Taking two classes at once Forum

[hahangi]

Hi,

I have a scholarship that will allow me to take both a blueprint course and a kaplan course over summer. If I don't take it, the class will go to waste, but is it a good idea to take both classes at once? should i just go with the blueprint course since it generally has better reviews?

[jimmyjamXII]

Take both, that way you could possibly see two ways to do the same kinds of problems and find out which is better for you.

[hahangi]

If they have different methods, would that throw me off though? I had a friend who took a course with Kaplan and she scored 163 on her diagnostic and after her classes with Kaplan, she could barely score a 154. She said they would make her take all these additional notes that confused her basically.

[VasaVasori]

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[bp shinners]

Don't take both. They're going to cover material at different times with vastly different methods (at least for LG), and you'll confuse yourself. We're also going to give you more than enough homework to fill up your LSAT study time.

I'd obviously recommend taking our class (Blueprint), but I'm biased. If you have any questions, shoot me a PM.

[99.9luft]

Kaplan is worhtless. Go with BP.

[Micdiddy]

Kaplan is worhtless. Go with BP.

This is basically true, though personally I can't see the harm in taking both. I mean, you can independently judge whether what Kaplan is telling you is worthwhile, and choose to ignore it, but might as well get the exposure right? I can't fathom how someone can actually get worse from a class unless they blindly follow it to a Tee even when it's clearly leading them astray.

I would recommend taking both and using your own filter to take what's good and ignore what's bad.

[MLBrandow]

hahangi,

The biggest problem I see with Kaplan is that their instructor requirements are only 163+ (90th percentile). I'm not sure you would really benefit from getting advice from an instructor who missed potentially 20% of the questions on his LSAT.

By comparison, blueprint's instructors are required to obtain at least 170 (98th percentile), which means they didn't miss more than 10% of the questions on their LSAT.

Kaplan also teaches mid-level strategies designed for the bell-curve. I've never taken Blueprint, but I know that they teach toward that upper score tier. You need entirely different strategies to get those top scores.

If that's the kind of score you're targeting, I think attending Kaplan's course will just be damaging to your prep.

I think you should attend the first class since it's free just to confirm what everyone else is telling you in this thread: go with the Blueprint course.

Good luck!

[TheColonel]

I'll join the chorus of people promoting Blueprint and Blueprint alone. I took the online class and it was very helpful for me and they did provide a ton of homework and even have some supplemental stuff if you can't get enough. Kaplan generally receives mediocre reviews around these parts and while it wouldn't cost you anything, it would be a significant time commitment that could probably be used more effectively doing your HW for Blueprint or simply taking your mind off the LSAT to avoid burnout.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the class.

[JasonR]

Do not bother with Kaplan. That time would be far better spent working BP's HW and supplemental sets, however they give them.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

I would recommend showing up to the first class for kaplan and get the study material. It can be very helpful for practicing particular question types and just allowing you to do a ton of extra practice.

I'll also add in my support for just taking one course, and that one course should probably be blueprint. The value of testprep classes rest on 1) the material used (AKA, the system they are teaching you) and 2) the teacher you have. Powerscore/blueprint/testmasters have better material than kaplan. While Kaplan does have some good teachers, it can definitely be more of a crapshoot since the score requirement is lower and the jobs are less competitive than at the three previously mentioned companies.

If your free pass can be used on a Kaplan Advanced course, that would be comparable to a Blueprint course. (Scoring requirement for teaching Kaplan advanced course is 99th percentile and the class composition is going to be students who are scoring in the 160s and 170s.) But I still think that Blueprint has better material.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

hahangi,

The biggest problem I see with Kaplan is that their instructor requirements are only 163+ (90th percentile). I'm not sure you would really benefit from getting advice from an instructor who missed potentially 20% of the questions on his LSAT.

By comparison, blueprint's instructors are required to obtain at least 170 (98th percentile), which means they didn't miss more than 10% of the questions on their LSAT.

Kaplan also teaches mid-level strategies designed for the bell-curve. I've never taken Blueprint, but I know that they teach toward that upper score tier. You need entirely different strategies to get those top scores.

If that's the kind of score you're targeting, I think attending Kaplan's course will just be damaging to your prep.

I think you should attend the first class since it's free just to confirm what everyone else is telling you in this thread: go with the Blueprint course.

Good luck!

Not trying to be nitpicky but a few things:
-I worked at Kaplan and my experience was that LSAT instructors had at least a 95th percentile score. To teach the Extreme course instructors must have a 95th percentile score and to teach the Advanced course instructors must have a 99th percentile score. I'm sure that 90th percentile scores are hired, but if it its a bigger city where there is more competition I would imagine that the typical person hired will have probably at least a 95th percentile score, since they want to have teachers who can teach multiple classes.
-A good teacher can "adjust" the material. Most of what Kaplan teaches is pretty much on par with powerscore. There are some differences (and while I usually prefer powerscore on those differences, in a few instances I liked Kaplan's approach better), and in the case of the difference being more aimed at the lower-scorer, it can be tweaked to make it work for someone who is PTing in the 170s. That's why it's important to have a good teacher. The advanced courses, at least at the center I taught, were filled with students who were scoring in the 170s (typically were smaller classes of around 10-12 students IIRC). I scored a 174 on the LSAT, but I didn't feel comfortable teaching the Advanced course because I thought it would be weird having probably at least a student or two averaging in the high 170s. I think I could help that person to do better on the test, but I would probably feel guilty that Kaplan was charging him or her for just the few helpful hints and strategies I could provide.

[CanadianWolf]

Two courses that use different methods may confuse more than help.