Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway Forum

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New_Spice180

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by New_Spice180 » Wed Apr 20, 2016 3:23 pm

I'm completely for the way this book just makes everything so simple, and draws you in. THIS is how you should be teaching complex materials and concepts...

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Blueprint Mithun

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by Blueprint Mithun » Thu Apr 28, 2016 5:45 pm

New_Spice180 wrote:I'm completely for the way this book just makes everything so simple, and draws you in. THIS is how you should be teaching complex materials and concepts...
Glad you're digging it!

StopLawying

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by StopLawying » Sun May 08, 2016 5:16 pm

So I basically finished the book and I figured this would be the best time to post my review, when the content is still fresh in my mind. I'd like to thank Blueprint for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

The reading comprehension section of the LSAT, everyone's worst nightmare. This section is by far the hardest to improve, as there are very few, if any mechanical approaches at one's disposal to answer the questions. Prep companies have released RC books that rely on a more intuitive approach to the section, but I found that those strategies are hard to apply in real time. Yes, students need to read carefully and track the different elements in the passage, but HOW can one get to the point where he/she is able to do this effectively and efficiently? The Blueprint RC book is the answer.

The Blueprint RC method underscores the importance of attacking a RC passage in the same way one attacks a LG: spend time upfront and you'll be rewarded later when you get to the questions. The book shows that there's a lot of similarity in the structure of RC passages, and so the book spends a ton of time discussing the common, repeated structures that underlie many of the passages you'll see on the LSAT. As one studies these structures, the passages become easy to classify, and consequently, you know which strategies to employ for each type of passage. So, for example, when you know you're reading an antithesis passage you realize immediately that you must identify both arguments and see which side the author is aligned with. What's great about this approach is that it forces you to to read each and every passage ACTIVELY, which is a necessary condition to scoring high on this section. And that's what makes this book absolute gold. The way it approaches the section mechanically, instead of intuitively, is a huge plus for those who haven't found success with other RC books from the other companies.

There are several other advantages of the book, which I'll go through below.
1) This book is fun to read! Like the Blueprint LG book, the book is so freakin' readable! Who said studying for the LSAT couldn't be fun? There were times where I read around 75 pages, and asked myself how did I get through all of that in such a short amount of time?! For those who have a hard time reading through prep books because they're boring and abstract (Powerscore), this is a huge plus.
2) This book provides you with an annotation system that you can apply to any/every RC passage (unlike the Manhattan RC book or the Trainer) Having a good annotation system allows you to create an effective passage map which is absolutely critical for answering the questions. Think about it: just like in LG where a great diagram can help you unlock the game, a great passage map can help you unlock the passage and make the questions a lot easier. And the best way to create such a map is to have an annotation approach that you can apply consistently.
3) Like in LR, knowing the different question types in RC is especially important and is something that is overlooked by many students. This book gives you a full breakdown of the question types in the RC section so that you can know how to best attack a particular question. To be fair though, other RC books also do this, so this is not an advantage unique to this book.
4) This book is long, a lot longer than both the Manhattan and Powerscore RC books. Some may view this as a disadvantage, but I believe the opposite: more pages, more content, more bang for your buck!

But not every book is perfect, and there's one major DISADVANTAGE to using this book that I feel has to be mentioned. What I love about the Manhattan book and the Trainer by Mike Kim is that they both use passages from older tests. These companies do this because they realize the value of saving the newer tests for full length practice exams. Every fresh practice test is precious, especially those from 50+. When learning strategy, only the older tests should be used to illustrate an author's point or for practice. The Blueprint RC book uses a ton of passages from the modern tests as end-of-chapter practice drills and I often found myself having to skip some parts of the book in an effort to "save" fresh practice tests. I assume that students will use this book when they're in the beginning stages of their prep, and so this is something that they'll have to take into account before purchasing this book. Blueprint made the same mistake with their LG book and I was hoping they'd correct it with this book. But that didn't happen.

So overall, there's no better book in terms of methodology, I've read almost all the other RC books and none of them even comes close in terms of strategy. For those struggling with this section, I feel like this book would be tremendously helpful. And even for high RC scorers, there are several tidbits throughout the book that make the book well worth the cost. However, there is that con mentioned above that students need to take into account before deciding whether to buy the book.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10, the best RC book currently out on the market.

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New_Spice180

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by New_Spice180 » Wed May 11, 2016 8:26 am

Yeah I haven't gotten my email/message about reviewing the product, but I'm pretty much almost done with it. I'm very glad I was able to test this book, and I'm ready at any moment to give a review.

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Blueprint Mithun

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by Blueprint Mithun » Tue May 17, 2016 10:32 pm

StopLawying wrote: But not every book is perfect, and there's one major DISADVANTAGE to using this book that I feel has to be mentioned. What I love about the Manhattan book and the Trainer by Mike Kim is that they both use passages from older tests. These companies do this because they realize the value of saving the newer tests for full length practice exams. Every fresh practice test is precious, especially those from 50+. When learning strategy, only the older tests should be used to illustrate an author's point or for practice. The Blueprint RC book uses a ton of passages from the modern tests as end-of-chapter practice drills and I often found myself having to skip some parts of the book in an effort to "save" fresh practice tests. I assume that students will use this book when they're in the beginning stages of their prep, and so this is something that they'll have to take into account before purchasing this book. Blueprint made the same mistake with their LG book and I was hoping they'd correct it with this book. But that didn't happen.

So overall, there's no better book in terms of methodology, I've read almost all the other RC books and none of them even comes close in terms of strategy. For those struggling with this section, I feel like this book would be tremendously helpful. And even for high RC scorers, there are several tidbits throughout the book that make the book well worth the cost. However, there is that con mentioned above that students need to take into account before deciding whether to buy the book.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10, the best RC book currently out on the market.

Thanks for the honest review! We really appreciate the feedback, and we're glad you enjoyed the book so much.

Regarding the use of newer Reading Comp passages, our belief is that the LSAT has gotten progressively harder in more recent years, and we wanted to use material that reflects that. Reading Comp passages in particular have gotten denser, and the questions that follow them have become more demanding.

While I understand your desire to hold off on those recent tests to save them for full preptest material, there's another dilemma that a lot of students face when using LSAT guides. If a student preps using a guide that focuses exclusively on older test material, and then finds that the actual LSAT is considerably more difficult, that student is out of luck and likely to get a lower score than what they expected. Or they may get extremely discouraged when preptesting with the more recent tests. TLS users are as a whole much more aware of these nuances than the majority of LSAT students, and thus can plan accordingly. But our guide is also meant to serve those who are pressed on time and looking for a single source that can get them as test-ready as possible.

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TexasENG

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by TexasENG » Wed May 18, 2016 9:25 am

Blueprint Mithun wrote:Hello TLSers,

Blueprint has a new book out. It’s a guide on mastering Reading Comprehension, and it’s great.

Even better, we’re giving away 25 FREE copies of The Blueprint for LSAT Reading Comprehension exclusively to TLS users. We’ll even cover shipping. Why are you being so nice to us? What’s the catch, you might be wondering? Well, we simply want to promote our new publication. You guys want to ace the LSAT. All we ask is that is you write up an unbiased review of the book. It’s a win-win for all involved.
Hey Mithun, I wanted to see if this was still on the table. I recently decided that I will be retaking in September, so I'm getting back into the swing of studying. I've scored really well on the LSAT on my previous take(s) and RC has been by far my worst / most inconsistent section. I used the bible on previous tries but found it didn't really do much for me on the RC section.

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Blueprint Mithun

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by Blueprint Mithun » Wed May 18, 2016 10:24 am

TexasENG wrote:
Blueprint Mithun wrote:Hello TLSers,

Blueprint has a new book out. It’s a guide on mastering Reading Comprehension, and it’s great.

Even better, we’re giving away 25 FREE copies of The Blueprint for LSAT Reading Comprehension exclusively to TLS users. We’ll even cover shipping. Why are you being so nice to us? What’s the catch, you might be wondering? Well, we simply want to promote our new publication. You guys want to ace the LSAT. All we ask is that is you write up an unbiased review of the book. It’s a win-win for all involved.
Hey Mithun, I wanted to see if this was still on the table. I recently decided that I will be retaking in September, so I'm getting back into the swing of studying. I've scored really well on the LSAT on my previous take(s) and RC has been by far my worst / most inconsistent section. I used the bible on previous tries but found it didn't really do much for me on the RC section.

Ah, sorry. Wish I could help, but the giveaway ended over a month ago.

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proteinshake

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by proteinshake » Fri Jun 24, 2016 8:09 pm

StopLawying wrote: Rating: 8.5 out of 10, the best RC book currently out on the market.
what rating would you have given Manhattan and the Trainer? 8.5 for the "best RC book on the market" seems harsh, but I guess RC is just a tough section to make a prep book for. :?:

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Barack O'Drama

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by Barack O'Drama » Mon Jun 27, 2016 1:40 am

also interested in what proteinshake asked. I may check out the BP RC book though, if I find a need. I feel like I'm currently overloaded on prep materials 8)
Last edited by Barack O'Drama on Fri Jan 26, 2018 10:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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New_Spice180

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by New_Spice180 » Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:07 am

Barack O'Drama wrote:also interested in what proteinshake asked. I may check out the BP RC book though, if I find a need. I feel like I'm currently overloaded on prep materials 8)
So I got the Trainer and the BP book at the same time, and I just find the BP book to be so enjoyable that I never touched/ used the Trainer for RC( I mainly bought the trainer for LR). Honestly, I like the fact that it's solely dedicated to RC, it treats RC like logic games, and what I mean by that is: it has a systematic formula/setup to approach ANY RC passage. Of course, you should know that formula should be used as a framework rather than canon, but after I was done, I immediately started implementing the strategy and I found the number of questions I get wrong per section went down drastically (from 8-10 to 0-5).


Hope my insight helps :mrgreen:

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Barack O'Drama

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by Barack O'Drama » Mon Jun 27, 2016 11:16 am

New_Spice180 wrote:
Barack O'Drama wrote:also interested in what proteinshake asked. I may check out the BP RC book though, if I find a need. I feel like I'm currently overloaded on prep materials 8)
So I got the Trainer and the BP book at the same time, and I just find the BP book to be so enjoyable that I never touched/ used the Trainer for RC( I mainly bought the trainer for LR). Honestly, I like the fact that it's solely dedicated to RC, it treats RC like logic games, and what I mean by that is: it has a systematic formula/setup to approach ANY RC passage. Of course, you should know that formula should be used as a framework rather than canon, but after I was done, I immediately started implementing the strategy and I found the number of questions I get wrong per section went down drastically (from 8-10 to 0-5).


Hope my insight helps :mrgreen:
Thanks! Im definitely gonna check it out :D
Last edited by Barack O'Drama on Fri Jan 26, 2018 10:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Blueprint FREE Reading Comprehension Book Giveaway

Post by Darby Gloss » Mon Aug 07, 2017 3:16 am

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