments is a pitfall of some programs. I'll leave it to others to talk about our program (it takes some will power for me not to! ), but I will say that if you're on the fence, you can attend a trial class to see for yourself whether we're a good fit. I'm happy to field questions through PMs...

[lolol10]

yeah i have the lr bible...most of the time im like wtf why diagram this...its become the most difficult section for me due to lr bible's emphasis on diagrams. is atlas any different though? i paged through a book the other day and was like this seems a little confusing.

[typ3]

I'm not a big blue print fan. It's ok, but like the other companies it's especially geared to the masses.

I've done Kaplan myself with a 15 week live class, my instructor was great- he scored a 179- but if I wasn't in class I would have to refer to my notes from him rather than Kaplan's material to analyze tests and problems. Ultimately, I ended up blowing through a lot of prep material without making a huge change in my thinking. My sister did blue print so I went through about 1/2 of their movies etc on her account to decide if I wanted to subscribe for it myself. I'm about half way through the Atlas LR book, just got it earlier today.

I would say that the material for Atlas is almost exclusively geared towards those who are wishing to score 165+. There isn't the 50-70 page intros like other books into the sections. It's merely five pages and then it starts into analyzing arguments, reading actively, and the different question stems. If Powerscore is akin to a nice smooth lager, Atlas is a shot of whiskey.

The books all seem to be a lighter than powerscore's bibles, however, they aren't necessarily inferior. I find Atlas's method's more apt for the test and me than powerscore's.

What I do like about Atlas is that for the practice problems they write out what a 170+ test taker thinks about the answer choices and problem versus an average test taker. Instead of giving you a bland explanation of the problem and why it's right, Atlas attempts to teach you why every answer choice is wrong and the thinking you should go through to eliminate choices. Atlas emphasizes reading actively in LR sections. Read the question stem and then dissect the stimulus with alacrity and purpose.

More plainly, other prep companies focus purely on getting answers right. Atlas, geared to top scorers, is mainly focused on teaching you how to eliminate wrong answers quickly on difficult problems- ultimately leading you to the right answer. As almost all top scorers would agree, on TLS, and other forums, the difference between a 169 and a 175+ comes down to knocking out wrong answers rather than finding the right one.

As for games, the largest difference between Atlas and Powerscore is on loose sequencing. Look at Steve Schwartz's blog post on loose sequencing and you'll find nearly the same method as Atlas. Further, watch Atlas's free demo class online and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Atlas does seem to be superior to Powerscore on the easier games (power score has many repetitive steps not needed).

I'll give a full review of everything in a few days, I'm taking the Amtrak to Chicago this weekend to visit C & N so I'll have 10 hours both ways to spend purely on Atlas's materials. I'll include BluePrint, Kaplan, Atlas, and Powerscore in my full review.

Overall, if you have a good basic grasp of the LSAT, Atlas is a solid choice for prep.

One suggestion to them and others prepping using Atlas is to purchase the 1-20 grouping books from Cambridge LSAT (which I assume is their sister company since the links of cambridge lsat's tutors leads to Atlas). In fact, I think their self prep package which uses PT's 28-50 (but not 39) should includ 1-20 grouping books (Just call it the Atlas Homework Book). That way, for the homework, one could just flip to the 1-20 grouping book and do the relevant problems. For an additional few dollars you can purchase PT's 51-60 in a book to practice on, something I would strongly recommend.

By purchasing the grouping books from Cambridge you basically round out a nearly complete prep package. It's hard to beat the 2 hours of free private tutoring they throw in. I'm looking forward to mine I heard Noah is dreamy.

[lolol10]

I'm not a big blue print fan. It's ok, but like the other companies it's especially geared to the masses.

I've done Kaplan myself with a 15 week live class, my instructor was great- he scored a 179- but if I wasn't in class I would have to refer to my notes from him rather than Kaplan's material to analyze tests and problems. Ultimately, I ended up blowing through a lot of prep material without making a huge change in my thinking. My sister did blue print so I went through about 1/2 of their movies etc on her account to decide if I wanted to subscribe for it myself. I'm about half way through the Atlas LR book, just got it earlier today.

I would say that the material for Atlas is almost exclusively geared towards those who are wishing to score 165+. There isn't the 50-70 page intros like other books into the sections. It's merely five pages and then it starts into analyzing arguments, reading actively, and the different question stems. If Powerscore is akin to a nice smooth lager, Atlas is a shot of whiskey.

The books all seem to be a lighter than powerscore's bibles, however, they aren't necessarily inferior. I find Atlas's method's more apt for the test and me than powerscore's.

What I do like about Atlas is that for the practice problems they write out what a 170+ test taker thinks about the answer choices and problem versus an average test taker. Instead of giving you a bland explanation of the problem and why it's right, Atlas attempts to teach you why every answer choice is wrong and the thinking you should go through to eliminate choices. Atlas emphasizes reading actively in LR sections. Read the question stem and then dissect the stimulus with alacrity and purpose.

More plainly, other prep companies focus purely on getting answers right. Atlas, geared to top scorers, is mainly focused on teaching you how to eliminate wrong answers quickly on difficult problems- ultimately leading you to the right answer. As almost all top scorers would agree, on TLS, and other forums, the difference between a 169 and a 175+ comes down to knocking out wrong answers rather than finding the right one.

As for games, the largest difference between Atlas and Powerscore is on loose sequencing. Look at Steve Schwartz's blog post on loose sequencing and you'll find nearly the same method as Atlas. Further, watch Atlas's free demo class online and you'll understand what I'm talking about. Atlas does seem to be superior to Powerscore on the easier games (power score has many repetitive steps not needed).

I'll give a full review of everything in a few days, I'm taking the Amtrak to Chicago this weekend to visit C & N so I'll have 10 hours both ways to spend purely on Atlas's materials. I'll include BluePrint, Kaplan, Atlas, and Powerscore in my full review.

Overall, if you have a good basic grasp of the LSAT, Atlas is a solid choice for prep.

One suggestion to them and others prepping using Atlas is to purchase the 1-20 grouping books from Cambridge LSAT (which I assume is their sister company since the links of cambridge lsat's tutors leads to Atlas). In fact, I think their self prep package which uses PT's 28-50 (but not 39) should includ 1-20 grouping books (Just call it the Atlas Homework Book). That way, for the homework, one could just flip to the 1-20 grouping book and do the relevant problems. For an additional few dollars you can purchase PT's 51-60 in a book to practice on, something I would strongly recommend.

By purchasing the grouping books from Cambridge you basically round out a nearly complete prep package. It's hard to beat the 2 hours of free private tutoring they throw in. I'm looking forward to mine I heard Noah is dreamy.

thanks. sounds like atlas would be a better fit. i look forward to the review!

[CanadianWolf]

Seems like a ridiculous ad for one company set on trashing the competition. All most will need is to purchase the three PowerScore Bibles for about $160 & a lot of practice tests at $8 each & then study for several months on a rigid schedule.

[typ3]

Seems like a ridiculous ad for one company set on trashing the competition.

How did you know?

One advantage to Kaplan courses are that you get more practice problems. Atlas you don't get every problem hence the added suggestions I made to improve the course. Kaplan Mastery might be superior to grouping books in that the mastery book includes explanations of every problem within the book. A knock on Atlas is that the books are notebook bound rather than glue pressed bindings. Also with Blueprint you get nice animations and in depth explanations, Atlas isn't too visual. Powerscore is nice to carry around when you visit places like the TLS forums so you can instantly see people kowtowing to the books.

How could I be with a prep company with such honest reviews

[CanadianWolf]

Now I'm sure.

P.S. Any chance that you started in the used car business ?

[typ3]

Now I'm sure.

PM Me and I'll give you a free discount code to Atlas!

(I'm joking, please no one PM me, the only discount codes I have are for Domino's Pizza in Omaha, NE)

[CanadianWolf]

Which leads us to the question as to whether or not Atlas accepts Domino's Pizza coupons ?

[typ3]

Which leads us to the question as to whether or not Atlas accepts Domino's Pizza coupons ?

Hmm, they're now Manhattan LSAT.. so Dominos might not be chic enough to entice them. I have coupons for an upscale Moroccan eatery in the village perhaps that's worth $75.

[CanadianWolf]

In that case I don't want the Atlas coupons either.