Customer Reviews

Kaplan LSAT 180, 2005-2006

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

 

 

I specifically speak of the 2004 edition of this book, but by glancing it seems Kaplan just edited the cover and stopped at that.

I bought and read through a few different LSAT study guides from various publishers. Most use fake, or, unauthentic questions which make more difference than you think. By using Kaplan or other similar publishers (with the exception of PowerScore, who is the best) you are training your mind to become familiar with, and excel in questions that differ from ACTUAL LSAT questions.

NOTHING REPLACES actual LSAT exams. Your best bet is to go to lsac.org and purchase actual administered LSAT exams. You will notice the language and structure of the questions aren't the same. The terminology method by which they ask the questions also differs. This creates a destructive problem come time to take actual exams if you have been studying unauthentic questions. You will suddenly feel confused and all of your strategy may go out the window.

Also, the most crucial is to practice the actual LSAT tests under TIMED conditions. Purchase a silent timer (which is legal during the LSAT test) from powerscore.com and use it religiously. Purchase actual LSAT tests FROM THE PAST several years. I took the LSAT in the fall of 2003 and the spring of 2004. I noticed a difference in the way they were headed with the language of their questions and it threw me off, specifically in the logical reasoning sections. Therefore, it is always best to be studying via RECENT tests because the LSAT has been evolving and continues to evolve over time.

To supplement your studying of real tests, go to powerscore.com and purchase the logic games bible. It uses REAL lsat logic games and gives you strategies on answering them. Unfortunately at the time I was preparing for the LSAT, they only had the study aid for logic games, but I believe now they have the study aid for the logical reasoning and maybe even the reading comprehension. These aids give you real questions, strategies, and are the single best supplement to actual LSAT exams. They even reference where the questions came from so you can purchase that LSAT and compare.

So in sum, follow these guidelines:

1) Study with REAL LSAT exams from lsac.org
2) Take the tests timed
3) Use the Powerscore logic games/logical reasoning books to supplement these tests since they contain reasons/explanations/strategies for actual administered questions
4) Avoid Kaplan (or anyone else for that matter) like the plague
5) Don't waste money/time on review/prep courese that cost hundreds of dollars
6) Study months in advance

I wish I had adhered to all of these, but unfortunately I didn't time myself like I should have and I spent too much time with Kaplan instead of the real thing.

This book is worth the money. True - there are 1 or 2 typos. True - these aren't actual questions. Still, the questions are pretty much indistinguishable from actual LSAT questions because they use the same method to make them. This book will teach you the best ways to both understand the questions and then answer them efficiently.

Most importantly, though, the difficulty of the book hits you hard and it is extremely painful. The benefit is that afterwards, taking practice tests and the actual test feels easy. I went from missing 4 or 5 logical reasoning questions on each logical reasoning section of actual practice tests to missing 0-1 on each section. The logic games section was just flat out painful, but made taking the actual games section on the test much easier.

This book isn't just for people who want a 180. I was getting low 160s on practice tests before I did this book, and afterwards I started getting mid 170s.

I bought this book with the "Big Fat Genius Guide to LSAT Logic Games." I found the latter to be indispensable, but this book was not as helpful as I hoped. I think the practice questions they give are useful, once you know everything that you need to about how to work the problems, but they don't give enough information on how to approach these difficult problems. I recommend this book for the practice questions alone, since getting all the answers in some of the logic games gives you a huge confidence boost and, as another reviewer pointed out, make the questions on other practice exams seem easy.

Do not buy this book alone. Purchase some other study guide to use in conjunction, especially if this is your first time studying for the LSAT. You must understand basic and intermediate level logic before you can use this book, since it is geared specifically for advanced students. Also, be sure to buy one of the "Actual LSAT" test books. This allows you to get comfortable with timed tests and helps you recognize the verbiage and style that the LSAT test writers are so famous for.

I rated this book three stars only because I think the practice questions make it a worthwhile purchase.

(Just in case you are wondering what book will help you with your logic games... see my review for "Big Fat Genius Guide to Logic Games." Five Stars.)

LSAT 180 is interesting in that it is supposed to be more difficult than regular LSAT questions but is also intended to help improve your LSAT taking-skills. The questions are difficult but all they aren't perfect.

The Logic Games seem reasonably similar to LSAT games, the main difference being the amount of space they take up on the page. The Logical Reasoning questions felt pretty far afield from real test questions. Finally Reading Comprehension was more similar to a real RC section than the LR questions but not quite as close as the games. Games are the real winner in this book.

I wouldn't recommend this book for regular LSAT studying but it's not a bad idea if you run out of regular LSAT material.

I use to be a purist demanding only real LSAT questions but I went thru almost all the lsat tests and became a little too familiar with the questions. I heard from some people that scored over 170 that they used this book and recommended it so I decided to give it a try. After using the PS Bibles that worked wonders I needed a book to get me over my plateau I couldn't seem to break.

People gripe over the spelling mistakes. In this edition I noticed maybe 2, and they were in the intro not the actual problems. I shrugged my shoulders, rolled my eyes, and got over it.

The questions are quite similar to the LSAT. I literally could not tell a difference. I have also read Nova's Master the Lsat, a good book but you could definetly see there was a difference in the style (structure and set up) of questions.

LR: Most are not mind-numbingly hard. IMHO, I would ignore the time limits on these questions. Better to pick the questions apart and figure out the structure to really let it sink in. Better to use these as practice and leave the LSAT tests for timed sessions. Explantions are pretty good.

LG: Timed or just as practice, these are very tricky. The sections get progressively harder from chapters called "Time Warps" to the hardest, merely labeled "Huh..?"

LR: Gives good tips. Just as LG this also gets harder by the section from "Blinded by Science" to "Philosopher's Corner".

There are no basics in this book. It assumes you know your formal logic,sufficent/necessary clauses, and a solid grasp on games. I would recommend the PS Bibles first and then this book once you get into the 160's score level on practice tests.

This book had a lot of typos, which I thought was pretty poor since it's such an advocate of perfection. I'd been scoring in the 165-175 range on practice tests, and I still found that I had a lot to work on when I tried the questions in this book! It's worth using, I'd say, in addition to but not in place of lots of regular practice tests, and perhaps a book specifically targeted to a particularly weak area (I used the Logic Games Bible). At the very least, when you sit down to take the actual exam, it will seem easy after using this book.

As one of the other reviewers pointed out, the questions used for prep in this book are very different from the actual LSAT questions that you'll be tested on. Not only are the style of writing and the format of the questions different in LSAT 180 than on an actual LSAT exam, but also, an equally persuasive case could be made for more than one of the answer choices in some of LSAT 180's Kaplan-created questions. The same isn't true on an actual LSAT exam (or is very rarely true) because once the subtleties of actual PrepTest questions are mastered, there is almost always a clearly superior answer. On LSAT 180, I found myself unconvinced in several instances by Kaplan's explanations as to why their preferred answer choice was superior to one of the other answer choices available. This never happens on a real LSAT PrepTest once you have grasped the stimulus and the question stem, with all their subtleties.

This book is likely to be unhelpful to a lot of people...
The logical reasoning sections are fragmented in an unhelpful manner and moreover, the structure of the questions is nowhere near as succinct as the real questions on the LSAT.Admittedly, this book has some good logic game problems and decent solutions for them. If you want a decent lsat book with a variety of problems, then buy this used/barely used here for $10-12 but realize beforehand that you will not be getting one of the better books on the market.

LSAT 180 is an alright book. It is certainly helpful in preparation for the LSAT; however, there is a dozen of mistakes in the book. Even though the majority of them are simply typos, there are 4-5 mistakes that interfere with the understanding of explanations. Since I'm not sure if there are LSAT books free of typos, I would recommend to consider Kaplan LSAT 180 anyway.