Summer School vs. Lsat Prep Course Forum

[The Avatar]

Summer courses to raise GPA or a prep course?

I've already purchased and begun studying the following:

Powerscore LG,LR,RC (Not sure if ill go through this one)
Manhattan LG,LR,RC
+Lsat preptests for after I go through these books

I do well on LR and RC but struggle at Games.

Any other books recommended. I'm writing June Lsat. The books are 600+ pages to go through so I'm gonna be busy and I will be taking easy summer courses to bump my gpa.

Is the prep course worth my time?

[caryatis]

Don't take the prep course. They are way overpriced. If you can motivate yourself to sit down and read the books and take lots of timed practice tests, focusing on what's hard for you i.e. Games, then you can get everything you would get out of a prep course and save ~$2000.

The caveat being that you know yourself better than I do. If you need the encouragement or a competitive group atmosphere to learn the test-taking strategies, then it might be worth it.

...Also, it's February, and you said you're taking the June LSAT? Kudos on planning ahead, but based on my experience, you don't need to start prepping till April or May.

[yeslekkkk]

I did a Powerscore course after studying on my own. I'm really glad I did. It gave me more structure and a group who had similar goals motivating me. My teacher scored a 180 on a test, and he was funny. He made the material much more enjoyable, but we learned a lot. He was a 1L at a local top school and would tell us all about his 1L experience which I really enjoyed. The class I believe started half way through March or April for the June test.

[The Avatar]

Don't take the prep course. They are way overpriced. If you can motivate yourself to sit down and read the books and take lots of timed practice tests, focusing on what's hard for you i.e. Games, then you can get everything you would get out of a prep course and save ~$2000.

The caveat being that you know yourself better than I do. If you need the encouragement or a competitive group atmosphere to learn the test-taking strategies, then it might be worth it.

...Also, it's February, and you said you're taking the June LSAT? Kudos on planning ahead, but based on my experience, you don't need to start prepping till April or May.

I'm a very hard worker, independant study guy. I don't do group studies at all. I would only take the course to learn logic games. I've been stressing that I am late in prepping for June Lsat. I can learn RC and LR quickly but LG is a massive struggle.

[Clearly]

Don't take the prep course. They are way overpriced. If you can motivate yourself to sit down and read the books and take lots of timed practice tests, focusing on what's hard for you i.e. Games, then you can get everything you would get out of a prep course and save ~$2000.

The caveat being that you know yourself better than I do. If you need the encouragement or a competitive group atmosphere to learn the test-taking strategies, then it might be worth it.

...Also, it's February, and you said you're taking the June LSAT? Kudos on planning ahead, but based on my experience, you don't need to start prepping till April or May.

Are you kidding me. How about you don't sign up on TLS and start posting objectively shitty advice.

[TheodoreKGB]

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[10052014]

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[lawschool2014hopeful]

People like cary is the reason I wrote my guide. Lmao is kinda funny to still see this sort of blind drone mentality going on.

[Jeffort]

People like cary is the reason I wrote my guide. Lmao is kinda funny to still see this sort of blind drone mentality going on.

Stick around for another year if you want to play whack a mole with all the false assumptions people form about LSAT prep and base beliefs on, I could use some help! The misconceptions never go away. Every cycle the collective memory/wisdom of this board as a whole gets dumped like clearing your browser cache and the common bad beliefs/misconceptions plant root again in the minds of many new students as they begin their prep journeys. After a few years here it becomes almost like being Bill Murray in that movie Groundhog day! (great movie BTW)

Here's a current example of the biggest common false LSAT prep assumption that is the main point of your advice:
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7#p7462977

It's easy early in prep to believe that getting all the best LSAT prep info/advice/books and learning/studying all of it is sufficient to get a high score and that whoever takes the time to learn/memorize all that stuff is sure to score 170+. It takes many people a long time to figure out that getting good at the LSAT isn't about finding and learning the best strategies that not everyone knows or uses, solid LSAT prep knowledge and advice is ubiquitous and available to everyone. It has been now for well over 10+ years so scoring high isn't all about getting the best source of LSAT wisdom, it's about learning how to actually apply all of it correctly while under pressure.

I think that is where a lot of people go wrong early in prep, thinking that the challenge is just learning and understanding all the strategies, concepts, etc. rather than focusing on getting good at applying all the knowledge properly with lots of slow motion drilling and review. Lots of people spend far too much prep time trying to track down, collect and memorize all of the supposed secret golden tips and tricks from everywhere as if LSAT prep is some sort of treasure hunt for tricks to a high score goldmine of factoids. That's part of the false assumption where all the "which books/classes are the very best for getting 170+" threads/questions/opinions come from. Your brief TLS history of eras made me laugh, well described! lol

A big part that is overlooked about the value of prep classes is having somebody to not only spoon feed you all the knowledge, but that also teaches you how to put it into action over and over to get the methods down correctly, clear up confusion, flush out weaknesses, answer questions, etc. Books mostly just focus on teaching people what to do while good classes prioritize focusing on the 'how to do it' part to help people get good at applying everything so that their skills improve.

I hope your thread with the guide stays bumped up for a long time so that all the new members this cycle will see and hopefully read it.

[lawschool2014hopeful]

People like cary is the reason I wrote my guide. Lmao is kinda funny to still see this sort of blind drone mentality going on.

Stick around for another year if you want to play whack a mole with all the false assumptions people form about LSAT prep and base beliefs on, I could use some help! The misconceptions never go away. Every cycle the collective memory/wisdom of this board as a whole gets dumped like clearing your browser cache and the common bad beliefs/misconceptions plant root again in the minds of many new students as they begin their prep journeys. After a few years here it becomes almost like being Bill Murray in that movie Groundhog day! (great movie BTW)

Here's a current example of the biggest common false LSAT prep assumption that is the main point of your advice:
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7#p7462977

It's easy early in prep to believe that getting all the best LSAT prep info/advice/books and learning/studying all of it is sufficient to get a high score and that whoever takes the time to learn/memorize all that stuff is sure to score 170+. It takes many people a long time to figure out that getting good at the LSAT isn't about finding and learning the best strategies that not everyone knows or uses, solid LSAT prep knowledge and advice is ubiquitous and available to everyone. It has been now for well over 10+ years so scoring high isn't all about getting the best source of LSAT wisdom, it's about learning how to actually apply all of it correctly while under pressure.

I think that is where a lot of people go wrong early in prep, thinking that the challenge is just learning and understanding all the strategies, concepts, etc. rather than focusing on getting good at applying all the knowledge properly with lots of slow motion drilling and review. Lots of people spend far too much prep time trying to track down, collect and memorize all of the supposed secret golden tips and tricks from everywhere as if LSAT prep is some sort of treasure hunt for tricks to a high score goldmine of factoids. That's part of the false assumption where all the "which books/classes are the very best for getting 170+" threads/questions/opinions come from. Your brief TLS history of eras made me laugh, well described! lol

A big part that is overlooked about the value of prep classes is having somebody to not only spoon feed you all the knowledge, but that also teaches you how to put it into action over and over to get the methods down correctly, clear up confusion, flush out weaknesses, answer questions, etc. Books mostly just focus on teaching people what to do while good classes prioritize focusing on the 'how to do it' part to help people get good at applying everything so that their skills improve.

I hope your thread with the guide stays bumped up for a long time so that all the new members this cycle will see and hopefully read it.

<3, I will definitely stick around until I start law school. But the thread is definitely not catching the attention as I have hoped. Maybe I have should have retitled it: How to be stupid and still score 170.

[BPlaura]

I took a prep course because I knew that I'm a big procrastinator and was unlikely to put the work in without having the guidance of a course. It's 100% true that no one needs a course and that you can do just as well with self-study, but some people benefit from the guidance of a course, having an instructor they can ask questions, etc. TLS leans toward being an extremely self-motivated group, so many of the people here don't need a course, but it's definitely a personal decision.

If you're considering a course with any company, my #1 tip is to try to sit in on a lesson with the instructor who will be teaching the course. You want someone who knows his/her stuff and has a clear teaching style, but you also want someone who isn't going to bore you to death, given that you'll be spending up to 100 hours listening to that person.

So that's one thing to consider; I'd also consider how much the summer courses are going to raise your GPA. You can plug everything in to an online calculator that'll give you your LSAC GPA. Depending on how many credits you're able to take over the summer and what your GPA is now, it may or may not make much of a difference.