Customer Reviews

Ace the LSAT Logic Games

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I wasn't improving on games, so I decided to buy a games-only book. For most books a reviewer swears either that the book saved their life or that it brought them only grief and misery. I couldn't figure how the same book can be received so differently so I just bought all the games books (there are something like 8 of them). I didn't use all of them. I returned the ones that didn't measure up, I just had to pay a few bucks for return shipping.
I immediately returned the Arco and McGraw Hill books, they were clearly unrealistic (most other reviews share my opinion). The Kaplan book didn't cover anything that wasn't in their general LSAT book I had, so I retuned it too.
The Fat Genius book was very tough to work with because the visual quality is so bad it is distracting. The methods were okay, nothing amazing, but nothing invalid. It only has 12 real games from old LSATs, and I had seen some of them already, still not a big deal. It was an okay book, so I kept it. The powerscore book had been so positvely reviewed I figured it was going to work like magic. It didn't live up to expectations. It has 21 real games, but they were really old and I had seen many of them, still, not a big deal, practice is practice, right? The methods were fine, fairly standard stuff, and the layout was a lot easier to read. But, at $60 the powerscore book is really expensive, like college textbook expensive. I couldn't justify spending that much for a book that was not uniquely helpful, so I sent it back.
I was pleasantly surprised by the Ace the Games book. It was a sleeper because it didn't have any reviews. It is much bigger (at 520 pages) then both the Fat genius (200 pages) and powerscore (230 pages) books combined. It has 80+ games, and 12 are from the most recent three LSATs given last year. It has twice as many games as the other two books combined and its games are more recent. Best of all, it costs one-third as much as the other two books. I definitely kept it, it was the best value.
If you are only going to buy one book because you are short on time or money, get the Ace book. Or, if you have more time and want to play it safe, do what I did and buy several. Then return the ones you don't want after you look them over.

The book contains 71 original problems as well as 12 more from LSATs 46-48.

I have to admit that I didn't buy this book for the tutorial advice as I had already done a reasonable amount of games and just wanted more games for practice. I did however, still go through the book and didn't skip right to the games.

I found the tutorial advice quite good. I wasn't particularly fond of the way they presented their diagrams in the book. But perhaps that was just my personal preference. The diagrams seemed to just be what was easy to typeset, not how a person would actually write on a piece of paper with a pencil.

This book is the only book out there that actually gives you some advice on how to organize the space on your test booklet since you won't be allowed to bring in scrap paper. I thought this was a nice touch.

When I originally started going through the problems, I found them a little bit tougher than they needed to be. Did *every* problem need to be an unbalanced game? The book even says that circular, mapping, matrix games are all but obselete. Yet I kept encountering them in their practice sets. I also found that I couldn't quite finish their sets in 35 minutes. And often the problems were so verbose, it took my 2-3 minutes just to get through the rules and diagramming. Games on today's LSATs are much tighter and cleaner than most of the problems in the book. The book's problems seemed more heavy and clunky - at least to me. A lot of the problems take up an entire page, so there's no room to work on the problem even if you wanted to write in the book.

Regardless, I did find the book helpful. It's obviously better to practice with harder questions than you are likely to encounter rather than easy ones.

I would recommend this book as a source of problems for anyone looking for some tougher questions to do as practice.

This book did it for me. I was plateauing at 70%-75% correct after doing a Kaplan book for all three sections. After doing just the first half this book, I was getting 95% or betteron the games. By the time I finished the book, I was getting them all right, and finishing with 3 or 4 minutes left over. I just took the Feb LSAT and the games were a total snap. I am still waiting for my score, but I am positive I did not miss one game question. I really liked that the book had the 3 most recent tests. Beacuse I got to practice with the most up to date games, this really made me comfortable that there wouldn't be any unpleasant surprises on test day. I definitely recommend you get this book if you are serious about succeeding at the games.

It wasn't so much that I needed a system for understanding and completing logic games, but just a book that would provide me with some decent material to apply techniques that I had already learned. This book has 14 of its own practice tests (and a lengthy explanation for why answer choices are right/wrong directly following each test). The questions composed by the authors of this book are very comparable to actual LSAT questions. After doing those tests, there are three additional logic games sections (each with four games) taken directly from recently administered LSATs.
I haven't seen another book with as many practice tests. I recommend this book highly--whether or not you have already purchased a book , even if you have already learned a system for completing logic games. Good luck!

First of all, I wanted to point out that the book is more than 500 pages. When I first picked it up, I thought it must have weighed more than 10 pounds! The book has more than 80 games in it (not 80 questions), so that's like... well, let's say around 450 questions. I think this book is the ultimate for LSAT Games. Kaplan's Logic Games Workbook only has about 200 questions (half as many games) and the PowerScore Bible is only 200 pages (half as many pages). This book is unlike anything I've ever seen. It let's use do the problems on your own and correct your answers using a "tutor sheet." You actually see how a tutor worked out the page, where they drew their diagrams in the small space, etc. Sorry, Kaplan, but this book is a lot better.

This book is very good. It does contain errors. It is also the case that these errors are really just lazy editing, which is annoying. It is further the case that in many instances, the explaination for which answer is the correct answer is just bad or misses the point. But this is true of all such prep books--incl. the other big one in this area, Powerscore's LSAT Logic Games Bible. But given that they all suck, you mught as well go with the one that sucks the least. I give it 5 stars because it is the best there is, not because it could not be better, and I think that is probably what is most relevant to LSAT students.

And, dispite these problems, the book really does give you good stratergies and lots of good practice. I used both this book and the bible, and together they helped me turn the games section from my most feared into my most productive. I got a perfect in this section on the June 2008 LSAT. It was a pretty easy logic games section, admittedly, but I certainly would not have aced it without these books.

One last word of advice: If you are going to use this book, WORK your way through it, don't just meander through it. That means even when you get an answer right, read their set-up and explaination. See how they approched it, and (if it was different to your approach) if you would have done better answering it their way. Time is obviously a HUGE factor in the LSAT, and even when you get it right, others might have a better (quicker) way to get there. At least this was often the case for me.

If you're looking for a book that will offer you tons and tons of logic games to practice, this is the one you want, hands down.

If you're just starting out with your LSAT studying and are looking more for instruction about how to effectively tackle the games, I wouldn't recommend it. The diagrams and explanations are not very easy to understand, nor are they the most thorough or comprehensive. What's worse, I found a few typos here and there in them that sometimes dramatically changed the rightness or wrongness of answers.

It's an excellent book on the basis of its massive and diverse collection of games. It just seems written somewhat hastily and carelessly -- not the best idea for the beginning LSAT studier. If you're looking for better teaching, try Powerscore's "Logic Games Bible."

When I started my LSAT prep last summer, I picked this book over the other available options because it had the most practice games. The book is by no means perfect, but it did help me significantly improve my performance on the games section.

My biggest problem with the games section was timing--I was getting most of the questions I answered right, but I was only answering about ten questions per section. This book includes some helpful advice on how to manage your time, as well as tips on how to diagram questions quickly and consistently. However, the thing that helped me most was the amount of practice it offered. With more tenacity than I can usually muster, I worked through the entire book from cover to cover, and it paid off. I went from running out of time on every practice logic section to finishing with time to spare on test day. I got a perfect score on the section.

As other commenters have mentioned, the games written for this book are not exactly like the games on the actual LSAT. They are not quite as well-written and are occasionally ambiguous. That said, they do get the job done, and after I had hacked my way through the original questions, the games from real LSATs at the back of the book felt refreshingly clear. Even though the games are a little bit off, it's better to buy this book than to just do all the logic sections of several Actual, Official LSAT books because using the book makes sure that you've seen and prepared for every type of game you might be tested on, even the strange and rare ones that you might miss if you pick sections on your own. Most of the advice in the book is also worthwhile.

I used this book along with The Official LSAT SuperPrep and a couple of volumes of Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests. I would recommend this regimen to people who have at least a few months to prepare for the test. The games section is very learnable, but you do need to put in the time to practice.

I made the mistake of buying all three LSAC practice books and completing those before buying this book. You want to do this book first because:

1) FOREMOST: the tests in ACE are good, but don't "feel" 100% genuine LSAC produced, its difficult to put a finger on exactly what is off, but I'll try:

2) the tests in ACE are slightly easier in specific parts. For instance: a frequent first question of the games portion "which of the following could be an accurate..." renders the tester with a possible solution to the game if they answer correctly. In real LSATs this solution will allow the tester to cross of one, maybe two later answers later in the same game, in the ACE version it often does much more, frequently in the question immediately following.

3) it gives you artificial confidence in the 14 full games portion by placing objectively harder games in the earlier portions, so as you go through you feel like you are improving more than you are (just going backwards 14-1 is an easy solution to this) for instance, i did the 14th game first by a fluke and answered all questions correctly in 32 minutes, flipped to the first game and only got through 3 games with only 80% accuracy in 35 min. this could just be me, but on reviewing the games more closely, i believe most testers would be in the same position, plus my explanation makes sense from a marketing perspective.

4) all of the warm-up games have 5 questions, you are supposed to do these in 8.75 minutes -- but this is a question short, they should have placed 6, not 5, questions in this area because all LSATs have more than 20 logic game total questions (usually 23-25).

5) there are very few 7 question games, in the LSAT there is usually one 7-question game. this matters for timing and guessing

BUT do NOT let these dissuade you from purchasing the book. It is a great resource because the skills it develops are the right ones. complete this book and THEN use the LSAC published real tests. (BUT BE SURE TO DO BOTH)

The 71 original games they provide are an excellent preparation for the REAL practice tests. ideally there would be more available LSAC released material, but this is an acceptable supplement.

I have read many times not to buy books which do not contain real LSAT games, but never understood why until I purchased this book. The book claims it has "the best of both worlds" because it offers real games and simulated games (about half and half). However, in the simulated games there are often abbreviated letters which are the same in 2 different groups (for example, "There are 3 types of paintings: Portraits, landscapes, and still life. Each painting is oil, latex, or watercolors.) Then one of the rules is latex paintings are landscapes. I have never encountered a real LSAT game where you are forced to abbreviate with 3 letters ( lat ---> lan ) It is confusing and unnecessary. There are multiple games in this book which have this problem. Pay 7 extra dollars and get your money's worth with the logic games bible.