Found RC help!!! Forum

[legends159]

Great Review Dayday! Thanks for the insight.

LGB really doesn't go in depth on grouping games and that is a problem especially binary games which seem easy but take time to actually do because most questions are local and require hypotheticals. I'm interested in seeing how the EK strategy could speed things up.

I'm just bumping to see if MLB has a final review on the RC book? It must be a pretty solid book though because it's selling like hotcakes.

I wonder how their LR book would fare.

[rolen27]

Is the Examkrackers study guide just all three examkracker books (RC, LR, LG) combined or is it a completely different book

[Tex_Mex13]

Is the Examkrackers study guide just all three examkracker books (RC, LR, LG) combined or is it a completely different book

Yes (it's combined). It comes with all three books in one box...like a DVD series in a sleeve.

[LSATonMe]

Anyone go through the ExamKrackers LR book? Comparison to PS? i've only found one review on this book on Amazon, and the individual says it's "more simple" than the PS LR bible? that sucks because i think the PS LR bible is pretty straightforward and would not want a simplified approach to LR. Would appreciate any info on this book and it's relative usefulness.

[MLBrandow]

I just posted a review of the Examkrackers' RC book. It is located in the second post in this thread for ease of access.

I hope it is found to be helpful for those considering its purchase.

[LockBox]

I just posted a review of the Examkrackers' RC book. It is located in the second post in this thread for ease of access.

I hope it is found to be helpful for those considering its purchase.

Hey MLB, nice review. I've bought the book as well and think it's helping so far. The only thing that has bugged me so far is the actually physical material of the book. I think they could of went with something that was a little more pencil-friendly, but otherwise your assessment seems right on.

[uclabruins]

boo, so the Examkrackers RC book is out of stock everywhere. So, I called Examkrackers just now and the rep told me that they're working on the 2nd edition (due sometime in June). Meanwhile they aren't printing any of the 1st edition at all. I wonder why they're doing this? They could easily print the 1st edition while editing the book. I guess tough luck for the June takers who wanted this book but haven't gotten it yet.

[Diana341]

...

[LSATonMe]

I also bought it on Amazon about a week or two ago with an expected ship date of April 1. So, if Examkrackers knows something they better let their buyers in on it too.

boo, so the Examkrackers RC book is out of stock everywhere. So, I called Examkrackers just now and the rep told me that they're working on the 2nd edition (due sometime in June). Meanwhile they aren't printing any of the 1st edition at all. I wonder why they're doing this? They could easily print the 1st edition while editing the book. I guess tough luck for the June takers who wanted this book but haven't gotten it yet.

Are you sure? I just bought it off of examkrackers.com like an hour ago...

[uclabruins]

boo, so the Examkrackers RC book is out of stock everywhere. So, I called Examkrackers just now and the rep told me that they're working on the 2nd edition (due sometime in June). Meanwhile they aren't printing any of the 1st edition at all. I wonder why they're doing this? They could easily print the 1st edition while editing the book. I guess tough luck for the June takers who wanted this book but haven't gotten it yet.

Are you sure? I just bought it off of examkrackers.com like an hour ago...

well that's what the rep told me, call them on their 1800 number listed on their webpage, i don't see any reason why the rep would lie to me but then again, why haven't they taken it off their online store?

[uclabruins]

uhh okay nevermind, i just called them again and this time the rep told me that all the LSAT books ARE IN STOCK. He thinks the earlier rep confused my question with the MCAT verbal book. Maybe I'll cancel my amazon pre-order but damn does examkracker charge an arm and leg for shipping

Edit: Called amazon and they said that they're expecting more copies soon too, so I guess the story about them not printing anymore isn't really true

[sanam]

Can someone post a review of LR and LG sections of Examkrackers, is it any better than the twin Bibles and how much do they charge for shipping.

[uclabruins]

Can someone post a review of LR and LG sections of Examkrackers, is it any better than the twin Bibles and how much do they charge for shipping.

MLBrandow posted a nice review of the RC book at the beginning of this thread
Examkrackers charges the full $29.99 for the book (Amazon listed it at 20) and cheapest shipping they have is $10 (all the way to $97 for next day ), this is for Cali it might be different shipping to other places

[LockBox]

I thought i'd post here since this is RC related.

I have a question with regards to the reading passages on the LSAT...how much time do you guys take to read and make notes in the passage before looking at the questions? As i'm going through the ExamKrakers RC book, i'm finding that i'm taking at least a good 5 minutes to read/note everything in the passage. Should I try and speed up? My accuracy right now is not that bad, i'm usually missing 1/3 problems. But i'm also trying to keep each passage in under 10 minutes. Anyone have any thoughts/insights for me?

THanks

[BioLaw]

I usually read the RC passages in 3 or 4 (at the very most) minutes and only make a few notations. It just takes too much time to read all the answer choices and refer back to the passage when necessary to justify spending more time than that. Speeding up on the reading gives you more time to pick through the tricky language in the questions, which in my opinion is time better spent.

[LockBox]

Thanks for the reply...yeah, i'm just trying to find balance between reading carefully enough and making a fair amount of notes, and having time to read through the problems and refer back to the text when needed. It's great when I take 6 minutes on the passage and breeze through the problems and get them all correct-it makes it seem like taking the extra time to let the passage sink in is worth it.

However, when I get stuck on a problem or two and time is quickly running out I question the utility of taking so long annotating the passage when I have to refer back to it and/or think about the problems in great detail.

Still trying to figure this thing out.

[MLBrandow]

Thanks for the reply...yeah, i'm just trying to find balance between reading carefully enough and making a fair amount of notes, and having time to read through the problems and refer back to the text when needed. It's great when I take 6 minutes on the passage and breeze through the problems and get them all correct-it makes it seem like taking the extra time to let the passage sink in is worth it.

However, when I get stuck on a problem or two and time is quickly running out I question the utility of taking so long annotating the passage when I have to refer back to it and/or think about the problems in great detail.

Still trying to figure this thing out.

LockBox,

I placed in bold the problems I saw with your post.

This may come as a shock (it did for me), but you should NOT be reading the passage carefully when you are parsing. The reason you parse is so you don't have to absorb any of the material. Trust your outlining and parsing abilities enough to gloss over the information on your first reading. Try to only spend a couple minutes on the passage (even less if it's an easy thesis passage with a clear main point in the first paragraph).

Second, it bothers me that you said you "refer to the text only as needed." This is probably the reason that you are missing 1/3 of the questions. First, you likely take your time trying to read, remember and note everything in the passage. Then, you try to fly through the questions based on your memory first and parsing second. Many to most of the questions in RC are very technical questions, but they are also very plainly written in the text if you go back and read them. Now, if you can go back and read them and easily pick out the correct answer (most of the time), what sense does it make to read very intently the first time, when all you need to do is have a mark so that you can go back and read it when asked about it? Time spent reading the passage for information rather than content (key words, organization, main point, etc) is simply wasted time unless your memory is completely accurate and attuned to seemingly trivial details as you come across them.


The last part I put in bold is where you correctly identify the problem. Sure, reading carefully works on easy passages, but RC passages that are difficult in content are going to slow you down. By just hunting down key words, main point, etc, you are omitting the problem you face with the difficulty of the words in the passage. Further, you are far less likely to be caught in "distractor" answer choices and word traps that mention unrelated details.



It's important to note that you shouldn't be completely skimming the passage. You are still reading over it. But you don't care what the information says. You don't care what the types of meme complexes are or what Professor Scanlon thinks about jellyfish hunting. All you care is the location of the information, so that with each question you get, you know exactly where to read the answer.

Then, your only challenge is to match the ordered words in the passage with the sometimes differently ordered words in the correct answer choice.


I hope you find this helpful.

[LockBox]

You bet your butt I found that helpful, thanks!

Okay, good things to note as I go through the RC passages. I guess my main worry was if I didn't read the passage carefully enough, even while noting where things were, I still would take far too long to hunt down each answer. I guess what I need to do is start breaking down the passages better and noting what I find more coherently.

In the meantime i'm going to take your advice, MLB, and try to cut down my reading time and see what changes it brings about. Thanks for the insight!

[riccardo426]

I had ordered the RC book on amazon and it hadn't arrived in a month. So I cancelled my order and got it from the website, even though it was 20 dollars more at least it's in my lap now.

Definitely a great book. I like the way they break it down by passage structure, not topic like Kaplan does.

My only beefs are the paper (I like writing and then erasing; it appears that all marks will be final ) and the dumb sun guy (wtf?)

[Tex_Mex13]

the dumb sun guy (wtf?)

That's the Exam Kracker!

[riccardo426]

haha. by the looks of him hes been kracking more than exams...

[sanam]

Hi guys

I was wondering if someone had both the twin PS bibles and the full Examkracker package, of the two which would be more beneficial to start with the PS bibles or the Examkracker material. If someone has had experience with both the materials let me know which one is more preferable.

thanx

[Tex_Mex13]

Hi guys

I was wondering if someone had both the twin PS bibles and the full Examkracker package, of the two which would be more beneficial to start with the PS bibles or the Examkracker material. If someone has had experience with both the materials let me know which one is more preferable.

thanx

Hey Sanam,

I have both of the packages you are talking about. It's tough to say which one is the absolute better prep book because they both have advantages.

I would recommend getting the RC book 1st of all. (See Brandon's Review)

Second, I would say get BOTH the PS Bible and the EK Analytical reasoning book. After going through both of these books, I feel like no type of logic game or rule will be able to take me by surprise. If you don't/can't buy both, I would recommend the PS Bible only because they have "official" LSAT games. Although from what I hear, the present day games are easier? Also, check the first page of this thread for a brief review of the LG comparison of EK vs PS.

As far as LR goes, I put down the PS Bible halfway through, and just worked the EK LR book completely through. Don't get me wrong, the PS book was helpful, but I started to like the EK book more and just focused in on that book alone. I will probably pick up the PS book again, but in the meantime I am content with what the EK book had to offer. Because I have not finished the PS Bible, I am unaware of all of the strategies that is contains so saying it is definitely better would not really make sense. I will say though, that the EK LR has given me some very good strategies for attacking certain questions in a timely manner.





PS: The little cracker guy does get pretty annoying after going through all of the EK books! So be warned!!!

[sanam]

hey Day11 thanx for the comparison it was helpful. The only thing is I am not sure if I have enough time to go throug both the Bibles and EK material for the June lsat, may if I had to retake for Oct it might help.

[chosun1]

This is my first time posting in my the forum and I thought I offer my two cents, since the forum has given me so much in terms of info for the law school process. So to pay it forward, I wanted to write a review of the EK vs. PS books. Please feel free to comment on any of the techniques mentioned in my review.

Reading Comprehension:

EK > PS

PS seems like they wrote this at the last minute and they classify every one of their techniques like the logical reasoning book, which is very rigid and inflexibile. EK does a better job at classifying the questions and passages in a practical way. For example, the EK classifies one type of passage as a Enlightenment passage and makes you mark the passage for a core question, various viewpoints, which are most certainly going to be asked on the LSAT. Plus, their reading comprehension has the most practice out of the its whole study package which are taken from actual prep tests. However, marking the whole passage like EK does is time consuming, so I resolved to actually read some of the questions beforehand to see what I should actually look out for i.e purpose of the 2nd par.
I used to think I was very good at reading comprehension passages (it’s really like SAT rc passages), but LSAT made me revisit how to attack this section, especially with the new comparative passage. These two books cannot instill in a LSAT test taker their own unique style of diagramming passages to extract as much info in the least time possible. I found its better to make your own style of diagramming apart from these books.

Logical Reasoning:

PS> EK

I give this to PS for the simple fact that its formal logic section is much more developed than EK's and EK'S book here has some flaws. For example, its sufficient assumption section, which PS would classify as justify questions, has a major typo. That being said, the EK book introduction of the unique concept shift concept, really made me change the way I look at weaken, flaw, and necessary assumption questions.

Analytical Reasoning:

EK>PS

Some of you might profoundly disagree with me here but I find that the PS approach is a little bit unpractical. Everyone knows that the key to the logic games is drawing a precise and informative diagram and I believe EK has the better diagram. I don’t know about everybody, but putting work for everything under the grid rlly helps me to knock out universals quickly instead of searching across the whole page for previous work. Plus, PS pure sequential setup sucks and it doesn’t have a way to tackle table games (some of you might not know this setup) with simple checks and x’s.

Conc:
If you are strapped for cash, buy the LGB, LRB, and EK rc, and if you are not, buy both sets of 3 books minus PS’s reading comprehension. But wait a minute, didn’t I overall score EK better than PS? True, but what I realized is that it is much easier to start with the PS books and transition to the EK books than it would be for me to do it backwards. PS gives you a much better base to start with and selectively integrate EK’s techniques.