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75 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Waste Your Money on Other Prep Courses!, June 28, 2010
This review is from: The PowerScore LSAT Logic Games Bible (Paperback)
This is the first time I've ever taken the time to write a review for a product, but I couldn't not say something about the quality of the PowerScore books. Let me say, I started preparing for the February 2010 LSAT in December 2009, and I did so by taking a $1300 Kaplan prep course. I scored a 148 on my diagnostic, and my scores with Kaplan never rose above a 153. I often felt as though their explanations weren't thorough, and it seemed as if whenever something was difficult to explain, it was simply labeled as "out of scope" -- not very helpful in understanding why incorrect answers are incorrect. So I took the LSAT in February and got a disappointing, but not surprising, 152.
I wanted at least a 156, so I planned to take the June 2010 LSAT, but decided to try a new study method. I'd heard about the Bibles, so I ordered the LG & LR Bibles. Overall, I liked their format. Yes, they are wordy, but they are THOROUGH. I went through them slowly and carefully, especially the LG Bible, as logic games were my weak spot. After finishing both bibles, I took my first full length test since the Feb LSAT, and got a 160. That was literally doing no other practice than reading the Bibles.
Ultimately, I ended up taking about 10 full length exams, never dipping below a 160 again, and peaking at 168. I took the June 2010 LSAT, and though I felt that it was quite difficult, I decided not to cancel my score, and ended up with a 165, way above the 156 that I wanted, and quite a leap from anything I'd ever done with Kaplan.
Basically, I'm telling you that there is absolutely no need to spend $1300 on a prep course (or at least not at first). Buy these books and go through them carefully, taking the time to understand each concept. THEN, if you aren't scoring where you want to, consider a course. I wish I'd tried the Bibles first... I would've had to take the LSAT only once, and I could've saved a ton of money.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is how you crush the logic games, December 28, 2010
This review is from: The PowerScore LSAT Logic Games Bible (Paperback)
Go ahead and take an official LSAT logic games section. Don't worry about the time, just try finish the entire thing with brute force if you have to.
If this was your first time and you finished the section under 35 min with only a few incorrect then your best bet is to keep doing official practice games until you're consistently where you want to be. This book won't be as helpful to you because you're a freak and I hope you're not in my class.
If you were like me and were able to finish the section with only a couple incorrect, but it took you an hour, then this book is golden and if you follow the instructions, you'll be acing these sections with minutes to spare. Yes.
If you couldn't finish the section or it took you hours, then this book will also help you enormously.
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Most of the 1 star reviews claim that this book is confusing and causes test takers to waste too much time and energy on the perfect set up and not on tackling the questions and getting points. There is some truth to this, but if you read the book, it talks at length about this issue and about how to approach the exam knowing this.
Sometimes you'll spend quite a bit of time on a setup and then pick off the questions in seconds - many times you'll read the question and immediately know the answer based on your set up producing only 2 or 3 possible solutions (this frequently occurs and when you get it, you feel fantastic). Other times, your setup will only take a few moments and you'll spend more time on the questions which will most likely be giving you hypothetical information in these situations. In any event, you'll know this and you'll act accordingly. You'll have been exposed to and instructed on how to approach, construct and deconstruct so many of these games at such great length that you'll be able to do them in your sleep - yes, there is a method to the madness.
Other important items to note are that this book only contains real/official LSAT questions, many questions are from recent exams (yr 2000+) and there's a companion workbook you can pick up which I highly recommend.
This book was incredibly helpful and actually not as boring as I was prepared for. You'll see yourself making progress immediately and consistently and you'll find yourself in many "a-ha!" moments. I hesitate to say this book is "fun", but when you're eventually crushing game after game, it's hard not to enjoy yourself a bit - at least as much as is possible when doing logic games.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A little brevity would've went a long way., September 19, 2008
This review is from: The PowerScore LSAT Logic Games Bible (Paperback)
Instead of typing a paragraph, I'll do a bullet point review to make this review more readable.
Pros of this Book
* A lot of good information can be had here if you're willing to read
* Very useful info on proper diagramming techniques
* The drills throughout the chapters help with learning the application of techniques
* The organization is excellent in this book. The most common game types are at the front of the book while the more obscure game types are in towards the back of the book
* The drill explanations are detailed. The most important thing to do is to look over drills/questions and learn why answers are correct or incorrect and where you messed up if you got a question wrong.
Cons of this Book
* The author at times wrote too much to make a simple point. It can be daunting to read due to the needless text making the reader want to skim
* This book is expensive, so one has to budget carefully to make room for this book
* The use of actual LSAT questions can end up tainting one's practice tests
* The tone of the author can be haughty at times (I don't mind, but others probably would). The author suggests some techniques for diagramming and time management as if it were the best when people have to develop their own style. The author also attacks other prep books and companies needlessly.
* Some of the techniques are good, some are too impractical to be useful. Using hypotheticals to answer questions would eat up too much time during the real test.
* There are some typos throughout the book. Nothing that makes the book unreadable, but it can be annoying at times.
All in all, this is a good book for learning the basics of LG. If you do well on LG already, then this isn't worth a purchase, but if you're like me and struggle with LG, then this is a worthy purchase. Of course, buying PTs and other similar study aids are far more important, so don't make this your first purchase, especially if you haven't taken a couple diagnostics first. This book is too expensive to buy without KNOWING if you need it.
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