Customer Reviews

30 Days to the LSAT, 2nd ed (Peterson's Countdown to the LSAT)

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

 

 

The book does a good job of concisely presenting general strategies in a well-organized fashion; however, I would not suggest it as your only means of preparing for the LSAT exam. There is a very limited number of practice problems and, as previously stated, some of the answers don't appear to be right (although this is also the case with some in the Kaplan series). It is perhaps most useful to someone who's not sure if they will apply to law school but want a taste of the LSAT without spending a lot of time or money. The book has utility as a guided review (as I have tried to use it), although at that point you might be looking for something a bit more challenging.

This book has some great tips found nowhere elese. I have used both Kaplan and Princeton Review, but none provide better strategies than this little book. For example, when finding the answer choice that best strengthens the argument Arco recommends ranking the choices. I think this was a great tip if you are stuck on a question. I actually found more information condensed in this than in any other LSAT book. It cuts out the useless BS found in Princeton Review/Kaplan.
The only flaw was some wrong answer choices in the practice problems. But, still a very solid, useful book. I recommend it for anyone!! Even those with more than 30 days till LSAT. The practice problems are VERY SIMILAR to the real exam.

I am only through Day 4 of this book and I have found incorrect answers. (If anyone else has this book, check out the answers for #16 and #17 on Day 4 and see if you can find any way they are right.)

I have been using this along with a few other sources to study for the LSAT. So far, this book has been somewhat helpful in getting an idea for the format of the LSAT. This is helpful for those of you who really want to have an idea of the test before you take it. That is the only reason that I gave this book 2 stars. There are so many errors in this book, especially taking the tests, that I wouldn't bother buying it (or if you own it, trying to figure out the errors).

The Day 4 test alone is very confusing at parts, contradicting at others. Answer 17 is a perfect example of this: one rule is that D & F cannot be next to each other so quickly scanning the answers one sees that answer B has D next to F, a rule violation and thus the correct answer. Wrong according to the authors, claiming that another student may switch things back correctly therefore actually not violating a rule... very confusing. Question 9 is another one that really confused me. I figured out where every commercial played and then tried to figure out what the question asked and about which commercial. It never actually tells.

There is another issue with this book and that is while reading and doing some of the practice questions, they did a very poor job of keeping you from seeing the correct answer before finishing the problem.

Pass on this book. It is a helpful book if you want to know the layout, but there are much better guides to help you study for the LSAT.

This book, though containing some useful strategies, is riddled with errors, and contradictions. After taking a test and reviewing answers, some explanations basically say "these four answers are wrong for these reasons and it's obvious that the last is correct." Having a tremendous amount of formal logic in my background, I can tell you in many cases they are WRONG. I have the seond edition and you'll notice, for example, in the explanation for quesiton 10 on page 99 there is a blatant contradiction between the explanation for answer B and for answer D. B states Cartier-Bension is NOT confrontational (and is the basis for their answer), where D states his relationship WAS confrontational! Huh? Did they proofread??!!

The furstration endured with this book is severe and the questions seem harder (and more vauge) than on any other REAL LSAT I've seen. If anything, practicing on harder questions will make LSAT day a snap.

The strategies are this book's only saving grace.

Although this book seems to be organized well and offer good tips for the LSAT, the fact that some of the problems do not have correct answers is infuriating. Not only are some of the logic problems so poorly written that there is no correct answer, the solutions to these questions must blatantly ignore the rules of the problem or "solve" them incorrectly to arrive at any answer. (In one problem that asks you to select the answer that cannot exist, the solution finds that four of the answers are rule violations (and therefore not permissible within the context of the problem) and then picks the last one as the correct answer. Even then, one of the answers they pegged as a rule violation wasn't.) Don't waste your time trying to puzzle it out.