Kaplan diagnostic worth taking? Forum

[anom217]

I'm signed up to take a free online LSAT diagnostic on Kaplan's site. I've read elsewhere on this board than only official previous LSATs are worth spending time on. Is the Kaplan diagnostic significantly different than what the actual LSAT will be? Am I just wasting my time? I want to take an actual diagnostic to get a realistic score, the only other one I see is Princeton Review.

[Liquox]

Don't waste your time. Kaplan's is either old or fake. The LSAC has a free practice LSAT online if you want a realistic diagnostic

[20130312]

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[TommyK]

Their prep test isn't that old. It's from 2007 when I took it. It's an actual administered LSAT but with a section from an older test in place of its experimental since LSAT doesn't release the experimental. I liked taking the diagnostic at Kaplan. They have somebody that comes in and calls 5 minute warning and calls time. It got me ready for the process.

[TommyK]

Don't waste your time. Kaplan's is either old or fake. The LSAC has a free practice LSAT online if you want a realistic diagnostic

This is blatantly false. Kaplan only uses official LSAT material.

There's a lot of unjustifiable Kaplan hate here. I never understood it. Anyways - I think Kaplan produces books of LSAT questions that are supposed to mimic the types of questions, but aren't real administered questions. People who don't have any exposure to the test prep company get confused and spout out bs like this, InGoodFaith...

[Liquox]

"people who know nothing about test prep companies?" what, you work for kaplan or something?

you don't have to take my word for it. go look at online reviews. personally, i've only had a couple friends who took the kaplan course, but they came back with problems that were "similar to real ones". (their format was similar to the easier real problems)

if you must take a course, go take blueprint, testmasters, or powerscore. they get decent results. if like me, you don't have 2000$ to drop on a course, go get real practice tests. they're about 25$ for 10, and actually helpful.

[snehpets]

I found Kaplan helpful. I also am pretty sure the diagnostic test was a real test. All the tests have the date that they were initially given on them. I dunno why they would put that if they were fake.

I think maybe Kaplan is more helpful if you're already doing pretty well. It was helpful to me but my diagnostic wasn't that bad. Kaplan was useful to me in improving my weak spot when I started (logic games). My friends who had much lower diagnostics didn't find it as helpful, I think.

[20130312]

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[NYCLSATTutor]

A Kaplan diagnostic should be the June 2007 free LSAT that LSAC has released. It is generally this test for fairly obvious reasons. You should take it because its a free diagnostic that is proctored. You should not, however, go through Kaplan classes they are generally horrible. They are often better than nothing and so some people consider them helpful. A side by side comparison would find testmasters/blueprint/Manhattan to be significantly better however.

And yes, I do have a wee bit of experience with all of these companies considering I've been teaching the test for 6 years, took Testmasters, was hired by Kaplan, and many of my students come to me after having unsuccessfully taken a private prep course.

[TommyK]

"people who know nothing about test prep companies?" what, you work for kaplan or something?

Usually when people put quotation marks around something, it's a direct quotation. I didn't say that. I said "the test prep company", not "nothing about test prep companies". Kaplan Test Prep is a line of business of Kaplan. I can see that being confusing though.

you don't have to take my word for it. go look at online reviews. personally, i've only had a couple friends who took the kaplan course, but they came back with problems that were "similar to real ones". (their format was similar to the easier real problems)

I don't work for them, but am a believer that test prep results is largely determined by what you put into it, not one method over another. I took them and it worked well enough for me. As for your friends, I don't know what to tell you - you're likely confused or your friends are confused. The test prep material from the test prep classes are administered questions.

if you must take a course, go take blueprint, testmasters, or powerscore. they get decent results. if like me, you don't have 2000$ to drop on a course, go get real practice tests. they're about 25$ for 10, and actually helpful.

Not a bad idea. Self-study works for many. It doesn't work for all.

[LexLeon]

I haven't read everything on this page so my post my be redundant; but:

Kaplan, currently, uses only official LSAT material. The test you're going to be taking online may be Test #36, because that's the test they've repeatedly administered (in person, on paper) for free in the past years. I also spoke with a rep yesterday who confirmed that will be the case on Feb. 25th when the administer an exam at my university. The 5th multiple choice section is of their own design, however.

I would suggest you take a test on paper, not on a computer screen. But certainly either could only help. Also, you could always send an email to a Kaplan rep to confirm the answers to your questions. It appears that, according to the posts on this thread, a great number are people are mistaken or confused with regard to this topic.

[anom217]

Thanks for all the replies.

btw, is the actual LSAT always done on paper? No proctored computerized test option like the GRE?

[annyong]

I haven't read everything on this page so my post my be redundant; but:

Kaplan, currently, uses only official LSAT material. The test you're going to be taking online may be Test #36, because that's the test they've repeatedly administered (in person, on paper) for free in the past years. I also spoke with a rep yesterday who confirmed that will be the case on Feb. 25th when the administer an exam at my university. The 5th multiple choice section is of their own design, however.

I would suggest you take a test on paper, not on a computer screen. But certainly either could only help. Also, you could always send an email to a Kaplan rep to confirm the answers to your questions. It appears that, according to the posts on this thread, a great number are people are mistaken or confused with regard to this topic.

I attended a free Kaplan event as my first LSAT diagnostic and it was Test #36 and had an experimental. I found it helpful to take it in a real test setting with a proctor, but you can pretty much ditch after you've taken the test because when they "go over a few answers" they pretty much just try to sell Kaplan and their method to you. I don't know how the online one will be, but yes, the actual LSAT will be on paper and there is no GRE-like computer version.

[marsdentromba]

If you have the chance to take a real, proctored LSAT at a Kaplan event, definitely do it.

Also, bring your own real preptest if they try to administer one of theirs.

I remember taking a practice Kaplan LSAT a few years back, and the very first question on the test was parallel reasoning with formal logic.

They don't use real questions, and it generally has a different feel from real tests.

[iamrobk]

Their prep test isn't that old. It's from 2007 when I took it. It's an actual administered LSAT but with a section from an older test in place of its experimental since LSAT doesn't release the experimental. I liked taking the diagnostic at Kaplan. They have somebody that comes in and calls 5 minute warning and calls time. It got me ready for the process.

Yeah, I took a Kaplan class and while it wasn't the greatest (I went from a 152 diagnostic to ~165, then studied on my own and got a 171 in October), it really did help me for the timing of the real LSAT a lot.

[Nelson]

I don't work for them, but am a believer that test prep results is largely determined by what you put into it, not one method over another.

TITCR /thread.

[Scotusnerd]

I don't work for them, but am a believer that test prep results is largely determined by what you put into it, not one method over another.

TITCR /thread.

Amen. The LSAT is worth big scholarship moneys, folks. How hard would YOU work for $30,000 a year for three years?