LSAT Trainer opinions? Forum

[hinton2014]

So I have been studying for the LSAT for awhile on and off, and starting in February went to it full effort as I am registered in June. I take PT's and have used the Bibles. I found the Bible's okay, but I'm still just not doing as well as I'd like. I went on Amazon and saw the LSAT Trainer on sale, so I copped it. Is the general consensus that this is the best book?

[proteinshake]

I recommend Trainer, then moving on to the Manhattan LR and LG books. Manhattan is simply amazing.

[hinton2014]

I recommend Trainer, then moving on to the Manhattan LR and LG books. Manhattan is simply amazing.

I may have to invest in those after I finish the trainer. I chose to do the 8 week plan of the trainer to give myself about 4 weeks before the June LSAT to just drill and take PT's like it's nobody's business. I have a general foundation of the test itself, but haven't been able to see the foundation transition to actual results.

[galeatus]

I wouldn't say it's the best book, but it's a great book with useful insights that can really help when used together with the bibles

[Rupert Pupkin]

I recommend Trainer, then moving on to the Manhattan LR and LG books. Manhattan is simply amazing.

I have done the BIbles and doing this exactly as proteinshake suggested. So far doing well. But just getting into Manhattan as we speak. I found the Trainer very helpful after you are familiar with the material. if you dont know how to solve basic questions (which you do) before it, I dont think you would be able to truly understand and retain everything. I find it especially helpful in LR and RC. LG i wasn't impressed and skipped over most the LG.

[Platopus]

Personally, I didn't like the Trainer. I honestly didn't give it much of a look through because I was wayyyyy too distracted. The book is trying to be aesthetic or something, and it didn't jive with me. I found that there was no consistent way to locate the most valuable material, so I gave up pretty quick. I really like Manhattan though. I found that their question explanations were the most helpful. Powerscore I think is the most helpful when the test is completely new and you need to learn what each question is asking.

[tanes25]

I love The LSAT Trainer. I would've bought the book just for the flaw sections. I also really like the RC sections. Everything seems to be so vague about RC and I found that the Trainer actually had some meat to it. I didn't really care for Manhattan RC. I have Manhattan LR but I've never really given it a fair shot because I saw lots of improvement with The LSAT Trainer for LR. I skipped over the LG sections and used the 7Sage videos. It's my personal opinion that 7Sage and The LSAT Trainer is the way to go for self study.

[YBF-W]

Personally, I didn't like the Trainer. I honestly didn't give it much of a look through because I was wayyyyy too distracted. The book is trying to be aesthetic or something, and it didn't jive with me. I found that there was no consistent way to locate the most valuable material, so I gave up pretty quick. I really like Manhattan though. I found that their question explanations were the most helpful. Powerscore I think is the most helpful when the test is completely new and you need to learn what each question is asking.

For the Manhattan, did you find it generally most helpful? Or was it most helpful for logic games? What about in comparison to powerscore?

[ZVBXRPL]

Blah trainer was filled with obvious thoughts.

[Platopus]

For the Manhattan, did you find it generally most helpful? Or was it most helpful for logic games? What about in comparison to powerscore?

I didn't use Manhattan for LG, so I can't speak to its efficacy. For LR and RC, I wouldn't say it was necessarily the most helpful. I think it is best utilized after going through the Powerscore LR bible, since I feel like Powerscore does a better job explaining the question types. Manhattan is useful for when you have a solid familiarity with the test and are already reasonably fluent in the language of the LSAT. Manhattan does a great job of helping you understand the most difficult questions, whereas Powescore is good for building a solid foundation.

[proteinshake]

For the Manhattan, did you find it generally most helpful? Or was it most helpful for logic games? What about in comparison to powerscore?

I found the Manhattan LG to be waaaaay better than the PS LG. LR for both companies aren't too different.

[Aurelius85]

The Trainer is great at deconstructing non-inference LR questions. The LR Bible is basically an overview of LR, but it doesn't teach you how to approach LR questions, that's what the Trainer does. "Fails to consider" and "Takes for granted" are my go to phrases when I tackle LR questions, the Trainer taught me those. The only criticism that I can think of is that it doesn't deconstruct or analyze inference related LR questions, it just sort of glosses over them. Other than that, the Trainer is great at developing a strategy and shaping your mentality in tackling Flaw, Assumption, Strengthen, Weaken, and Paradox questions.

[brinicolec]

Liked it. Didn't love it. I'd say it's best for LR... The LG stuff isn't bad either but if you're gonna use the Bible or something, I'm sure you could go without Trainer.

[YBF-W]

Well I recently started using it for my second study go round. I previously used powerscore. I've only covered LR and LG so far in the trainer. The trainer definitely does not go into the level of detail powerscore does. Powerscore gets nearly mechanical in presenting how to attack questions. Trainer works off the idea that the step by step mechanics as used in powerscore isn't necessary since when you are answering a question, assuming you've built up good intuition, your thinking should be simplified, not overly methodical. For example the trainer does not have as many subtypes for LR and games. "Flaw" questions cover assumptions, justify the conclusion, flaw in reasoning, etc. I think this approach is useful for me, but largely because the powerscore did help me solidify a good foundation and build good intuition. And when I answer a question about, for example, assumptions vs jtc, I never think explicitly "this is an assumption question, so the answer choice must be sufficient/necessary (?) for the conclusion to hold". If I do this, I'll lose time bc I won't be able to remember​ and may confuse myself and get the question wrong. But if I simplify my thinking and think logically about what I'm being asked, I'll usually get the answer right. Trainer gets many point for helping to develop good mentality.

One thing trainer suggests that I'm not sure is good strategy is reading the question stem first before the stimulus. I was very surprised to read this, but maybe it's because powerscore made a strong argument against doing this and I assumed all the highly recommended books would be in agreement.

Lastly, I could barely get through the trainer's first section on logic games. 1)my diagramming is not the problem so it felt overly rudimentary but 2) I really did not like it's suggested technique to use subscripts as a default instead of layering linear games (advanced linear games). It easily felt like worse strategy, not visually powerful, and very easy to get confused.

But from what I hear, RC with trainer is really good. And that's my worst area so I'm really hoping it will help pull me through strongly here.

[Barack O'Drama]

I really love The LSAT Trainer. However, I think it's best for certain students who are really self-starters.

I also love Kim's approach and mentality regarding the LSAT. He really has a unique view and it taught me more about how to think about the test/question. He is really good at "equating smart with simple"

I also used 7Sage/Manhattan I'm actually going through the Trainer again hoping to improve on my RC and review all the wonderful advice in the book.

One thing I also enjoyed was that Mike is encouraging and really makes me feel like I can accomplish a great score if I work hard.

It does start off slow, so if you already know the basics you may want to just skip the first few lessons.

[180pedia]

Manhattan LG is probably worth it just for the chapter on rule replacement questions. It's really well done, and it's super helpful for a relatively uncommon question type.

For people using the Trainer, don't forget the companion site. MK is super available and helpful.

[proteinshake]

Manhattan LG is probably worth it just for the chapter on rule replacement questions. It's really well done, and it's super helpful for a relatively uncommon question type.

For people using the Trainer, don't forget the companion site. MK is super available and helpful.

I'd also say it's worth it for the chapter on Logic Chains.

[180pedia]

Manhattan LG is probably worth it just for the chapter on rule replacement questions. It's really well done, and it's super helpful for a relatively uncommon question type.

For people using the Trainer, don't forget the companion site. MK is super available and helpful.

I'd also say it's worth it for the chapter on Logic Chains.

Yeah - that's fair. Personally, I'm not the fastest writer, so I found my own semi-janky way of doing something similar.

http://i.imgur.com/8XxESXh.jpg?1

One day I will be able to embed images.

[potus]

For people using the Trainer, don't forget the companion site. MK is super available and helpful.

This. I love the test tracker that the site provides, and playing the LSAT arcade.

I thought the Trainer was good, but I thought it provides a general overview that covers everything and then unsatisfied when going deeper. The Manhattan Prep books were great and loved the RC one especially. I haven't had too great of an experience with the Bibles. I also loved Blueprint when starting out.

[Mikey]

For people using the Trainer, don't forget the companion site. MK is super available and helpful.

This. I love the test tracker that the site provides, and playing the LSAT arcade.

I thought the Trainer was good, but I thought it provides a general overview that covers everything and then unsatisfied when going deeper. The Manhattan Prep books were great and loved the RC one especially. I haven't had too great of an experience with the Bibles. I also loved Blueprint when starting out.

What is this LSAT arcade thing you speak of?

[potus]

For people using the Trainer, don't forget the companion site. MK is super available and helpful.

This. I love the test tracker that the site provides, and playing the LSAT arcade.

I thought the Trainer was good, but I thought it provides a general overview that covers everything and then unsatisfied when going deeper. The Manhattan Prep books were great and loved the RC one especially. I haven't had too great of an experience with the Bibles. I also loved Blueprint when starting out.

What is this LSAT arcade thing you speak of?

https://www.manhattanprep.com/lsat/arcade/start/

Loved the If and Then game. Having trouble getting it running now, though...