Need New LSAT Prep Tools? 8-10 pt Improvement Forum

[ksparkley]

Hey TLS people,

I am current lurker of the TLS for a couple of months now and I thought I'd post on here for some advice about LSAT Prep tools. So currently, I am set to take the December 2017 LSAT and I need to improve my score about 8-10 more points. When I first took a LSAT preptest without a course, I got a 145 (horrific, I know). However, I managed to increase it to a 158-162 after 3 months of studying with Blueprint online. Usually, LR is the hardest, then RC and then LG, I usually get -12-16 wrong on LR, -6-8 wrong on RC and 3-6 wrong on LG. Also, I have plateaued at this score and need to know if including these LSAT prep tools would help:

LSAT Trainer for LR improvement
Manhattan Interact Online for LR/RC improvement and to brush up on LG.
I heard Manhattan was really great with strategies for Weaken/Strengthen/Sufficient Assumption/Necessary Assumption questions which is what I ALWAYS have problems with.

Also, I am having trouble finishing sections on time, but I heard that this gets better when you have a better strategy at attacking questions?

Also, I would be interested in tutoring if someone could recommend a person or company?

Thanks for the input in advance!

[studystudystudy]

I actually used 7sage and then decided to take a Manhattan online course because I'm about the same as you for LR but worse for RC. Thus far, I love everything I've been using on Manhattan. They have tricks and bring forth insight to certain question types that 7sage did not. That being said, learned all I needed in terms of LG from 7sage. 7sage tutors are wonderful as well, and you don't need a course through them to utilize the tutors.

For timing, do you skip questions? This is huge and there's actually an entire webinar on 7sage about skipping that is super helpful as well.

[ksparkley]

Hey studystudystudy,

I like your name because literally I'm in the same freaking boat rn. But anyway, I appreciate your reply. Yeah, I think I'm going to try Manhattan, I've heard good things about them! Have you tried 7sage tutoring? Also, yeah, I usually try not to skip questions, but maybe I should? However, what did 7sage say about it? Do you have the link to the article btw? Thanks for the help!

[ksparkley]

I actually used 7sage and then decided to take a Manhattan online course because I'm about the same as you for LR but worse for RC. Thus far, I love everything I've been using on Manhattan. They have tricks and bring forth insight to certain question types that 7sage did not. That being said, learned all I needed in terms of LG from 7sage. 7sage tutors are wonderful as well, and you don't need a course through them to utilize the tutors.

For timing, do you skip questions? This is huge and there's actually an entire webinar on 7sage about skipping that is super helpful as well.

I like your name because literally I'm in the same freaking boat rn. But anyway, I appreciate your reply. Yeah, I think I'm going to try Manhattan, I've heard good things about them! Have you tried 7sage tutoring? Also, yeah, I usually try not to skip questions, but maybe I should? However, what did 7sage say about it? Do you have the link to the article btw? Thanks for the help!

[Tape Dog]

Hey TLS people,

I am current lurker of the TLS for a couple of months now and I thought I'd post on here for some advice about LSAT Prep tools. So currently, I am set to take the December 2017 LSAT and I need to improve my score about 8-10 more points. When I first took a LSAT preptest without a course, I got a 145 (horrific, I know). However, I managed to increase it to a 158-162 after 3 months of studying with Blueprint online. Usually, LR is the hardest, then RC and then LG, I usually get -12-16 wrong on LR, -6-8 wrong on RC and 3-6 wrong on LG. Also, I have plateaued at this score and need to know if including these LSAT prep tools would help:

LSAT Trainer for LR improvement
Manhattan Interact Online for LR/RC improvement and to brush up on LG.
I heard Manhattan was really great with strategies for Weaken/Strengthen/Sufficient Assumption/Necessary Assumption questions which is what I ALWAYS have problems with.

Also, I am having trouble finishing sections on time, but I heard that this gets better when you have a better strategy at attacking questions?

Also, I would be interested in tutoring if someone could recommend a person or company?

Thanks for the input in advance!

I hired a tutor and it made all the difference.

[studystudystudy]

I actually used 7sage and then decided to take a Manhattan online course because I'm about the same as you for LR but worse for RC. Thus far, I love everything I've been using on Manhattan. They have tricks and bring forth insight to certain question types that 7sage did not. That being said, learned all I needed in terms of LG from 7sage. 7sage tutors are wonderful as well, and you don't need a course through them to utilize the tutors.

For timing, do you skip questions? This is huge and there's actually an entire webinar on 7sage about skipping that is super helpful as well.

I like your name because literally I'm in the same freaking boat rn. But anyway, I appreciate your reply. Yeah, I think I'm going to try Manhattan, I've heard good things about them! Have you tried 7sage tutoring? Also, yeah, I usually try not to skip questions, but maybe I should? However, what did 7sage say about it? Do you have the link to the article btw? Thanks for the help!

Yeah, I've used 7sage tutoring and they are all awesome and I truly mean that. They know what they are talking about and are quite affordable. I definitely think skipping is huge because it gives you the time needed at the end of the section to tackle those brutal ?s with unlimited(-ish) focus. Sometimes I read the stimulus and think "wtf did I just read" and come back to it and it's so incredibly apparent. Sometimes you just need a pair of fresh eyes. I think you might need a 7sage course to watch the webinars, my b.

[ksparkley]

Hey TLS people,

I am current lurker of the TLS for a couple of months now and I thought I'd post on here for some advice about LSAT Prep tools. So currently, I am set to take the December 2017 LSAT and I need to improve my score about 8-10 more points. When I first took a LSAT preptest without a course, I got a 145 (horrific, I know). However, I managed to increase it to a 158-162 after 3 months of studying with Blueprint online. Usually, LR is the hardest, then RC and then LG, I usually get -12-16 wrong on LR, -6-8 wrong on RC and 3-6 wrong on LG. Also, I have plateaued at this score and need to know if including these LSAT prep tools would help:

LSAT Trainer for LR improvement
Manhattan Interact Online for LR/RC improvement and to brush up on LG.
I heard Manhattan was really great with strategies for Weaken/Strengthen/Sufficient Assumption/Necessary Assumption questions which is what I ALWAYS have problems with.

Also, I am having trouble finishing sections on time, but I heard that this gets better when you have a better strategy at attacking questions?

Also, I would be interested in tutoring if someone could recommend a person or company?

Thanks for the input in advance!

I hired a tutor and it made all the difference.

Thanks for the help! I think Imma for sure check it out!

[ksparkley]

I actually used 7sage and then decided to take a Manhattan online course because I'm about the same as you for LR but worse for RC. Thus far, I love everything I've been using on Manhattan. They have tricks and bring forth insight to certain question types that 7sage did not. That being said, learned all I needed in terms of LG from 7sage. 7sage tutors are wonderful as well, and you don't need a course through them to utilize the tutors.

For timing, do you skip questions? This is huge and there's actually an entire webinar on 7sage about skipping that is super helpful as well.

I like your name because literally I'm in the same freaking boat rn. But anyway, I appreciate your reply. Yeah, I think I'm going to try Manhattan, I've heard good things about them! Have you tried 7sage tutoring? Also, yeah, I usually try not to skip questions, but maybe I should? However, what did 7sage say about it? Do you have the link to the article btw? Thanks for the help!

Yeah, I've used 7sage tutoring and they are all awesome and I truly mean that. They know what they are talking about and are quite affordable. I definitely think skipping is huge because it gives you the time needed at the end of the section to tackle those brutal ?s with unlimited(-ish) focus. Sometimes I read the stimulus and think "wtf did I just read" and come back to it and it's so incredibly apparent. Sometimes you just need a pair of fresh eyes. I think you might need a 7sage course to watch the webinars, my b.

Ohhhh, I see, okay so skip the difficult ones and then come back to them and try to finish the rest of the section. Also, I heard for timing that you should try to get the first 10 questions down in 10 minutes, but idk how realistic this is... Thanks for the advice, I'm going to check the 7sage thing out rn. Also, have you tried that blind review method or fool proof method.. Idk if any of those are worth it tho... I'mma research some more tho...

[studystudystudy]

I actually used 7sage and then decided to take a Manhattan online course because I'm about the same as you for LR but worse for RC. Thus far, I love everything I've been using on Manhattan. They have tricks and bring forth insight to certain question types that 7sage did not. That being said, learned all I needed in terms of LG from 7sage. 7sage tutors are wonderful as well, and you don't need a course through them to utilize the tutors.

For timing, do you skip questions? This is huge and there's actually an entire webinar on 7sage about skipping that is super helpful as well.

I like your name because literally I'm in the same freaking boat rn. But anyway, I appreciate your reply. Yeah, I think I'm going to try Manhattan, I've heard good things about them! Have you tried 7sage tutoring? Also, yeah, I usually try not to skip questions, but maybe I should? However, what did 7sage say about it? Do you have the link to the article btw? Thanks for the help!

Yeah, I've used 7sage tutoring and they are all awesome and I truly mean that. They know what they are talking about and are quite affordable. I definitely think skipping is huge because it gives you the time needed at the end of the section to tackle those brutal ?s with unlimited(-ish) focus. Sometimes I read the stimulus and think "wtf did I just read" and come back to it and it's so incredibly apparent. Sometimes you just need a pair of fresh eyes. I think you might need a 7sage course to watch the webinars, my b.

Ohhhh, I see, okay so skip the difficult ones and then come back to them and try to finish the rest of the section. Also, I heard for timing that you should try to get the first 10 questions down in 10 minutes, but idk how realistic this is... Thanks for the advice, I'm going to check the 7sage thing out rn. Also, have you tried that blind review method or fool proof method.. Idk if any of those are worth it tho... I'mma research some more tho...

I almost fool proofed games 1-30 and that got me from -9 average to -2ish. Lack of practicing those continuously led to being a little fuzzy on them so I fully believe in fool proofing games. Blind review is super helpful, as it shows your potential. It identifies your weaknesses for the questions that you are missing regardless if you are under timed or untimed conditions and where you need to drill or have a better approach/understanding on. I'm a fan of both, but I do believe there are times where you don't necessarily need to be BRing every single test.

[ksparkley]

I actually used 7sage and then decided to take a Manhattan online course because I'm about the same as you for LR but worse for RC. Thus far, I love everything I've been using on Manhattan. They have tricks and bring forth insight to certain question types that 7sage did not. That being said, learned all I needed in terms of LG from 7sage. 7sage tutors are wonderful as well, and you don't need a course through them to utilize the tutors.

For timing, do you skip questions? This is huge and there's actually an entire webinar on 7sage about skipping that is super helpful as well.

I like your name because literally I'm in the same freaking boat rn. But anyway, I appreciate your reply. Yeah, I think I'm going to try Manhattan, I've heard good things about them! Have you tried 7sage tutoring? Also, yeah, I usually try not to skip questions, but maybe I should? However, what did 7sage say about it? Do you have the link to the article btw? Thanks for the help!

Yeah, I've used 7sage tutoring and they are all awesome and I truly mean that. They know what they are talking about and are quite affordable. I definitely think skipping is huge because it gives you the time needed at the end of the section to tackle those brutal ?s with unlimited(-ish) focus. Sometimes I read the stimulus and think "wtf did I just read" and come back to it and it's so incredibly apparent. Sometimes you just need a pair of fresh eyes. I think you might need a 7sage course to watch the webinars, my b.

Ohhhh, I see, okay so skip the difficult ones and then come back to them and try to finish the rest of the section. Also, I heard for timing that you should try to get the first 10 questions down in 10 minutes, but idk how realistic this is... Thanks for the advice, I'm going to check the 7sage thing out rn. Also, have you tried that blind review method or fool proof method.. Idk if any of those are worth it tho... I'mma research some more tho...

I almost fool proofed games 1-30 and that got me from -9 average to -2ish. Lack of practicing those continuously led to being a little fuzzy on them so I fully believe in fool proofing games. Blind review is super helpful, as it shows your potential. It identifies your weaknesses for the questions that you are missing regardless if you are under timed or untimed conditions and where you need to drill or have a better approach/understanding on. I'm a fan of both, but I do believe there are times where you don't necessarily need to be BRing every single test.

Oh I see so fool proofing is more for the benefit of practicing different types of games and repeating the ones you didn't understand at a later date.

So for LG you fool proof with 7sage explanations and then LR you used Manhattan with some blind review and then what did you use for RC, just wondering if you had a specific method that worked for you?

Thanks for all the help!

[ri.co]

Hey TLS people,

I am current lurker of the TLS for a couple of months now and I thought I'd post on here for some advice about LSAT Prep tools. So currently, I am set to take the December 2017 LSAT and I need to improve my score about 8-10 more points. When I first took a LSAT preptest without a course, I got a 145 (horrific, I know). However, I managed to increase it to a 158-162 after 3 months of studying with Blueprint online. Usually, LR is the hardest, then RC and then LG, I usually get -12-16 wrong on LR, -6-8 wrong on RC and 3-6 wrong on LG. Also, I have plateaued at this score and need to know if including these LSAT prep tools would help:

LSAT Trainer for LR improvement
Manhattan Interact Online for LR/RC improvement and to brush up on LG.
I heard Manhattan was really great with strategies for Weaken/Strengthen/Sufficient Assumption/Necessary Assumption questions which is what I ALWAYS have problems with.

Also, I am having trouble finishing sections on time, but I heard that this gets better when you have a better strategy at attacking questions?

Also, I would be interested in tutoring if someone could recommend a person or company?

Thanks for the input in advance!

I hired a tutor and it made all the difference.

Did u find a private one? Or a test prep one?

[AJordan]

Full disclosure/am LSAT tutor.

Tutors, in my opinion, can save you time and money, but they're not cheap. For that reason I would advise that you don't sign up for a tutor before meeting with/at least getting on the phone/skype with that tutor first. Find out the individual's strategy for teaching, what specifically they will do for you, and their specific ideas on how to answer questions. Furthermore, I would ask the tutor to explain something really integral to the test to me as if I didn't know it, e.g. causation/correlation, sufficient vs necessary assumptions, the LG contrapositive rule. You're not trying to "AHA/GOTCHA!" so much as trying to see whether or not their explanations make sense to your learning style. There are other red flags to watch for: score increase guarantees, difficulty in contacting, huge ego being a few.

tl;dr, it's usually easier to find a reputable online course than a reputable tutor. Please talk to the specific tutor you would be working with before spending any money.

[Tape Dog]

I used blueprint

Hey TLS people,

I am current lurker of the TLS for a couple of months now and I thought I'd post on here for some advice about LSAT Prep tools. So currently, I am set to take the December 2017 LSAT and I need to improve my score about 8-10 more points. When I first took a LSAT preptest without a course, I got a 145 (horrific, I know). However, I managed to increase it to a 158-162 after 3 months of studying with Blueprint online. Usually, LR is the hardest, then RC and then LG, I usually get -12-16 wrong on LR, -6-8 wrong on RC and 3-6 wrong on LG. Also, I have plateaued at this score and need to know if including these LSAT prep tools would help:

LSAT Trainer for LR improvement
Manhattan Interact Online for LR/RC improvement and to brush up on LG.
I heard Manhattan was really great with strategies for Weaken/Strengthen/Sufficient Assumption/Necessary Assumption questions which is what I ALWAYS have problems with.

Also, I am having trouble finishing sections on time, but I heard that this gets better when you have a better strategy at attacking questions?

Also, I would be interested in tutoring if someone could recommend a person or company?

Thanks for the input in advance!

I hired a tutor and it made all the difference.

Did u find a private one? Or a test prep one?

[MARIALE]

Hi Guys, I have a question regarding the prep materials and I hope you guys can advice me with this.
I just finished the three powerscore bibles (LR, LG & RC). Although, bibles are a good base for the LSAT, I feel like they don't really have techniques on how to attack questions under time. I have heard manhattan prep. is an advance level, and I was told to use manhattan prep (all three books) after the bibles. However, I was also recommend by a pw tutor to not mix prep materials because it will ultimately confuse me more, since each prep material has different techniques or methods for each section. So I wanted to know wether I should use manhattan or just stick with pw.?
thanks.

[Cmoney $$]

Fwiw I switched to fox logical reasoning encyclopedia for drilling LR. It really helped me go from -8 per LR section to -1 or -2 per LR section... I really liked Nathan's explanations and free podcast.

[ksparkley]

Hey Marile,

Idk about anyone else's experiences, but for me it was really important for me to get another side of how to do LR for suff/nec/flaw/strengthen/weaken questions, so I switched from Blueprint to Manhattan. I haven't tried the powerscore bibles, but I heard that they sort of the same as Blueprint methods just not as condensed. I would definitely recommend trying out another method just to see which one you like and choose one method and stick with it. I went from practically all of the assumption family questions wrong to getting only -3 wrong by switching from blueprint to manhattan. However I am going through the LG rn from Manhattan and I definitely have to say that their in and out grouping techniques are definitely more confusing that Blueprint's and I will be sticking with Blueprint methods. I guess, it just depends on your preferences. Although, idk if it would be too late in the game to switch methods for you, I would highly recommend at least skimming some other materials, such as Manhattan. It definitely helped me!

Hi Guys, I have a question regarding the prep materials and I hope you guys can advice me with this.
I just finished the three powerscore bibles (LR, LG & RC). Although, bibles are a good base for the LSAT, I feel like they don't really have techniques on how to attack questions under time. I have heard manhattan prep. is an advance level, and I was told to use manhattan prep (all three books) after the bibles. However, I was also recommend by a pw tutor to not mix prep materials because it will ultimately confuse me more, since each prep material has different techniques or methods for each section. So I wanted to know wether I should use manhattan or just stick with pw.?
thanks.

[ksparkley]

Hey Cmoney $$, I did see this book as supplemental material to the strategy guides provided by major test companies. I will definitely look into it. I heard it was really helpful to see his thought process!

Fwiw I switched to fox logical reasoning encyclopedia for drilling LR. It really helped me go from -8 per LR section to -1 or -2 per LR section... I really liked Nathan's explanations and free podcast.

[tuna_wasabi]

Hi Guys, I have a question regarding the prep materials and I hope you guys can advice me with this.
I just finished the three powerscore bibles (LR, LG & RC). Although, bibles are a good base for the LSAT, I feel like they don't really have techniques on how to attack questions under time. I have heard manhattan prep. is an advance level, and I was told to use manhattan prep (all three books) after the bibles. However, I was also recommend by a pw tutor to not mix prep materials because it will ultimately confuse me more, since each prep material has different techniques or methods for each section. So I wanted to know wether I should use manhattan or just stick with pw.?
thanks.

I would strongly suggest you get the LSAT Trainer if you haven't done so already. I was in your position a few months ago when I was drilling different games/LR questions separately (before doing full PTs). Admittedly, I borrowed the Powerscore books only for a short time, so I didn't go through them page by page--may have missed a crucial lesson somewhere. At that point I was able to grasp the differences between LR question types, but not on an intuitive level.

LSAT Trainer followed by drilling separate question types helped me hone that intuition. Didn't experience significant point improvement during PTs though; my score fluctuated between 169-180 from my first PT to my last. But rereading the Trainer helped me increase my speed and gain confidence. I ended up going -2 for the 2 LR sections in the September test (-1, if not for a stupid mistake).