Kaplan really that bad? Forum

[d0rklord]

I know I shouldn't waste my money on the course but....

Someone who doesn't need their Kaplan materials anymore said I could have the "explanations" to the test...

Is that going to be a useful resource? Or is what they teach going to only set me back? Sometimes it's nice to know a detailed reason why I got a LR question wrong (like why the answer I chose was wrong, etc etc)

THANKS!

[lilhugsy24]

You can just buy one of the manhattan books (if the explanations are expensive) and you can get the code to use their online forums for answers to any question. They already have a database of expalnations for a lot of the questions that people miss and if one that you missed isn't explained then you can post the question and someone will answer it. It's very useful. HTH

[kaseyb002]

The Kaplan explanations are okay...They may be good for starting out but when you start getting into real nitty gritty questions I think the Manhattan forums (which are open to everyone) are a better route. Some of the Kaplan explanations are plain awful though and totally miss the point.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

The Kaplan materials are actually pretty good, in terms of how they breakdown the question types for LR, LG, and RC. That said, the explanations are more iffy. Many of the explanations aren't bad, but some are simply inadequate.

[flippacious]

I agree with the above. I took a Kaplan course and have all their explanations. If the person is just going to send you the PDFs of answers to all PTs for free, it might be worth hanging onto. Their explanations are really hit or miss because they're written by a lot of different people. Some are great. Some are absolutely terrible. But Manhattan's forums are generally better in my opinion, particularly this link: http://www.manhattanlsat.com/lsat-test-explanations.cfm

[Cerebro]

I bought a Kaplan online course a while back (before I found out about TLS), and the only thing I think I got any value from was their PDFs of all the preptests and their Mastery and Timing Practice books. As others have pointed out, the explanations are ok, but bordering on mediocre, imo. They are pretty funny to read sometimes, though, on account of the silly humor they throw in once in a while and their use of "Au contraire," at the start of every single incorrect answer that does the opposite of what was requested in the question stem. That said, their explanations probably are much better than nothing, but if you are planning to use LGB/RCB, you'll find the Kaplan explanations to be subpar.

[criminaltheory]

^what cerebro said
I did the vast bulk of my studying with my friend's kaplan books, only the mastery & timing practice ones though. I got an understanding of the questions using some quick-study guide but spent most time focusing on the areas I knew I was lacking, and the Kaplan books made it pretty simple to find and attack particular types of questions. Their explanations were hit or miss, I didn't really use them much and I'm not a fan of their teaching method either. Glad I didn't take the course, actually.

[d0rklord]

thanks guys!

[Ti Malice]

Spend your precious time reading better material. Kaplan's explanations can be awful, especially for more challenging questions, and their classifications can be equally horrible. As far as I know, they still fail to distinguish between Sufficient Assumption and Necessary Assumption questions. Pitiful.

[cahwc12]

I have found the kaplan test explanations to be a good resource for a second opinion on answers. Various people seem to have authored them, and some of the explanations for LR and RC are actually awesome. A lot of them are kind of specious though.

I would take them if they are free and use them against manhattan's forum explanations. Sometimes they give different (and better) reasons why certain questions are wrong.

I'd say about 10-15% of the time I use kaplan's explanations, and about 85-90% of the time I use Manhattan's. Still, it's nice to have just for that occasional question I'm not satisfied with on MLSAT's board.