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Anyone have any recommendations on LSAT Prep courses? BU is my dream school and I have the GPA but am concerned about my LSAT. I've never been a very good standardized test taker and am worried that's my only shot at BU.

Anyyyyyy advice would be so greatly appreciated

nmop_apisdn wrote:Do not take Kaplan.


Self-study, in my opinion, is the way to go.

ETA: I'm not in LS, but you dont have to be to know about this stuff.

haha that's what I've heard! Thanks!

MEK21 wrote:

nmop_apisdn wrote:Do not take Kaplan.


Self-study, in my opinion, is the way to go.

ETA: I'm not in LS, but you dont have to be to know about this stuff.

haha that's what I've heard! Thanks!

For sure. But if you need the course to help keep you on track, I'd recommend:

1) Blueprint/Powerscore
2) The Princeton Review
3) Testmasters

In that order. PM me if you have any questions.

And no, I don't work for a LSAT prep company. I'm just giving advice that I've learned from long-time lurking these boards and studying for the LSAT myself.

I had a 12 point increase with Kaplan, so it's not like the program doesn't do anything to help you. The consensus does seem to be, though, that Kaplan is not the way to go.

bobbyh1919 wrote:I had a 12 point increase with Kaplan, so it's not like the program doesn't do anything to help you. The consensus does seem to be, though, that Kaplan is not the way to go.

You probably could have done that on your own. Anecdotally, I believe that Kaplans strategies are weaksauce, as I took the course.

Self-study has helped me more than that course did.

A lot of people will agree that Kaplan is designed to help people get into the high 150s/low 160s. Its not for people trying to break 165+. Your money is better spent with a private tutor.

nmop_apisdn wrote:

bobbyh1919 wrote:I had a 12 point increase with Kaplan, so it's not like the program doesn't do anything to help you. The consensus does seem to be, though, that Kaplan is not the way to go.

You probably could have done that on your own. Anecdotally, I believe that Kaplans strategies are weaksauce, as I took the course.

Self-study has helped me more than that course did.

A lot of people will agree that Kaplan is designed to help people get into the high 150s/low 160s. Its not for people trying to break 165+. Your money is better spent with a private tutor.

I self studied with the LR and LG bibles and lots of old tests, and did very well. Afterwards, I trained to tutor for Kaplan, but due to scheduling conflicts, never actually tutored. The difference in strategy is night and day. Kaplan's course is designed for the masses- you cannot get to 170+ with their basic strats, it takes way too much time (I have no experience with their high performer lessons). Also, Kaplan only requires their tutors to be above the 90th percentile, which is ~163...not a very competitive score for the top programs. I would not waste money on Kaplan when there are better programs out there, and I highly recommend the bibles + going through old tests (with standard or even harder time constraints) if you are disciplined enough.

nmop_apisdn wrote:

MEK21 wrote:

nmop_apisdn wrote:Do not take Kaplan.


Self-study, in my opinion, is the way to go.

ETA: I'm not in LS, but you dont have to be to know about this stuff.

haha that's what I've heard! Thanks!

For sure. But if you need the course to help keep you on track, I'd recommend:

1) Blueprint/Powerscore
2) The Princeton Review
3) Testmasters

In that order. PM me if you have any questions.

And no, I don't work for a LSAT prep company. I'm just giving advice that I've learned from long-time lurking these boards and studying for the LSAT myself.

Why in that order? PR's methods are radically different from the other ones you mentioned. BP/PS are derivates of TM.

Mr. Somebody wrote:

nmop_apisdn wrote:

MEK21 wrote:

nmop_apisdn wrote:Do not take Kaplan.


Self-study, in my opinion, is the way to go.

ETA: I'm not in LS, but you dont have to be to know about this stuff.

haha that's what I've heard! Thanks!

For sure. But if you need the course to help keep you on track, I'd recommend:

1) Blueprint/Powerscore
2) The Princeton Review
3) Testmasters

In that order. PM me if you have any questions.

And no, I don't work for a LSAT prep company. I'm just giving advice that I've learned from long-time lurking these boards and studying for the LSAT myself.

Why in that order? PR's methods are radically different from the other ones you mentioned. BP/PS are derivates of TM.

This is the order I've seen (anecdotes from people,myself included) of how effective they believe the course was, over a few years spent on TLS.

The list wasnt meant to deviate the strategies of the courses, rather, how helpful/worth the expense I believed the course to be.

FWIW, I raised my score 15 points with Testmasters

I raised my score 18 points with Testmasters online course (basically a guided study-at-home course). Found it immensely helpful. I've also heard great things about Powerscore.

I jumped 26 points (from a 154 to a 180) using Princeton Review books and methods. And ended up teaching their courses.

The teacher is more important than the company. Most companies will be able to tell you who the teacher is for a given course some while in advance of the start date, and you want the basic facts about the teacher (score, number of years teaching, additional qualifications). The teacher should sound pretty impressive, or you don't want to take that course.

Also, while TM/PS/BP are all in the same family of methods, I think that BP is closer to PR than you might initially expect (e.g. stem-first on LR).

-

i went up 21 points from a 155 to 176 using testmasters. I would highly recommend them.

ETA: I did a lot of self study in addition to the tune of taking every practice test at least once so that could be why my score increased as well

Kaplan is horrible. I took them and they were worthless.

I'm seriously considering taking the Testmasters course.

I'm in a Blueprint class right now. Eh, it seems to help, but had I just bought all the LSAC stuff and did it myself I'd probably be $1,400 richer. That being said, I'm not upset about the class.

A big thing is learning to deal with stressful situations. When you walk into the testing center, even if you are emotionally frosty, you shall be surrounded by people who are basically freaking the fuck out. Figure out a way to not allow the stress of others permeate your own mind-set. This is huge.

I used Knewton and went from 168 - 175. They have a 5 point increase guarantee and at least when I did it it was based on your best LSAT score or your diagnostic, whichever is higher. So ultimately I had like a 172 diagnostic (having self studied before) and was guaranteed a 177 so I got the course for free despite being completely satisfied. It's baseline cost is cheaper than most too if i recall so I'd recommend it.

Didn't do any training program and hit 176. I really enjoyed the Logic Games (I'm weird, I know), but honestly if you can spend a lot of time doing things like the Einstein Problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_Puzzle) you'll improve pretty fast on that stuff. I took about 8 practice exams over 2 months and raised myself from 168 to 176 so I'm a firm believer in self-study. Cherish your practice tests and recognize where you need the most work, then dedicate yourself to that.

As to the actual test day, it's honestly a crapshoot; but if you've built yourself enough confidence by test day. you'll really find yourself quite calm and that will help enormously (I was testing between 173-178 after breaking the 170 barrier).

I had a good experience with Manahattan LSAT. They do online / tele-tutoring in case they're not located in your city. I did that and it worked well. Combined this with Powerscore books.

Redamon1 wrote:I had a good experience with Manahattan LSAT. They do online / tele-tutoring in case they're not located in your city. I did that and it worked well. Combined this with Powerscore books.

i just did the self study course and it worked pretty well for me.

Don't do Kaplan. I likely know more about Kaplan than anyone else here and I'd never recommend it.

Listen to what the others have said. Manhattan and Blueprint would be the first two I'd recommend

I did Testmasters and thought it was a great class. ~15 point increase. (I was celebrating a friend's birthday a couple hours before the first diag so I'm unsure of my non-handicapped baseline.)