Next 10 Actual, Official LSAT Preptests

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Summary: THE LATEST and the MOST REPRESENTATIVE LSATs
Review: I own all three of the Law School Admission Council's "10 AO LSAT" books. (The first is "10 AO LSATS", followed by "10 More AO LSATs" and now this, "10 Next AO LSATs."). All three books contain offcially released, actual LSATs. However, this is the one to buy. The tests are newer; moreover, it is clear to me that the "games and "logic" sections of the current LSAT, though ostensibly the same as when first introduced in 1994, have been made easier. If you just read the first book, you may be needlessly scared and discouraged. With this book and to a lesser extent the second book, you will at least not have unjustified anxiety. This is still a TOUGH test, but but no longer the nightmare it was back in the mid 90s.

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Summary: Ten most recently release LSATs from previous years
Review: All this book is is ten old LSAT tests and answer keys. There is a short description of the test at the begining of the book, but no study materials other than the tests and keys. And no explanations of why answers are correct. If you have looked at a sample LSAT test then you already know that learning facts is not going to help. The test mostly goes on logic and uses puzzles and short questions to test your logic. There is also a reading comprehension section. So studying isn't a big issue because there is nothing to memorize. However taking practice tests will familiarize you with the test and reaquaint you with the standardized test not seen since highschool. So this is an excellent way to prepare for the LSAT.

I recommend getting one of these packages of ten LSAT tests or a triple pack. I have looked through other study books at the bookstore and I don't feel that they are that helpful: Practice tests tend to be dumbed down compared to old LSATs and the study strategies laid out in the books I looked through were not that profound. In terms of having an explanation of why an answer is correct it may be better to just look at the question and the correct answer and figure it out for yourself. This way you are thinking through things as you will when you are actually taking the test. (If you want explanations of answers then LSAC also puts out triple preps, in which some of the answers are explained. The cost per test for the triple preps is comparable here.)

Basically here you are getting 10 old LSATS and answer keys. There are also two other similar books (10 Actual Official LSATS and 10 More Actual, Official LSATs). Out of the three this one (Next 10 Actual, Official LSATS) is most recent, so if you are only getting one then get this one.

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Summary: Used all three AO books - glad I didn't skip this one
Review: My LSAT prep consisted of doing pretty much every practice test from all three of the AO books, as well as skimming Kaplan LSAT 180. It was an insanely boring way to prepare, but I got good results, so I suppose it was worth it. ;) I did the tests in chronological order, figuring that it was best to save for last the tests which most resembled the one I would be taking for real. (In case you're curious, I started taking the practice tests in mid-June and took the real test on October 2nd.)

This may just be a function of the order in which I took the practice tests, but I found the games in this book harder than the games in the previous two. In fact, I was pretty freaked out by the fact that my scores on the games section started dropping as I made my way into book 3.

The games in this book are slightly different from the ones in the others, and I think I would have been surprised by the games on the Oct. 2nd test if I hadn't bought this book as well as the other two. I had learned how to do the old ones, but the new ones threw me a bit. Luckily, I got familiar with the newer types of games, which (along with a bit of help from the Kaplan book) enabled me to solve them on the real test.

Doing all of the practice tests (older and newer) worked best for me. But if you only have a couple of weeks to study rather than a few months, my advice would be to focus on the newer ones, or at least to do a mixture of the older and newer ones. Good luck! :)

Rating:
Summary: any real test is a good test
Review: The Next 10 LSATs book is a decent buy, but suffers from the age-old fault that there are absolutely zero explanations for why the answers are what they are, and absolutely no insight into the theory of the test, or techniques to use.
If you have the money and time, buy (and take) all three 10 Prep books. If you only want to buy one or two books, you should pass on the Next 10 AOLPT.
A better way to go is to buy the 10 More Actual Official LSAT PrepTests (the book published prior to the Next 10) and also buy Get Prepped's explanations to the 10 More AOLPT. That way you don't have to figure out for yourself every single question.
It is true that the LSAT games are easier than they were (the test is still a monster though). But once every three or four LSATs they will recycle a game type from the early 1990s. People who never practice with those older tests (Found in 10 Actual Official LPT), get totally blindsided because they never saw one. So you may want to consider buying the 10 Actual Official LPT instead of the Next 10, if you want to cover all your bases. Might as well practice with the harder old stuff and then you can handle the less complex new stuff.