Pros: Exceptional explanations, easy to understand
Cons: Not enough practice questions, does not replace hard work
The Bottom Line: Despite its flaws, this is an excellent work that will greatly help those who are willing to study it, practice, practice, and practice some more.
sdeinhorn's Full Review: Jeff Kolby and Scott Thornburg - Master the Lsat w...
When I decided to take the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT), I initially was not all that worried. After all, the exam is only a series of logic and reading comprehension questions. I have always been rather good at tests, so I sat down and took a few practice questions provided by the Law School Admissions Council. After answering those questions, I decided that I had better start studying—studying intensely. The first thing that I did was go down to my local bookstore and skim the books guaranteeing to boost my LSAT score. The shelves were packed with different books, all promising to have the secrets for increasing your score, but nobody has the money or the time for all of them. I ended up choosing three books, one of them was Nova’s Mastering the LSAT by Jeff Kolby and Scott Thornburg.
Of everything that I did to prepare for the LSAT, I believe that this book was the most valuable (I think it was even more valuable than Kaplan’s classroom course, which I also took).
This book is 555 pages of helpful hints and practice questions for the LSAT. The bulk of the book is divided into three sections (Games, Arguments, and Reading Comprehension). These three sections take the readers to page 546 of the 555 pages of the book. After these three sections are a few miscellaneous pages providing some extra information. My edition also came with an CD-ROM containing an official LSAT exam. I did not find the CD-ROM to be helpful because the LSAT is one exam that is still uses paper (and learning to quickly take notes and make diagrams on the sheets is a major factor in the exam). Though I have spent many hours attempting a few different programs, I feel that there is limited help that a computer program can provide (that is until they update the LSAT so that it is actually administered on computers).
I am a great believer in the theme of the book. The book’s promise, according the authors, is that “the LSAT is not easy. There is no quick fix that will allow you to ‘beat’ the test. But the LSAT is very learnable. If you study hard and master the techniques of this book, your score will improve—significantly.” Products usually boast too much about their own powers, but I believe that the words of this promise are completely true. There is no quick fix or esoteric secret for mastering the LSAT (although many books promise such easy solutions). This book introduces the concepts and offers the strategies, that if practiced enough, will help test-takers.
Breaking Down the LSAT
Some general information about the LSAT is necessary for understanding what and why Mastering the LSAT is trying to teach. The LSAT consists of five, thirty-five minute sections, plus a writing sample. One of those five sections is an experimental section (which can be of any of the three section types). At the end of the book, there are two pages of hints for the writing sample (other than that, it is not addressed).
The exam consists of three questions types, each one has a devoted section: Logic Games, Logical Reasoning, and Reading Comprehension. Be aware that on the actual LSAT, these sections will come in random order.
Section One: Logic Games (LG)—this will be just under a quarter of the score (consisting of four games and about 24 questions). The Logic Games section of the LSAT is the most feared (with good reason), because most people find this the most difficult and intimidating part of the exam. This book gets off to a running start by tackling this sections first (and actually, they devout nearly half of the book to this section. The main thrust of this section is to teach the readers to quickly and effectively draw diagrams to understand the game by using “ground breaking techniques for solving games with step-by-step strategies for approaching every game.” The chapters in this section of the book include:
• An introduction to Logic Games
• Understanding linear ordering games
• Understanding circular ordering games
• Learning to generate formulas
• Creating paths and flow charts
• Understanding grouping games
• Understanding assignment games
• Practice questions
By the time those lessons are covered, the student will have a good grasp of how to answer the questions on this LSAT section (but a lot of practice will still be necessary).
Section two: Arguments or Logical Reasoning (LR)—this will be about fifty percent of the score (consisting of about 23-27 questions in each of two sections). These questions are all short logic questions which test the ability to reason, draw logical parallels, and spot logical fallacies. Master the LSAT was helpful in its methodology for approaching these questions by helping me to discover the underlying simplicity of the problems. Though not the strong point of this book, the following chapters were extremely helpful:
• Obfuscation (a very helpful section which illustrates area were test takers usually make mistakes)
• Introduction to Logic
• Inductive Reasoning
• Common Fallacies
• Practice Questions
While Master the LSAT will provide a solid basis for understanding how to approach these question types, the book does not provide nearly enough practice.
Section three: Reading Comprehension (RC)—this will be just over a quarter of the total score (consisting of four passages and about 26-28 questions). This is where most books fall flat, but I believe that Kolby and Thornburg have provided strategies that are head and shoulders above what their competitors offer. This book realizes that each person has their own reading style which works for them. They do give helpful hints as to how many people approach this section. The bulk of what the authors are teaching regarding reading comprehension is extremely useful.
Subjects that the authors address include:
• Methods for reading the passages
• The various genres of passages included on the LSAT (and how to tackle each one).
• How to identify key words in the passage to quickly identify the flow of the passage.
• The various questions types used on the LSAT (by the time you finish this section, you will basically be able to guess what questions you will be asked regarding the passage).
My Experience
I am not just writing about a book I looked through—it really did help me. I ended up taking Kaplan’s classroom course (and was not at all happy with it). My score did not significantly improve with Kaplan, so I went back to this book that I had purchased before enrolling with Kaplan. I spent about three weeks studying this book and also practicing LSAT sections (the Law School Admissions Council publishes books of actual old LSATs for practice—these are extremely helpful). After studying for these three weeks, my score improved by nearly ten more points. I attribute most of that increase to the strategies I learned in this book.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to teaching a methodology for tackling the LSAT, this book is exceptional—and honestly worth its weight in gold. This book is not perfect and does have its flaws. There is one practice LSAT (an actual exam that was used years ago), but other than that majority of the questions are not real LSAT questions. Instead, the authors included questions that are extremely similar to actual LSAT questions, but there is a slightly different flavor. Another complaint about this book that I have: there is not nearly enough practice sections. Another book filled with practice exams is mandatory for preparation. (preferably one with actual past LSATs).
Despite its flaws, this is an excellent work that will greatly help those who are willing to study it, practice, practice, and practice some more.
To prepare properly for the LSAT, you must study problems that reflect the true LSAT format. The best way to do that is to study actual LSAT tests. No...More at Buy.com
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