Weekend Test Prep Course Worth Anything?

[OSUHopeful]

Hey all, just curious what you guys think about weekend test prep courses, specifically the powerscore course.  Has anyone taken or heard anything about this or any other I should be aware of?  I'd appreciate any advice
 

[keating]

Well, what prep have you already done? In general the weekend prep courses aren't a great idea because they throw a whole lot of stuff at you at once, and you really don't have a lot of time to sort out each strategy and apply it before the next one is thrown at you. Then you have to practice on your own, and when you get stumped, you have to try to remember what they taught or try to get on the phone with someone for help (assuming they offer post-class support).

To do well on the LSAT takes steady, progressive prep over a period of time. At least a few months. That's why most prep courses last for about 10-12 weeks. As you go through the class, you do the homework, apply the strategies, and get used to each question type - and get help on working out the kinks before you get too far on the next one.

So if you're thinking about doing a prep course, do a full course. I would highly, highly recommend PR's course - they have added workshops to the course now, so you can have an in-class study session with an instructor on hand to help you navigate, which is awesome. Their own materials are excellent, and of course they also use real LSATs (which come with the course so you don't have to buy them separately). Everyone I know who has taken the course was very happy with the results.

Hope this helps...

[OSUHopeful]

Thanks Keating!! I appreciate it, your warning with respect to the pace was acutally something I had wondered about. I certainly am not going to spend a few hundred dollars and end up teaching myself...I am already doing that. Is everyone else in agreement that PR is the best?

[Longhaul]

I actually took the powerscore weekend course after studying on my own, and went in with much the same reservation you did (thank my parents for paying for it!). I was pleasantly surprised by the class, which turned out to be much more informative than I expected. The teacher mentioned that one of the reasons they felt the weekend class worked was because they ran much longer classes, and used that knowledge as the basis for the weekend class.

Can't say much about PR because I didn't take their course.

[midnight oil]

Longhaul- specifically, how much did the weekend Powerscore course help you?  How much did it raise your score, etc.  Thanks.

[Meltdown]

If the books each company makes are any indication, then I think Powerscore is better than PR. I felt that the PR games method was less intuitive and more work than the method in the LG Bible. That, in part, led me to sign up for a Powerscore course (but I haven't taken it yet, so I can't comment on that).

[M2]

I cant seem to figure out how to diagree every game...even with the logic bible...and even untimed...a few of them just really confuse me. I was thinking baout taking his course, but I would have to pay for it myself, and I am just not sure if it's worth $400...

Has anyone else taken this AND studied a lot on their own?

The other problem is that I have already taken 8 tests( and probably more by he time I owudl take a class), so what if he ones we do in class are the ones I have done...?

[midnight oil]

if you are intent on taking a course, you should check out
1-testmasters or 2-powerscore...which some rate over kaplan and pr.  for what it's worth.nIF

[Longhaul]

Longhaul- specifically, how much did the weekend Powerscore course help you?  How much did it raise your score, etc.  Thanks.

I started around 155 but I studied on my own for about 2 months. I took about 10-12 tests, and moved up to 163-164. I felt like that was a respectable score, but a friend who had taken the course convinced me to give it a shot. I figured that, given the cost of law school, another $400 might be worth it. As I said before, the class was informative, and I did a fair amount of the homework and took four more tests before the real thing.

By the way, I did see some questions in the class material that I had done before, but I didn't find it too distracting because it enabled me to sit back and listen to what the teacher was saying (and I still had to do the question to remember it, of course).

[Longhaul]

longhaul, were you having problems with a particular section, or were you just needing to improve overall?

i'm thinking about a powerscore being offered in may.

Thanks for any advice!

Thanks for asking. My main area of need was logical reasoning, and I needed some improvement on games as well. I was quite good at reading comp, and fortunately the class did not spend a lot of time on that.