How much did Testmasters help you? (First diag to 4th diag) Forum

[JS1986]

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[thedogship]

I took testmasters. My second diag was below my intitial one and i freaked. Turns out I shouldn't have. My third diag was improved, and my fourth one was well-improved. It's not abnormal for the 2nd one to be below the first since you have a bunch of new material in your head that you are thinking about. The trick is to make that new material second nature through practice and repetition.

The rule with that class (as it should be for all lsat classes or preparation) is that you can't rely on the class alone to get you a good score. A good score is going to be earned in doing practice work on your own, and certainly taking practice exams on your own.

Also, a lot depends on your instructor. Mine was phenomenal; smart, funny, cared about his students, etc... but I know there are some that are not as good. The problem with these LSAT classes, and certainly testmasters, is that they base a lot of the hiring on how well the instructor scored on the lsat, not how great a teacher they are. But for the most part I think they are decent.

The bottom line is that after your third diag, you should definitely be taking regular practice exams all the time (hell, they give you a ton to do on your own on the TM website. There's not excuse not to do them all and more). Make it part of your daily routine to at least do partial exams or multiple sections. Plus, those instruction books give you more practice problems than you can deal with. Do as many as you can. If you're not rocking the test after taking a few diag tests, the only way you will improve is thru practice, and that means work on your own outside of the TM class periods. Don't come away on test day wishing you had done more practice exams.

(Cue up Allen Iverson "We talkin' about practice" clip here to undercut all I've said)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eGDBR2L5kzI

[NiftyDolphin]

^I wish Allen Iverson was a Testmasters instructor.

"How the hell am I suppose to make these students better by practice!"

[nipplehead]

Yeah so I'm almost done with Testmasters. One bad thing is I have only finished 3 of their homework books so far, but I have been to every class. A second bad thing is my diagnostics have been the same as my first, cold diagnostic (162).

Do Testmasters courses really help, or is it just the homework they assign? Because I have gone to every lecture and it seems like I haven't really improved. (Just took the 3rd diagnostic today btw.)

Do the lectures help or not really? As nice as the instructors are, I feel like maybe the course itself doesn't help, but the bookwork alone does.

(Also I am talking about only the diagnostics with them. So if you improved from self-study after the course, please just post your answer responding to the 4th TM diagnostic only.)

i kept up with the books (for the most part.) i never did an entire homework book, but i'd do 20-30 of the questions of an assigned section per night. then, once the class was over, i still had a good amount to practice with. i spent the 3-4 weeks before the LSAT merely doing the questions that i didn't cover in the 15 books. i found that it helped.

if you have only done 3 of the books, that's probably your problem; the best practice for the LSAT is doing actual questions, and that's where Testmasters is solid - they give you every question.

i went from 167 on my cold to 174 on my second, 172 on my third, 175 on my fourth, and 177 on the actual test.

my buddy started out at the same level as you (162). he was testing at 172 right before the test, using the same strategy as me, but only hit 168 on the actual test.

[chill06]

I started with a cold diagnostic of 156 and ended with a 173 on the real test.

My strategy with Testmasters after the first couple of diagnostics was to figure out which question types I really understood and which gave me the most difficulty. After that I focused on the problems of the question types that were the hardest for me outside of class (I would skip some nightly hw and go back and finish old sections with the harder problem types for me). I used that strategy after the second diagnostic after I went down to 154. I bumped up to 162 by the third diagnostic.

After the third diag I really focused on taking timed practice tests off their site. This was a HUGE help for me because I really began to understand the flow of the test. I took three of the online diagnostics between the third and fourth Testmasters diagnostic and in each one my score improved. By the fourth diagnostic I bumped my score to 168. After the fourth diagnostic I really focused on the few question types left that were giving me trouble (freakin parallel reasoning) and continued to time myself taking the practice tests. Two nights before the LSAT rolled around I scored 174 on a practice test.

Take all the practice tests you can! They made a HUGE difference for me. Good luck!

[pad]

i went to all the classes and did the hw and my score stayed exactly the same minus 1 or 2 points

[ddorner04]

First TM diag: 153
Highest TM diag: 170
Actual LSAT: 167

[VWRescue]

18 point improvement here, from 150s into the 170s on the actual test

[LSATonMe]

I think there may be a difference between the January (1 month TM course) vs the 2-3 month course. I'm taking the Jan course, and my improvement has been minimal. I was scoring in the high 150's low 160's in November on self-study from the PS books and actual exams. Then i decided to postpone Dec to Feb and signed up for the TM course in Jan after all the hype.

Great course, but the one month course has more disadvantages than the 2-3 mnth imo. I am now scoring in the mid 150's (after a 150 on first diag after taking December off to "unlearn" bad habits). I also work fulltime and find it EXTREMELY difficult to get through all the HW and exams and have started getting up extra early and doing sections during my lunches. Even classmates who aren't working have indicated struggling with an overwhelming amount of material in one month.

however, I would recommend taking this course (or PS, anyone take that AND the books and find any difference or additional insight from in-class room setting?) I hope to break the 160's come exam time and have called on the gods to incorporate a spiritual strategy at this point.

[NiftyDolphin]

I'm sure you'll be fine. Just curious: How much time out of class does Testmasters require?

[builicious]

I took TestMasters for the September test. My instructor wasn't very good... great person, just not so good at teaching. It was useful to learn the skills, but the instruction was so confusing that it was more effort for me to re-teach myself how to get through the test. That being said, I put more of my effort into trying to correct the confusing, imprecise "tools" from my class than actually mastering the test. I got a 160 on my first diag cold, and by the fourth one, I was scoring 170, solidly on at home tests & diags. I scored between the two on my actual test, which might have been nerves, unpreparedness or my poor test taking abilities... either way, it was helpful, but I really think some classes are better than others depending on the instruction. What it comes down to is really how much effort you put into it yourself.

[LSATonMe]

NiftyDolphin: I'd say they expect you to do homework problems outside of class. The entire course is 80 hours of classroom time, that translates to Sun 10-2, Tue-Thu 6-10, and Sat 10-2 (2 sundays include an additional 3-7 jam session, making them 8 hour days). Outside of this, there is DAILY homework that would take at least a few hours each AND diagnostics to take, timed sections, and review of sections etc, all in one month.

Don't forget to factor in time spent on Forums.

[Mosel]

First Diag: 155
Second Diag 159
Third Diag: 162
Fourth Diag: 169
Then about 12 prep-tests on my owned under timed conditions: highest score was a 176, but average on those was a 172

Real thing: 168

so...yeah...I choked a bit. Get off!

[NiftyDolphin]

NiftyDolphin: I'd say they expect you to do homework problems outside of class. The entire course is 80 hours of classroom time, that translates to Sun 10-2, Tue-Thu 6-10, and Sat 10-2 (2 sundays include an additional 3-7 jam session, making them 8 hour days). Outside of this, there is DAILY homework that would take at least a few hours each AND diagnostics to take, timed sections, and review of sections etc

That certainly is a lot of work. From what I understand, a month long course for Testmasters is more on the shorter end for a full-time class which, in turn, makes it more condensed. I wouldn't kick yourself for not seeing the improvement, especially given your busy schedule.

Don't forget to factor in time spent on Forums.

Too true.

[breanne2011]

I started with a cold diagnostic of 156 and ended with a 173 on the real test.

Woahhhh...same here. EXACTLY. I got 17 wrong on the games section alone haha. I got a 163 on my second one, a 167 on the 3rd and a 168 on my last diag. The first time I took the LSAT I got a 167 (but I was taking 20 credits, including some very time-consuming classes--not to make excuses but I knew I wasn't able to devote as much time as I needed to the test and I could do better.) I studied on my own for that summer using their materials as well as the PowerScore books and I knew that test inside and out. Got a 173 the second time around. The only thing I would do differently is practice more on the games. I got over half my questions wrong on that section, and that's a section that can be improved with practice/familiarity. But you like to stick with what you're good at so I would practice the other sections much more than the games.

[jennyray13]

Yes! I have been looking for actual data like this on Testmasters for a while. They seem pretty good.

[JackieTreehorn]

I took the compressed course in January. My instructor was great. I got a 160 on the first diagnostic (though 164 on my own pre-testmasters diagnostic w/o studying). My diagnostics ranged a bit and I got a 170 on the actual test.

I'm probably going to take it again. Any testmasters veterans do this and recommend a particular course of action? I'm planning on ordering the powerscore bibles and reviewing the testmasters materials. Are these two redundant?

[birdmann783]

bump.....



ive recently started testmasters and im kinda experiencing that difficulty making the jump in pt's
can anybody else share their experiences and their score ranges

i went from 157 on my diag to 155 on sept 2006 (brutal rc questions)

[UTexas]

168, 171, 172, 177

178 in December.

[DannyJames]

i thought it would help me more, but i cannot put my own experience in front of the large number of 5+ point improvements for those that have taken the class

[madcherrylimas]

156, 164, 163, 172. Scored 170.

It started out as my strongest section, so I didn't bother studying the reading comp sections except towards the end... I shouldn't have done that. :/

I did every logic game and by the end was scoring perfect on games sections, but on the test day something stopped clicking and I nearly ran out of time and missed four... BUT, the good thing about Testmasters is you get all the logic games you need to practice practice practice until you get it.

I found it helped to keep a folder of all the questions I got wrong my last two weeks before the test and review them. I found my teacher to be very helpful, but -- I think it's important to know how to get the most out of your teacher. Ask questions until you understand. They also have a call hotline that was pretty helpful.

[birdmann783]

the issue with me is that im pretty solid on lg ....i need help in lr badly.