Reddit reviews The LSAT Trainer: A Remarkable Self-Study Guide For The Self-Driven Student
We found 14 Reddit comments about The LSAT Trainer: A Remarkable Self-Study Guide For The Self-Driven Student. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
> Well, I just saw this post and want to clear up a few things
Here is the original thread she is referring to. The suspicions/concerns raised there definitely have merit.
>not only did I teach the Binary Solution course at Columbia Law School (and subsequently at the College)
True, based on this article from Columbia's student paper in 1997: [LSAT Course Proves Helpful]
(http://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/columbia?a=d&d=cs19970528-01.2.18#)
> I was invited by the then-Dean of Minority Admissions (Dean V Amory) to provide the course at the law school after she saw the videos of my games algorithm
True, based on this flyer from CUNY:
> (a section I cracked long before most of today's companies existed).
??? Just makes you sound arrogant ??? A lot of companies have been around just as long as yours...
> Furthermore, BinSol is, and remains the ONLY complete and general solution for the LSAT, and has the only Casebook that completely explains the LSAT in one volume because it is a true Casebook (not just a collection of past LSAT questions). A Casebook contains a collection of typical and boundary cases organized along the lines of a theory of classification.
This sounds like gibberish. And Mike Kim would like to have a word with you about your book being the only book/course available that covers the entire LSAT in one volume (and his book is sitting at 4.5/5 stars on Amazon with over 160 reviews).
> I could go on in detail, but it's best to just see the best course at one of our free previews at NYU (next one is in Feb 13-14, RSVP here www.binarysolution.com) as for this thread it's clearly the product of competitors, and predictably culminates in a link to another prep course.
You market your course here and in the same sentence attack other people for doing the same?
> Our small, smart course has dealt with attacks since it's inception-- and for good reason -- it's still the simplest, most powerful solution to the LSAT, and reduces each question on the LSAT to a single, bright line, either-or adjudication. And we don't require that you identify the question either - because the method is based on a semantic deconstruction - so you learn to solve as you read. Which makes the approach more natural and Rapid than any other.
More gibberish. With no evidence. WTF is "bright line"? Why is it more natural? How is it more rapid?
> So get the facts first- hand of you are reading this, and when you read something about us make sure to cross-check (eg, read the filtered reviews on Yelp), cause test prep is big business, and companies are known to post in the blogosphere . Good luck !
You know sometimes people write bad reviews...a method won't work for everyone.
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After reading this post and reviewing Binary Solutions' website, everything about you and your company just feels off. Your writing would make me extremely wary of taking your course and of any claims you make.
My recommendations:
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All in all, this post/situation is just strange.
What's up dude. Took the LSAT in June. Went from a cold diagnostic of 154 to a 167. (Retaking in Sept for a 170+). Books I used/recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-study-self-driven/dp/0989081508/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539064&sr=8-1&keywords=lsat+trainer
https://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-Logic-Games-Powerscore-Preparation/dp/0988758660/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539126&sr=8-1&keywords=powerscore+logic+game+bible
https://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-LSAT-Logical-Reasoning-Bible/dp/0991299221/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539163&sr=8-1&keywords=powerscore+logic+reasoning+bible
Books I used but don't recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/PowerScore-LSAT-Reading-Comprehension-Bible/dp/099129923X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539188&sr=8-1&keywords=powerscore+reading+comprehension
Get your practice tests here (seriously, do 20+ under timed conditions while filling out LSAT bubble sheets):
https://www.amazon.com/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539233&sr=8-1&keywords=10+lsat+preptests
https://www.amazon.com/Actual-Official-PrepTests-Comparative-Reading/dp/0984636005/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1469539233&sr=8-3&keywords=10+lsat+preptests
Also, use https://7sage.com/
Sign up for a free account, and use their logic game explanations. They also have analytics that will track your progress and spit out analysis concerning where your weak areas are.
Good luck!
Much of the logic required for the test is shared among sections, so studying for one helps the others. Also, each section tends to require a slow progression because you are basically changing how you think, so a lot of people recommend intertwining the three to some extent.
Logic games are usually the quickest to improve on, so a lot of people start with more of a focus there. This allows you to shape your mind to LSAT faster and can help with the other sections. It also gives you a sense of progress and accomplishment.
Reading comprehension and logical reasoning are basically how well you pay attention to what you read and how you logically connect the provided information, so how fast and to what extent you pick those sections up depends on how well you build those skills. Sometimes that takes days to see drastic improvement (I had a student go from the mid-teens to the mid-twenties on RC in a day because he changed to a more effective approach), but often it takes months (usually because one is just practicing instead of changing what he or she is doing wrong).
First, I recommend that you take a practice test. You can access June 2007 for free. This will help you to determine what needs the most work. You will eventually want to buy at least some of the official preptests (all are good, but newer is more relevant and therefore more important):
Then, I suggest working with a set of prep books or online lessons. A lot of people like 7Sage, the LSAT Trainer, and PowerScore, but there are other options as well.
Three pieces of advice:
1.) Don't blow through all of your practice tests - even though there are 77 of them - a lot of people who start early tend to run out. That leads to:
2.) Don't take a lot of practice tests early. Your job is not to practice your current (bad) habits; instead, it is to identify what aspects of your approach you are doing wrong and make a conscious effort to fix them. You will get much more out of slow, untimed, exhaustive, reflective study than out of plowing through lots of practice tests expecting something to change. If you are not improving yourself, do not just continue to take practice tests - instead:
3.) Don't be afraid to look into a tutor. An experienced one can usually diagnose issues and sometimes that is more efficient and effective than working through it on your own, especially when you are stuck and struggling to improve. That can be expensive sometimes, but it can also be the reason why you get into your target school and/or the reason why you get a scholarship (my prep, many years ago, paid for itself many times over).
Good luck!
Here the LSAT Trainer, by Mike Kim, author of this post.ost.
You're at a 152, and you want to jump 13 points. You have a little over five months, and two breaks (Thanksgiving and winter/holiday break).
I know literally nothing about you except for what is included in that post, but I'd say you can improve 13 points (from a 152; would be a different story if you were at a 165 trying to improve 13 points to a 178) in five months.
I've gone through most of the legitimate books. From your post, I'm assuming you've only read/are reading the Powerscore books.
I'd recommend:
The LSAT Trainer,
Manhattan LSAT Logical Reasoning, and
The Blueprint for LSAT Logic Games
You said you're looking for vast LR improvement; if you can do that with the Logical Reasoning bible, great! That means you're smarter than I am, because I couldn't do it. MLSAT LR and The LSAT Trainer are significantly better at helping with LR. It's really not even comparable. As regards LG, PS LG is still very solid, relative ordering notwithstanding (I think PS calls it sequencing? the whole tree, with A > G/D etc.). I personally like Blueprint LG a little better, but with hard work, PS LG can definitely get you there.
There is a noticeable difference between MLSAT LR/LSAT Trainer and Powerscore LR.
After reading the books, you need to practice, and get familiar with individual question types/game types. How you want to do that is up to you, but I used the Cambridge LSAT bundle. It divides PTs 1-38 into question types for LR, game types for LG, and passage types for RC, so that you can focus on problem areas and work on proper habits/seeing patterns. It also has PTs 39-68 untouched, so you can just use them as regular tests. If you don't want to buy the whole shebang, I'd recommend you at least get the LR and LG bundles.
tl;dr: 152 to 165 in five months is definitely doable. Get The LSAT Trainer, Manhattan LSAT Logical Reasoning, the Blueprint for Logic Games (optional), and the Cambridge sets.
Here are the links to what I referenced in this post:
http://www.amazon.com/The-LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-driven/dp/0989081508/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377229180&sr=8-1&keywords=THE+LSAT+trainer
http://www.amazon.com/The-Blueprint-LSAT-Logic-Games/dp/0984219900/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377229201&sr=8-1&keywords=Blueprint+for+LSAT
http://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-Logical-Reasoning-Strategy-Edition/dp/193570785X/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377229214&sr=8-2&keywords=Manhattan+LR
http://www.cambridgelsat.com/bundles/ultimate-prep-package/
HTH
From a 147 to a 165 is a pretty large jump, but likely achievable if you have the time. So by next June or October? Perhaps. But probably not by February if that's the test you're going for. If you have the discipline, self-preparation is the way to go.
I would suggest starting out with the Powerscore LSAT Bibles (one for each of the sections), as internet collective wisdom has separated these out as the "best" books with which to begin. Link on Amazon. They are not cheap, but are much cheaper than a prep course.
Next, get some actual tests (ACTUAL past ones, not ones produced by testing companies to save on licensing costs) and go through them untimed, analyzing as you go. The key part is the analysis. It doesn't matter how many tests you practice with if you're not analyzing, for every question you got wrong, or even wondered about but guessed correctly, EXACTLY why the right answer was the right answer and why EVERY other answer was incorrect. Link on Amazon.
If you need more resources once you start breaking into the 160's or feel stuck, I would recommend The LSAT Trainer by Mike Kim. It's remarkably cheap given that it goes over each section, but I wouldn't recommend starting off with it necessarily unless you already have a good general understanding of the test.
Another online resource (beyond r/LSAT) which may be helpful is the TLS LSAT Prep forum.
Best of luck!
If it vouches for this process at all, I moved from a 164 to a 176 using essentially the steps above. So a 10+ point jump is not unreasonable, but it does take time.
When I said "51 onward" I was referring to PrepTest 51 and onward. PrepTest, commonly abbreviated as PT are previously administered LSATs. Every LSAT is released as such, except for those pertaining to the February administration. The most recent PrepTest is number 77, which corresponds to the LSAT that was administered in December of 2015. Each PrepTest contains the four officially scored sections of the LSAT plus the writing sample question, it however does not include the experimental section as this would compromise future LSATs. When you purchase the LSAT PrepTest volumes, you do not receive explanations, only an answer key and percentile conversion chart to each exam. However, the LSAC has released a book called SuperPrep II which includes 3 PrepTests, of which is there not only an answer key, but official explanations to each and every question, explaining why the right answer to each is the, well right answer. Although the LSAC does not have an explanation for all of their PrepTests published, there are many forums, websites and even published books which will do so for you. For example, The Princeton Review will be shortly releasing "LSAT Decoded" which will explain all of the answers in corresponding LSATs(PrepTests) I listed the following books that I purchased and recommend. Go to your local bookstore and read a couple pages of the Prep Company's book and see if their method of teaching works for you, if not, find another. Lastly, I would like to say that it is of absolutely no trouble for myself, I am more than happy to help, and thus I wish you the best of luck in your endeavour! :D
I posted the links to the books I bought and have been enjoying, please take caution before purchasing it from these links, as I posted the Amazon Canadian links as I live in Canada. Anyway, I believe either the Kaplan Premier 2016-2017 or LSAT trainer are an absolute must, although you could get away with not getting a prep company strategy set, I strongly encourage getting at the very least a comprehensive all in one. Any more questions or concerns about anything related to the LSAT please feel free to send me a message/reply.
http://www.amazon.ca/10-Actual-Official-LSAT-PrepTests/dp/0986045519/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1457253768&sr=8-2&keywords=LSAT
http://www.amazon.ca/Official-LSAT-SuperPrep-II-Champion/dp/0990718689/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1457253768&sr=8-10&keywords=LSAT
http://www.amazon.ca/Actual-Official-PrepTests-Comparative-Reading/dp/0984636005/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1457253768&sr=8-9&keywords=LSAT
http://www.amazon.ca/LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-study-self-driven/dp/0989081508/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1457253799&sr=8-3&keywords=LSAT
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1937707784?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1937707776?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0990718697?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0986045543?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0986086231?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00
> LSAT Trainer
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0989081508/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0989081508&linkCode=as2&tag=7l-20
This one?
And why do you recommend it over the powerscore's?
I used 7Sage and this book: http://www.amazon.com/LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-study-self-driven/dp/0989081508/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426031750&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lsat+trainer
That book is amazing and really breaks down the deconstruction of arguments in a way that just clicked for me. Not particularly helpful in the LG department, but thats where 7Sage came in.
So I would say that book is great for boosting LR and 7Sage is great for boosting AR (LG). The book also had some decent methods of breaking down RC.
Good luck. Glad I'm done with all that.
I used the LSAT Trainer my first go-round, and while I liked its style (and it gets great reviews here and at TLS), I felt like it was just a little too light in terms of instruction. Granted, I wasn't nearly rigorous enough with actually doing the (outside the book) drills prescribed, but I would have preferred to have more questions, exercises etc within the book, and have outside exercises supplement that. My second take I used the Manhattan series which I greatly preferred - a lot more material within the book, and I found its instruction style very helpful especially for LG. I also studied a lot harder for my second take so I'm sure that played into my opinions about the books, but even if my score hadn't increased I still think I'd prefer the Manhattan books.
Edit: I went from 160 to 168 with a year between sittings, but only about two months of consistent studying before the second exam
The LSAT Trainer. Great Instructional book for those motivated to study on their own. Website : http://www.thelsattrainer.com/
Book: http://www.amazon.com/The-LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-driven/dp/0989081508
Good Luck!
Hey,
Glad to hear you took your first two PTs under timed conditions. As for Prep Books, you might find that something other than Manhattan works well for you. Manhattan was my personal favorite, but don't hesitate to pick up The LSAT Trainer which is one book for all 3 sections or the Powerscore Bibles. The keys to LSAT Guides are their use of authentic LSAT Questions and reliable methods used in approaching these questions. You want to avoid companies like Kaplan, Barron's and Princeton Review because they don't meet this criteria.
Deciding when to take the LSAT is tough. When I said at least 3-months in my original post, I meant that 3 months has to be the absolute minimum amount of time. You might find that it takes you longer and that's okay. When I was prepping for the LSAT I read a lot of first hand accounts from 180 scorers. There was a lot of variation in their prep time. If I recall correctly some 180 scorers put in about ~3-4 months while others put in more than 12. What you don't want to do though is put yourself in an unrealistic timetable. I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know if you should push back your test or not. If you have already registered for the September LSAT see when the last day you can change it to December is. If you haven't registered, see when the final registration deadline is (though if you live in an area where a large number of people are taking the LSAT, waiting this long could present other problems). Your own prep will determine how long it takes and which test date is best for you. I will recommend that, if you get either the Powerscore Series or Manhattan Series, start with the Logic Games book. I have given other people some advice about prep material as well in the first and third posts here
Thanks for constructive response, is this the book you referenced?
Hi -- your LSAT score is good for five years, and most schools now consider only your highest score. So, if you'd like to take it this Oct to have a score under your belt for whenever you decide to go to law school, you can definitely do so. I suggest you take the exam whenever you have a good chunk of time and motivation to prepare, and that you take it with enough time after so that if you need to take it again to get the score you want, you can do so.
BTW, I am the co-creator of Manhattan LSAT, and I've developed a new book that you may be interested in. Here is the amazon link:http://www.amazon.com/LSAT-Trainer-remarkable-self-study-self-driven/dp/0989081508/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373646806&sr=1-22&keywords=lsat
and here is the top-law-schools discussion of my book --
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=209573
and here is the website for the book -- http://www.thelsattrainer.com/
on my site, you can download the first chapter of the book for free, and I think that chapter will have a lot of the basic information about the LSAT that you are looking for.
I hope that helps! Best of luck with your prep. -- Mike