Question to those who studied the bibles and took a course Forum

[hellojd]

Hey everyone,

As the title suggest, I have a question to those of you who went through the PS LG and LR bibles, and also decided to take a prep class. The reviews on this forum convinced me 110% that I need to go through the bibles, so I had no doubt in my mind I needed to order them.

I finally ordered the bibles yesterday, and am planning to take the June lsat. I hope to take a diag next weekend and decide my study plan based on that. I hope to score in the mid 170s. I was thinking about taking the Atlas LSAT self-study prep course - based on my research, it seemed that Atlas, testmasters, and blueprint were the best courses for someone hoping to score into the 98-99th percentiles, and out of these Atlas seemed to grab my attention the most.

Anyways, my question is this: did you all find that doing both were counterproductive to each other, or were they able to supplement each other? E.g. were the techniques taught contradictory, timing tips different, etc? Did it get confusing to do both?

I am 100% sure I want to go through the bibles, but am wondering if a prepclass would, at this point, simply confuse me.

Thanks in advance!

[makingwaves]

Hey everyone,

As the title suggest, I have a question to those of you who went through the PS LG and LR bibles, and also decided to take a prep class. The reviews on this forum convinced me 110% that I need to go through the bibles, so I had no doubt in my mind I needed to order them.

I finally ordered the bibles yesterday, and am planning to take the June lsat. I hope to take a diag next weekend and decide my study plan based on that. I hope to score in the mid 170s. I was thinking about taking the Atlas LSAT self-study prep course - based on my research, it seemed that Atlas, testmasters, and blueprint were the best courses for someone hoping to score into the 98-99th percentiles, and out of these Atlas seemed to grab my attention the most.

Anyways, my question is this: did you all find that doing both were counterproductive to each other, or were they able to supplement each other? E.g. were the techniques taught contradictory, timing tips different, etc? Did it get confusing to do both?

I am 100% sure I want to go through the bibles, but am wondering if a prepclass would, at this point, simply confuse me.

Thanks in advance!

I am concerned about this as well as i'm taking in June too. I have the bibles and i'm going to take Blueprint's online class... My strategy thus far is just skimming the bibles and learning about the test itself and how to approach it in a general sense, then I will supplement withthe bibles when I start the class.

The way I look at it is a little different. While I thought about the possibility that two methods might confuse me, I chose to utilize the class as my primary method of study and use the bibles as a reference in case I don’t understand Blueprint’s way of approaching a type of LR question, a game setup, etc. While this may not be the case for you, I am finding this to be improving my confidence in my study plan and actually easing my stress a little as I know I have more than one resource to go to in case I don’t understand one way or the other.

[scribelaw]

FWIW, I took a prep course after I'd gone through the Bibles. It didn't confuse me, but a class doesn't provide what you need to score 170+. Most courses are going to teach people how to go from 145 to 155, or 155 to 160. That's how mine was, anyway.

I don't think the course hurt -- it was nice to break down problems in class, hear the teacher's perspective on different question types, etc.

My feeling is, taking a course is fine, but treat it like a supplement to the most important parts of studying, which which are the Bibles and doing as many past tests as possible (including timed PTs with a fifth section for the experimental).

[z*z]

I can only offer anectdotal evidence on this topic and my score (90th) is not what you say you are aiming for. That being said, I took a Kaplan twelve week course prior to my first LSAT and my score was not satisfactory (largely due to a lack of adequate effort on my part. After my first score I discovered TLS and the bibles and developed a study plan around the bibles. To me, self study with the bibles was much more effective. The largest problem I had with the course method was that class discussion inevitably became concerned with the problems that the group as a whole were having and the focus was not necessarily on the areas that I as individual needed to improve on. I truly believe that with even greater effort on my part at mastering the techniques in the bibles I could have done much better. My view is that powerscore offers a much more succint and systematic approach to the sections and the bibles designed with higher scorers in mind. Hope this is helpful.

[neimanmarxist]

I've been lying in wait for this thread for a long time, because I wanted to warn someone.

I did both. I studied the bibles, and I was taking the practice tests on my own- one every 3 days -and seeing my score improve steadily. I think I went from a 163 (diagnostic) to a 174 within 10 practice tests ( I read all 3 bibles first, did all the workbook stuff in them, then started doing the PTs.)

For some reason, I got nervous and I enrolled in a Testmasters class.

BIG MISTAKE.

If you see improvement just by taking a dozen PTs, you will likely see improvement as you continue to do so. Give yourself a month, class-free, to see how you fare after just going through the bibles.

The reason I found the class to be counter-productive is that they DO NOT emphasize the timed nature of the LSAT enough. It's like they give you these workbooks where the problems are grouped all together, like, 150 "flaw in the reasoning" questions. even if you're timing yourself and trying to do the HW quickly, it's not the same as taking a timed section where the problem types are all "mixed." I went from my 174 PTs to a 165 on my second diagnostic after a month of Testmasters.

Read the "how to score 160 + on the LSAT " thread. Pithypike's study method is also very good. Personally I found just the bibles and repeated attempts to take the LSAT, TIMED, followed by careful review of incorrect answers, to be the best way to do it. Others may disagree, but I felt that $1500 spent on the Testmasters hurt me more than it helped me.

[neimanmarxist]

one more thing, sorry;
One of the big risks with these classes is that there's no "trial period." Sometimes, you get a really awesome teacher. Other times, you don't.

I experienced a first-hand change in teacher quality because our teacher *left* in the middle of the class. He was really young, and frankly, not that great an instructor. He'd be like, "B is the right answer because B describes the flaw in the reasoning which is happening in the stimulus." No shit, sherlock.

So anyway our teacher left mid-class and the teacher that replaced him- whom they had to re-locate from another city- was really fantastic.

It's a crapshoot who your teacher is going to be. Teach yourself, save the money, and be better trained to begin with. Just my $0.02

[hellojd]

Thanks for the replies guys, very helpful advice.

Going from this... I guess I'll try the "teach myself" method with the bibles and PTs first. I didn't get the RC bible, but hopefully I can improve on that as well through SuperPrep.

[UTexas]

I had a great TestMasters experience, so I wouldn't rule that out based on one horror story. I'm not sure that I couldn't have reached the same level through self-study, but I liked having the structure the course provided.

Anyway, I took TM and used the PS bibles later on. The TM and PS methods are largely the same, so there's no real conflict in using both. I'm not sure I would recommend using the PS bibles and Atlas materials in conjunction, though, because the methods are substantially different. I believe Blueprint is also basically the same as TM. Unless I'm mistaken, Blueprint and PS were both founded by former TM employees.

[cavebat2000]

I did not find that they were counterproductive. But I will say that by the end of the course you should know your strengths and weaknesses and plan to spend the rest of the time before your LSAT focusing on your weaknesses. That means breaking down WHY exactly you are missing those types of questions.

LG was my weakness, so I did 4 LG twice a day for 3 months straight, redoing the ones I did less than 100% on over and over until I got them 100% correct and under the time limit. That helped me a TON.

Take the class, buy the books, do everything you can but focus on getting every single question correct, or all that money and time will be nearly worthless.

[lechic12]

Should I read the Bibles before taking the class or during?

[neimanmarxist]

before. there is so much homework when you are in the class, there is no way you can spare the time to read bibles too.