Consensus on required/highly recommended material? Forum

[P.J.Fry]

I last wrote the LSAT in 2007, and am just about to get into study mode to write again in December. I've read through a bunch and skimmed a bunch more threads on here trying to get up to date with which prep materials are good these days, and which aren't as highly recommended.

I have three months to study, with 2-3 hours per day to put into it. My goal is a 175+. Here is a list of some of the materials I'm aware of currently, and what the impressions I've gathered other TLS'ers have of them. Can someone (or preferably several) people give opinions on these and correct any of my potential misunderstanding?

Powerscore Bibles - were formerly the go-to resource for each of the problem types, but are starting to lose some relevance

Manhattan Bundle - these are starting to take over from PS Bibles

Kaplan Premier - still an all around good guide and introduction to the LSAT

Official LSAT Practice Tests (4 versions currently with 10 PT's each) - do as many of these as you can, though the older versions are a fair bit different from the newer, but still highly recommended to prepare you for oddball questions you might see.

Are there any other materials I'm missing that would be considered absolutely essential? Is it recommended to use both PS and Manhattan, or is one significantly better than the other?

[SexualSalad]

Welcome back to the wonderful world of the LSAT!

LG: 7sage might not have existed back in 2007, but their fool-proof method/video explanations are pretty much all you'll need for LG.

LR and RC: I read the PS LR Bible and it was helpful to get a sense of what the different types of questions wanted, but I still felt like I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. I ended up signing up for the 7sage curriculum and it seemed like LR made a lot more sense after that. 7sage wasn't as helpful for RC, but that might've been just due to the nature of RC. Haven't tried the Manhattan books, but their forums are helpful for LR explanations. LSAT Trainer is also widely recommended on this forum, so that might be worth checking out too. I found Voyager's RC guide on TLS to be really helpful too.

[Kimikho]

The LSAT Trainer!

[bp shinners]

Blueprint (for whom I work) has released a logic game book since you studied last. I'll leave others to review it.

[xylocarp]

I've never used any of their materials personally, but TLS consensus seems to be that Kaplan should be avoided.

[bilbaosan]

I've never used any of their materials personally, but TLS consensus seems to be that Kaplan should be avoided.

I found Manhattan Logical Reasoning book very useful. At the same time, Manhattan Reading Comprehensive is useless. Haven't seen their LG book, so have nothing to say.

For logic games I'd also take "ACE the Logic games" over PS Logic Games Bible, which to me looks outdated. However it has some really weird games which are way more difficult than real LSAT games; depending on your goals it may be good or bad for you.

PS Logical Reasoning was worse than Manhattan, and close to Kalpan, which was the worst. I wouldn't buy it.

[The LSAT Trainer]

I've never used any of their materials personally, but TLS consensus seems to be that Kaplan should be avoided.

I found Manhattan Logical Reasoning book very useful. At the same time, Manhattan Reading Comprehensive is useless. Haven't seen their LG book, so have nothing to say.

For logic games I'd also take "ACE the Logic games" over PS Logic Games Bible, which to me looks outdated. However it has some really weird games which are way more difficult than real LSAT games; depending on your goals it may be good or bad for you.

PS Logical Reasoning was worse than Manhattan, and close to Kalpan, which was the worst. I wouldn't buy it.

Reading your post made me think of this --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fgowvzfQ9U

Glad you found the LR book useful, and sorry you found the RC book useless.

[The LSAT Trainer]

I've never used any of their materials personally, but TLS consensus seems to be that Kaplan should be avoided.

I can't help myself (and I can't believe they still haven't taken this down) -- if ever an advertisement/header represented a company --

[Sinatra]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fgowvzfQ9U

I can't believe it sucks, it was supposed to be great!

[mkania]

Is 7sage online only. Whats the deal with it...it confuses me?

Is this a dumb question...probably...oh well

[bizzybone1313]

Kaplan gets bashed a lot (for good reason), but I highly recommend what is called the Big Orange Book of Real LSAT's. Their LR explanations are pretty good. I would avoid their general approaches though. This book should be cheap and has great explanations for questions from earlier tests.

[Sinatra]

Manhattan has been more helpful than Powerscore. It is weird to me that Powerscore reps are not fighting to keep PS relevant here on TLS. BP seems to be overlooked and I have never read one of their books, but the people I have talked to seemed to have liked it. LSAT Trainer is probably going to be the most prevalent choice around TLS by next year--if it hasn't already.

From what I have tried:

Manhattan > Powerscore

[Jeffort]

Kaplan gets bashed a lot (for good reason), but I highly recommend what is called the Big Orange Book of Real LSAT's. Their LR explanations are pretty good. I would avoid their general approaches though. This book should be cheap and has great explanations for questions from earlier tests.

You do know that your post is going to make at least a few students go on a frustrating frenzied manhunt for a copy of that old out of print book now, don't you? Expect more questions in this thread about that book and how to find it, you unlocked the can of worms so you can tell them the bad news...

[bizzybone1313]

Manhattan has been more helpful than Powerscore. It is weird to me that Powerscore reps are not fighting to keep PS relevant here on TLS. BP seems to be overlooked and I have never read one of their books, but the people I have talked to seemed to have liked it. LSAT Trainer is probably going to be the most prevalent choice around TLS by next year--if it hasn't already.

From what I have tried:

Manhattan > Powerscore

+1. You are making a huge mistake if you do not read the Manhattan books, especially the RC and LR ones. I didn't get remotely close to understanding sufficient, necessary and flaw in the reasoning questions until I read Manhattan. PS is too mechanical in their methods and doesn't actually help you get a clear understanding of what LSAC is trying to test you on in terms of the different LR question types. Manhattan does a great job of teaching you the reasoning behind all of the different question types in LR.

[bizzybone1313]

Kaplan gets bashed a lot (for good reason), but I highly recommend what is called the Big Orange Book of Real LSAT's. Their LR explanations are pretty good. I would avoid their general approaches though. This book should be cheap and has great explanations for questions from earlier tests.

You do know that your post is going to make at least a few students go on a frustrating frenzied manhunt for a copy of that old out of print book now, don't you? Expect more questions in this thread about that book and how to find it, you unlocked the can of worms so you can tell them the bad news...

Yep. I know this is true. I have my copy sitting on the ground next to my chair. It is worth the money. I think I paid like $10-$15 for it. It isn't going to be easy to find, but I highly recommend it. I wouldn't recommend the book if wasn't worth it.

In fact, a guy is selling his copy on E-Bay right now. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-of-3-Kaplan ... 3f2931c304. I think I just made this guy a little richer. I am going to sell my copy after I am done with it. I didn't look too hard, but it appears these books have become more rare since I purchased my copy.

I am very active on E-Bay myself. I highly recommend it. It is a good way to make side cash.

[Jeffort]

Kaplan gets bashed a lot (for good reason), but I highly recommend what is called the Big Orange Book of Real LSAT's. Their LR explanations are pretty good. I would avoid their general approaches though. This book should be cheap and has great explanations for questions from earlier tests.

You do know that your post is going to make at least a few students go on a frustrating frenzied manhunt for a copy of that old out of print book now, don't you? Expect more questions in this thread about that book and how to find it, you unlocked the can of worms so you can tell them the bad news...

Yep. I know this is true. I have my copy sitting on the ground next to my chair. It is worth the money. I think I paid like $10-$15 for it. It isn't going to be easy to find, but I highly recommend it. I wouldn't recommend the book if wasn't worth it.

Now all you have to do is put up an eBay ad titled "Kaplan Big Orange LSAT book" and wait for desperate students that read this thread to google the title, find the ad and start bidding. You should easily be able to triple your $$ or more in a few days!

EDIT: I wrote this before seeing your above post, you beat me to the idea!

[bizzybone1313]

Kaplan gets bashed a lot (for good reason), but I highly recommend what is called the Big Orange Book of Real LSAT's. Their LR explanations are pretty good. I would avoid their general approaches though. This book should be cheap and has great explanations for questions from earlier tests.

You do know that your post is going to make at least a few students go on a frustrating frenzied manhunt for a copy of that old out of print book now, don't you? Expect more questions in this thread about that book and how to find it, you unlocked the can of worms so you can tell them the bad news...

Yep. I know this is true. I have my copy sitting on the ground next to my chair. It is worth the money. I think I paid like $10-$15 for it. It isn't going to be easy to find, but I highly recommend it. I wouldn't recommend the book if wasn't worth it.

Now all you have to do is put up an eBay ad titled "Kaplan Big Orange LSAT book" and wait for desperate students that read this thread to google the title, find the ad and start bidding. You should easily be able to triple your $$ or more in a few days!

EDIT: I wrote this before your above post, you beat me to the idea!

I am going to eventually sell it. But I did not recommend the book out of self interest. I am legitimately recommending the book. Only a jackass would recommend a shitty book to forum of 0L's who already have a 4 foot stack of books they need to chug through. When I am done with LSAT prep, the day I get back a satisfactory score I am going to drive to the nearest dumpster and throw all of that shit away except for the prep materials I can sell. I never want to see that crap again for the rest of my life.

[Jeffort]

No worries dude, I know why you recommended the book. It is the only commercial Kaplan LSAT book that is really worth recommending, unfortunately it has been out of print for a long time now. I'm surprised there are still some floating around for sale, must be copies that keep getting passed around second hand every year. I thought about eBay before you mentioned it cuz I know how rare copies of the book are and wrote my post as kind of a joke.