Rating:  Summary: Best LSAT prepbook on the market Review: If you are having trouble with the games section of the LSAT this is the book for you. It has the most comprehensive coverage of the games section and is extremely helpful. I read another prep book and took a practice LSAT. My score was 148. After using this prep book and some other practice exams I was practice testing at 168. This is a must buy book.
Rating:  Summary: Good Springboard Review: If you're just starting out to study for the test then you could do worse than by reading this book. Although it does get progressively less useful, especially in the games section. I'm leaning toward the realization that almost no book can effectively break down how to solve logic games. However, I think this book really helped me with arguments. It basically outlined the distractors and logical fallacies. Utlimately this book was a heck of a lot better than the Princeton Review book. I haven't really looked at the Kaplan book. However, I think this book was solid, but it does have a few typos. Oh yeah, you might as well use the CD as a coaster. It's just a horrible rehash of things in the book in a really old school presentation.
Rating:  Summary: Not the best for a lot of reasons Review: I picked up this book because I heard it was better than Kaplan's. It's not. A lot of the advice they give is bad, and some of it is downright ridiculous. Ignore the writing sample? Always skip one entire logic game? What are they thinking?! In addition, the edition I have is quite poorly edited. I bought the eBook from Amazon... maybe the hard copy is better. In my edition, chaper 3--the reading comp chapter--was titled "Games"; in one of the games in chapter 1, the seven entities were G, H, L, O, P, S, and U, and one of the answer choices was N. The games also use vague language that the real LSAT questions never use--in the same game mentioned before, one rule was that two entities should be "exactly two spaces apart." This can be interpreted either as there being two available spaces between the entities, or as one entity being two spaces over from the other, with a single entity in between separating them. These are mistakes and ambiguities that no good prep book should have.Also, they take questions from LSAT PrepTests, which means that if you use this book before taking any real PrepTests, you won't be able to take a lot of those tests under "actual conditions," because you will recognize specific material, therefore falsely affecting your score and your timing. Sure, practicing on "real" material is great, and if you don't plan on taking any PrepTests, seeing the material in this way is fine. However, taking a lot of real LSAT PrepTests is ESSENTIAL to any good course of LSAT preparation, and by using this book, you are seriously hurting your ability to do so. The book avoids a 1-star rating because it does include an actual PrepTest, and some of its strategies are sound. But for the most part, this book is sloppy and poorly thought out. You'd be better off getting Kaplan's yearly guide and, of course, 10 More Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests. Kaplan gives you a good intro to the material, and some decent, if not great, simulated questions and PrepTests they wrote themselves. Read their strategies, warm up on their problems, then start going after the real PrepTests. Kaplan's LSAT 180 is also very good if you are doing well already and want to break into the 170s. As for this book, it was a big disappointment.
Rating:  Summary: Good Book Review: My mistake was to take a Get Prepped tutoring class. Don't do it!!!!!!!!
Rating:  Summary: Best LSAT study guide Review: I used this book in conjunction with two "10 real LSAT" books and scored in the 99th percentile. This book is awesome. Not only does it break down each section, but it provides the building blocks needed to excel on the LSAT.
Rating:  Summary: Some strengths, some weaknesses Review: After reading great reviews of this book, I used it to start my LSAT studying. I was happy with the first half of the "Games" section, as it gave me useful tips for diagramming and using symbols. But by the time I reached the end of that section I was thoroughly frustrated, and ended up using other books to finish my studying. I had two main problems with the book. First, it does not offer complete explanations of every answer choice. For example, if the answer to a question is "B," they might only explain choices A and B, with no explanation of why C, D, and E are wrong. For complicated problems, I often had to spend a lot of additional time trying to figure out for myself why certain answers were wrong. The further into the book I got, the more this seemed to happen, and the more frustrating it became. Second, many of the questions (especially in the ever-important Games section) were not really reflective of the questions on the actual test. (I would recommend that everyone studying for this test use "Official LSAT Preptests: 10 Actual." Practicing the actual test periodically will give you a much better sense of the real types of questions.) Many types of questions studied in the "Master the LSAT" were actually harder than the ones I encountered on any real LSAT, and left me feeling defeated. The effort I spent getting through these overly difficult sections turned out to be a total waste of time. In addition, the book uses questions from real LSATs in each practice section...but these are taken directly from the LSATs you can buy for yourself to review (as mentioned above). So every time you work through the practice problems, you run the risk of exposing yourself to a problem you will encounter later when trying to take a timed, full-length test from "Official LSAT Preptests." (To be fair, I do not know whether or not other publishers get their "real" questions this way.) This would be less frustrating if the book's original questions were of the same quality as the Law School Admissions Council's questions, but they were not. After awhile I could tell without looking whether a question was a "real LSAT" question or a "Master the LSAT"-created question. The latter were often poorly worded and confusing, where the real LSAT questions are always polished and unambiguous. In the end, I did get some valuable information and practice from this book, but had to use it in conjunction with other books. This book did a better job than others of explaining how and why to use different symbols and diagrams. I especially recommend "Official LSAT Preptests," and I also found parts of "Kaplan LSAT 180" helpful. In the week before my test, I found myself at the library scanning a bunch of different books, as each has something to offer but none seems to be perfect.
Rating:  Summary: Complete Study Guide Review: The CD-ROM is not as user friendly and interactive as it should be, but the book itself is an excellent tool for preparing for the LSAT. The logic games section is the best that I've seen - and I purchased 4 prep books. If you are looking for 1 book to buy to help you get ready - this should be the one. The tests, strategies and organization of the book are easy to follow. Buy this book with a book of prep tests, and you should be good to go. The only drawback is that the book does not cover the newer "principle" questions in the logical reasoning. Otherwise, there is plenty of detail.
Rating:  Summary: Not as helpful as Kaplan's book Review: This book just wasn't well organized or clear. It doesn't offer concise strategies or easy-to-understand/implement strategies. It spends too much time going over "warm-ups" and not enough time going over acutal LSAT questions.
Rating:  Summary: Read this book twice! Review: I purchased the Kaplan book with the CD-ROM and I honestly feel like it was a COMPLETE waste of money. This book THOROUGHLY explains all the scored sections. I recommend this book along with the Actual PrepTests.
Rating:  Summary: Skip the prep course and get this book Review: If you are taking the LSAT, then you need to buy this book. Don't bother with a Kaplan course. Instead, get this and some practice tests (10 Real LSATs) and study on your own. The prep courses use their own books that are not nearly as good as this one, and thoughout the book Kolby tells you why. The books for the prep courses want to try and make you feel like you're getting the inside scoop, so they will tell you the "best" way to do things. Usually, these are gimicks that don't work. Kolby, on the other hand, recognizes the fact that people learn and work differently, so he includes various techniques for doing each section. The book is full of practice tests in which he walks you though the answers, which is extremely helpful. This book is also extremely flexible; if your goal is a better-than average score, Kolby shows you techniques for skipping the hardest problems and saving time. Most books stop here, but Kolby goes further and includes techniques for achieving the high scores for which you cannot skip questions. I took the LSAT in June and I was very satisfied with my level of preparation thanks to this book.
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