stilettogirl

i was wondering when is the best time to take your LSATs? Also, if what is the consensus on taking a year off between undergrad and grad. is it necessary? do schools like the work experience?

fashionlaw

They do like work experience.. it just depends on how you are. If you feel ready to take the LSAT, take it while you are motivated.. if you feel you need a year off to prep and study, go for it. I tried studying for it during my last year of college and it was difficult for me so I just graduated in March and now I feel muchhhh better about it and more ready! I also got 2 years of legal experience under my belt so that helped me get motivated a bit more.

good luck

fashionlaw

Also.. I'm almost done with the full-length Testmasters course. It's OK.. if you really commit yourself. They take 4 hours to go over like 8 questions though.. in great detail. It's a little too much but it's all how much effort you put into it. I hate how they talk down to you like you're stupid sometimes and I also hate how everyone in your class is on different levels. I get irritated when people don't get things and it gets annoying when the same people ask dumb questions to make the 4 hour class turn into 5 hours (6pm-11pm GEEZ!). Maybe I just got stuck with a bad class. I feel like I could have been more productive studying on my own during those valuable hours. I plan to stick myself in the library after the class is over to teach myself the concepts in greater detail. If you're a self-learner I think that a class would be a waste, especially if you are already scoring in the 160's and above. Test preps are for people like me, who start in the 140s or even 130s and want to set a strong foundation for studying the LSAT. All the concepts are pretty basic if you are already familiar with the LSAT. Anyway, I haven't really done the homework but I wanted to save it until I got closer to September's LSAT. I've also started the Powerscore LR and LG Bibles which help clarify things a bit more.. a great supplement to the Testmasters course.

Privily

Has anyone taken the Power Score Virtual Course? I want to know if it's as good as the class.

savetheearth

Also, just a couple of general questions: when do people typically start prepping for the LSAT? And when do undergrads typically take the LSAT?

futurenyustudent

I'm wondering about this well. The problem is my class schedule. I'm tied up this fall with classes on mondays through thursdays, 12:30 through 7:35 (3:30 to 7:35 on tues/thurs). The Testmasters day courses are 10 to 2 and the night classes are 6 to 10. Too bad they don't offer weekend or fridays. Everyone else's classes are at night, 6 to 10.

I guess I can make the day courses work.

How's the Blueprint online course? It's $800, it better be good. Seems like Blueprint is the cheapest of the 3 and Testmasters is the most expensive with Powerscore being in the middle.

drummerboy24

Bright lights hurt my eyes.

SplashMom

My daughter just signed up to take a weekend course ($350) through PowerScore in November for the December 5 LSAT. She had previously signed up to take a weekend course through TestMasters while she was home over the summer, but the class was canceled. Has anyone here taken the weekend course?

TXhorn

Having gone through one of the better regarded LSAT prep classes listed previously, I would not recommend a course. The classes move incredibly slow and a lot of your time is wasted; further, I have noticed that some of the lessons (depending on the teacher) require assumptions about your level of knowledge already and they skip over some incredibly important aspects of the test; the PowerScore bibles, on the other hand, detail the test thoroughly. Also, there are other students having different problems and the class will have to slow down for them. Courses also divide up the questions into numerous categories and you go through tons of homework under each question type. This is not helpful as this is 1) nothing like the actual test, where you are required to jump from different question types and these changes are an aspect of why people do not do as well on the practice homework versus the full tests. 2) This uses up a lot of questions on tests that could have been used as complete tests for practice.

One of the advantages of the courses are the trials that emulate the actual exams. It's crucial to take full exams in test situations. Some folks recommend the LSAT Proctor DVD in order to mimic the conditions on test day and the entire procedure.

I would recommend reading the PowerScore Bibles a couple times through, purchasing and completing the actual LSATs (SuperPrep book, the 3 - "10 Actual" books, in addition to some of the more recent individual tests through LSAC). After that, if you're having difficulty areas, go with a good private tutor to tie up the remaining issues you have and attack the areas of weakness rather than sitting through stuff you do not need to learn again. In addition, classes in university on logic may help, but may not be necessary. Lastly, lots and lots of reading and getting use to dense material. This can be accomplished by reading academic journals.