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I am currently strapped for cash but will be able to invest in LSAT learning material in a few months. I am hoping to take the LSAT sometime next year. I have a lot of downtime at work but don't have any LSAT books nor can I really watch videos (with any diligence anyway) and I believe I work better with pen and paper anyway. I'm wary of wasting PT's before grasping the fundamentals so I don't want to go that route.

Judging from my one untimed PT, my main weaknesses are doing Logic Games faster (accuracy is there, but I take way too long with the questions) and for LR and RC, understanding why the questions I got wrong were wrong and why the right answer is right.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

The most bang for your buck prep wise is probably the LSAT Trainer which is $50 and the 10 actual LSAT books which are $20 each. That's what I'd probably start with if you're strapped for cash.

If you have a bit more $$$ you can also get PTs 72-80 which are about $8 each as well as some other prep books. Manhattan and Powerscore are both pretty popular, and so is 7sage but a package that will last from now until when you'll take the test will be pretty expensive.

Slippin' Jimmy wrote:The most bang for your buck prep wise is probably the LSAT Trainer which is $50 and the 10 actual LSAT books which are $20 each. That's what I'd probably start with if you're strapped for cash.

If you have a bit more $$$ you can also get PTs 72-80 which are about $8 each as well as some other prep books. Manhattan and Powerscore are both pretty popular, and so is 7sage but a package that will last from now until when you'll take the test will be pretty expensive.

+1; also, be on the lookout for clean PTs on ebay/craigslist. I was able to get close to every PT out there for about $80, iirc

Slippin' Jimmy wrote:The most bang for your buck prep wise is probably the LSAT Trainer which is $50 and the 10 actual LSAT books which are $20 each. That's what I'd probably start with if you're strapped for cash.

If you have a bit more $$$ you can also get PTs 72-80 which are about $8 each as well as some other prep books. Manhattan and Powerscore are both pretty popular, and so is 7sage but a package that will last from now until when you'll take the test will be pretty expensive.

-1 Bought the trainer, and feel like I wasted $50. Personally hated the teaching method, and found it to be way over-hyped. I strongly recommend the LG Bible trilogy. Probably like $120 on amazon, but worth it. After that, buy the Official LSAT series as cash becomes available. I'm a big fan of Manhattan LR, too, but I don't think it's necessary, just a little different perspective compared to Powerscore.

Platopus wrote:

Slippin' Jimmy wrote:The most bang for your buck prep wise is probably the LSAT Trainer which is $50 and the 10 actual LSAT books which are $20 each. That's what I'd probably start with if you're strapped for cash.

If you have a bit more $$$ you can also get PTs 72-80 which are about $8 each as well as some other prep books. Manhattan and Powerscore are both pretty popular, and so is 7sage but a package that will last from now until when you'll take the test will be pretty expensive.

-1 Bought the trainer, and feel like I wasted $50. Personally hated the teaching method, and found it to be way over-hyped. I strongly recommend the LG Bible trilogy. Probably like $120 on amazon, but worth it. After that, buy the Official LSAT series as cash becomes available. I'm a big fan of Manhattan LR, too, but I don't think it's necessary, just a little different perspective compared to Powerscore.

Funny, I found the LG Bible to be a big disappointment while I found the Trainer to be a big help on LR and RC, especially in the beginning. Different strokes I guess. Regardless, the best overall program is IMHO 7Sage, but that doesn't really go well with OPs situation since it is relatively expensive when compared to book options.

You should look for PDFs of old tests on the internet. Through legal sources only of course.

These 7Sage videos are free: https://www.youtube.com/user/7sagelsat/videos

And then there was this one guy in an earlier thread selling his old preptests for pretty cheap.

MarkinKansasCity wrote:You should look for PDFs of old tests on the internet. Through legal sources only of course.

RE: this. obviously I'm not a lawyer, and as such, don't understand the intricacies of copyright law. So how does that work - is it legal to download PDFs of tests from free sources? Are certain free sources more legal than others? Does torrent vs straight download make a difference?

Slippin' Jimmy wrote:

Platopus wrote:

Slippin' Jimmy wrote:The most bang for your buck prep wise is probably the LSAT Trainer which is $50 and the 10 actual LSAT books which are $20 each. That's what I'd probably start with if you're strapped for cash.

If you have a bit more $$$ you can also get PTs 72-80 which are about $8 each as well as some other prep books. Manhattan and Powerscore are both pretty popular, and so is 7sage but a package that will last from now until when you'll take the test will be pretty expensive.

-1 Bought the trainer, and feel like I wasted $50. Personally hated the teaching method, and found it to be way over-hyped. I strongly recommend the LG Bible trilogy. Probably like $120 on amazon, but worth it. After that, buy the Official LSAT series as cash becomes available. I'm a big fan of Manhattan LR, too, but I don't think it's necessary, just a little different perspective compared to Powerscore.

Funny, I found the LG Bible to be a big disappointment while I found the Trainer to be a big help on LR and RC, especially in the beginning. Different strokes I guess. Regardless, the best overall program is IMHO 7Sage, but that doesn't really go well with OPs situation since it is relatively expensive when compared to book options.

Third differing opinion. RC and LR improved significantly from the LSAT Trainer both in consistency and speed. LG Bible took me from -4 starting point to -0 in under two weeks. Granted, I probably could have gotten there on my own in LG with drilling (especially given my starting point), but the book helped give me a framework to develop my own method for games.