Customer Reviews

Master the LSAT

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I bought the three best-known LSAT test prep books. I was in despair over taking the LSAT after working through other two, but this one really worked. Buy "Master the LSAT" from Amazon and a pile of practice exams from LSAC; don't bother with the Kaplan and Princeton study guides. I followed the opening instructions to start my prep 12 weeks ahead of my test date, working a little each day (if you aren't self-motivated enough to do that, please forget law school). I have no doubt that this book is responsible for my good LSAT score and admittance to law school. Note: Ignore the software. The LSAT is a paper test and the book's layout prepares you for the look of the actual test. That familiarity will reduce your test-day anxiety.

...for studying the actual LSAT Preptests.

You'll find the advice presented for the analytical reasoning section contains the basic methods that are found in the Kaplan and PR books, i.e. methods for weakening and strengthening arguments, etc. No revelations there. Also, this book relies more heavily on "tips" such as ruling out answers containing "similar content." Some of the recent LSAT questions are now hip to this technique and actually have "similar content" on all the answer choices. Basically, 90% of analytical reasoning questions break down to finding the conclusion and linking the premises to the conclusion.

The sections on Logic games are somewhat spotty. The book does a nice job explaining linear games, e.g games with 3 slots, for variables A B C. However, it doesn't do a great job with grouping games, which appear frequently on recent LSATs. The techniques in the book will give you a basic plan for doing the games sections. However, one of the best way to do well on these games is to do a ton of previous logic game sections so that you can solve them quickly and rapidly. Typically, each game hinges on getting one or two big deductions, after which the whole game falls into place. You'll need to solve each game in under 8m 45s to finish this section on time. So, get cracking on piecing the individuals rules to get that big deduction. Oh, and the book spends way too much time on circular, diagramming, and mapping games, which almost never appear on the recent LSATs. Order the recent Preptests and you can see for yourself.

Reading comp - not much info here will help you than what you can find in the LSAT/LSACD guide tells you. Best advice, is to map out the passage so that you rapidly refer back to it.

The software accompanying the book is useless, as they are not real LSAT questions.

Overall, I found this book better than the Kaplan and PR books, as they seemed to be expanded advertisements for their classes. If you're tight on cash, skip this book, order the "Official LSAT Prep Test with Explanataions" and the other recent LSAT Prep tests.

The LSAT is a difficult test. Some would argue that it's more of an intelligence test than anything. I disagree. I believe that with sufficient study one can significantly improve one's score on this test.

For one thing, the single most difficult part of the LSAT has to be the "Games" section. You know: "There are 6 businessmen seated around a table: Jacobs, King, Lewis, Meyers, Nathan, and O'Connor.
O'Connor always sits between Jacobs and Lewis
Nathan cannot sit next to King....etc.

Unless one is a member of Mensa, and enjoys these kinds of puzzles for pure recreation, one is unlikely to score well on this section of the test. BUT, having said that, the Games section of the test is probably the one area where you can most improve your ability. The authors realize this and devote more of "Master the LSAT" to this section than any other.

There is one point on which I disagree with the authors. They recommend that you create a kind of shorthand for the conditions of each game. I think that this is a foolish waste of time. After all, as you are not allowed to bring any scratch paper with you for use during the test, you will have to use the test booklet to draw any diagrams to aid in solving the problems. Therefore, since you will be writing on the same page as the question and conditions are printed, there is no need to add the additional step of rewriting the conditions in shorthand,IMHO.

As for the rest...It is presumed that we have all taken a course in critical thinking and composition, so we should have some proficiency in analyzing an argument and reading comprehension. Still, the authors do a great job of pointing out where the creators of the LSAT will attempt to trip you up through obfuscation, strange wording of conditions, etc.

My advice, like so many others here on Amazon, is this: Buy this book at least two months in advance of your test date, buy the "10 Actual" book from LSAC, and study at least two hours per day. One attorney told me: "If I had known how important that stupid test was, I would have begun studying a year in advance."

One other trick: When you first attempt the practice questions DO NOT observe a time limit. Then, little by little, try to improve your speed. Why? Well, I'm a guitar player, and I've never mastered a difficult song by first attempting to practice it at its normal speed. You begin by playing the passage so slowly that you cannot make a mistake and only then do you increase the metronome. Get the idea? Well, I've already said too much. After all, on a percentile basis, I'm competing with all of you, right?

I took a practice LSAT test (one of the real ones) and received a low 160. I guess it's still above average, but I felt like I was guessing on most of the questions and always running out of time. Since 160 is still a decent score I wasn't sure how well a prep book would help me. I'm used to reading prep books that give you a bunch of common sense verbose paragraphs and you end up wasting your time. (I'm currently studying for GREs and half of Kaplan's 2003 GRE book is worthless).

Having said that, this book is priceless. I'm currently studying the games section, a little each day, and the games are becoming very easy. Usually I get perfect scores on each one. The key to a game is to have a concise diagram, whether it's on paper or in your head. This book teaches you precisely how to do that. Even though I received 15/24 on my games practice section, I feel like I knew absolutely nothing, relatively speaking, compared to what there is to know about the stratagies for the game section.

The book devotes over 150 pages to explaining those strategies, with a huge number of practice problems for each type of a game. After the problems there are always good explanations (not perfect ones, a few were unclear and took some time to decipher). After going through a lot of them, I now get everything right, and the problem becomes time. The book recommends skipping one game section on the test and devote 12 minutes to each one. But to anyone wishing to get a perfect (like me) that's impractical. Which is the reason the whole diagram drawing that the book teaches you is a win/loss situation. I'd say the best way to go would be to learn all the diagrams and then learn how to connect the dots in your head for the test - there's simply no time to draw all those things.

The other sections of the book are equally generous in their information and explanation. Additionally, the language the book uses flows very fluently. I've not been bored studying this book at all, it's actually kind of fun.

The most important thing to realize is how imperative it is to buy this several months before the test. And don't forget to get the LSAC's 10 actual LSAT tests.

I took the Kaplan course, and I read "Cracking the LSAT" from Princeton Review, and I sincerely believe that this book is the best preparation tool money can buy. They REALLY get in-depth on Logic Games, and help show how the test-makers try to trick you on Logical Reasoning. Also, unlike other books, this one uses questions from previous tests. I scored in the 99th %-tile, and while there is no substitute for practice with several previous exams, I give large credit to this book for my success.

You should definitely include this book within your preparation studies. I would have to say that much of the contents inside of this book is laregly responsible for the increase in my LSAT score (granted I am not a good test taker). The other books that I would/would not HIGHLY recommend is as follows:

HOT:

1)Nova's LSAT, Master the LSAT
2)The PowerScore LSAT Logic Games Bible
3)10 More Actual Official LSAT Preptests

NOT:
1)Kaplan test prep books
2)Princeton Reviews test prep books
3)Teaching Solutions CD software <- Look out for this company, cause someone has to inform the BBB.

None of the LSAT prep books is ideal, but Kolby's "Master the LSAT" is probably the best overall. It contains sound advice and intelligent strategies and it doesn't steer you seriously wrong on anything. It is also blessedly free of the corny jokes and facetious banter found in, for instance, Princeton Review's prep book.

When I took the LSAT, I ended up using a mixture of techniques culled from various prep books. I found Princeton Review's method of diagramming Games the best: it's less confusing and more easily remembered than the other methods (particularly useful is Princeton's technique of pairing all clues with their contrapositives for quick reference). I also found PowerScore's "Logic Games Bible" very thorough and very helpful--perhaps the best prep book for handling Games. Kolby and Princeton Review use similar methods for tackling the Arguments section, and both are effective. Where Kolby's book shines, however, is in his method for attacking the Reading Comprehension section. It's the most efficient and effective of all. Whatever you do, do NOT use Princeton Review's method of reading the questions before reading the passage: This only confuses you and wastes precious time. (I'm astounded that Princeton Review would give such bad advice!) Follow Kolby's method and familiarize yourself with the six TYPES of questions that are always asked in the Reading Comp section and circle the Pivotal Words in the passage as you read it. By using Kolby's method you save approximately two minutes and can focus more on reading the passage, which will result in a higher score.

So, to sum up: Get Kolby for overall (and especially for Reading Comp), Princeton Review and PowerScore for Games, Kaplan ("2 Real LSATs Explained" and "LSAT 180") for detailed explanations of LSAT answers, and a whole bunch of Actual, Official LSAT Preptests, and practice, practice, practice.

This book was invaluable in setting up a good study program to tackle the LSAT because it provided step by step analysis of each LSAT section and taught me how to tackle questions logically. I followed the authors' advice, studied hard and learned how to master the difficult logic games section. The book's analysis of the logic sections and clear explanations of answers in the practice sections were excellent. Since I had been out of school for many years, I needed all the help I could get. Today, I received the LSAT results from the 12 June test; the score surpassed my expectations. Buy this book, pay attention to the advice and study, study, study. You won't be disappointed!

This book is the best book available--particularly for those who do not have a background in logic. Master the LSAT gets into the principles of logic and shows how to diagram logic problems. These are skills that many other test-prep books take for granted. The analytical section of the book is not as strong, however. The solution explanations rely largely on process of elimination, which is too cumbersome and slow for a real test. I know how overwhelming all the choices are, but there are three books that really helped my reach my high goal: Master the LSAT, the Kaplan review book and the LSAC book of 10 practice tests. Good luck.

If you've read the other reviews, you already know that this book is in a class of its own. Nova's "Master the LSAT" is simply the best book on the market right now, way ahead of the competition.

Before using this book, I also went through Princeton Review's "Cracking the LSAT 2002" and "Kaplan LSAT 2001." Both books helped me only slightly. It seemed that both books devoted more pages to practice tests and explaining the answers on those tests.

However, with "Master the LSAT" the difference is very noticeable. This book devotes so many pages to teaching you the material: the section on games is very long and thorough, the section on arguments is extremely insightful, and the reading section offers practical methods for success. The only thing not covered is the writing section (which isn't part of your score, and something most test takers do not spend much time studying).

Anyway, my score has improved form the low 150s to the mid 160s now. Of course, this is due to the amount of time I have spent studying the strategies in this wonderful book.

** In addition to this book, LSAT takers should also buy the "10 Actual LSATs" for real practice. However, it is imperative that you buy this book for strategies.