Testmasters...who took the course?

[chipmonkee]

Hi all, I took the Kaplan prep-course to help with my December write, and that didn't go so well considering I scored dramatically lower than all of my prep-tests.  I've been hearing lots of things about the Testmaster course, wondering if anyone out there would be willing to share their experiences with it...did your score improve, by how much, why is it better than other courses, would you recommend the weekend or the full course?

Thanks in advance!

[TheZooker]

I took the full length Testmasters course, and it worked out great for me.  I improved 8 pts from the TM full length class, and I was very confident going into the test.

I think it's all about how much time you put in, and how quality that time is.  While I don't believe that a prep class is always necessary, I enrolled because I knew that, left to my own devices, I would have difficulty studying enough.  The full length class delivers constant exposure and a TON of material to study.  I also found my instructor to be VERY helpful, but this could of course vary.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[lawyersihate]

i went from a 155 to a 162. Im happy with my score.

[foxnewssucks]

i think that the weekend course is almost a waste, might have some marginal benefit, but only do weekend if that is the only option you have.  testmasters has great instructors, i would reccommend the full length course if you need the help.

[chipmonkee]

Thanks for the replys!

Seriously, I don't know what the hell happened to me on December 4th....too much anxiety, too much PMS-ing...still unsure. 

I was studying about 4 hours a day for about 5 weeks, doing timed sections and timed prep-tests (with proctor and without).  I have a ton of LSAC material and went through my wrong answers to understand why my logic was faulty.  By test time I was able to think through the questions and get to the answer without problems.  Then it all came crashing down. 

Oy!  Is this just the universe telling me to not pursue a law degree?  It's frightening to know that schools already have my application -- with pretty good GPAs and great references (and a damn fine personal statement) and they are going to get my LSAT score in a couple of days and trash the whole thing.

[frank981]

I took the full length course in the summer starting with my first practice exam scoring 139 then on the December 4th LSAT I got a 161. I recommend not having anything to distract you from doing the homework in the class if you do decide to. I was doing some research assistant jobs for professors during the summer for letters of recommendations and I wasn't able to finish all of the homework at the right time and this hurt me in terms of understanding the material and being able to apply it.

[ori]

I took Testmasters and improved from 149 to 173.  However, my method of preparation wasn't just the Testmasters course.  I took the course and received all of the books in the summer of 2003 and I attended about 2/3 of the class when I became disheartened with my low diagnostic scores (I went from a 149 to 159.  I didn't even bother taking the 3rd diag).  Exacerbating the situation was the fact that my Testmasters instructor, who was excellent by the way, had photographic memory and completed all of the games perfectly in his head without writing down a thing.  Then, this summer, I decided to study for them again and I went through all of the Testmasters books and bought some of the recent preptests to use as diags.  Unfortunately, my October exam didn't go to well and I cancelled my score.  After that, I bought the 3 preptest books and did an exam a day during the month prior the December test.  Fortunately, my memory is poor and most of the questions seemed new to me.  Anyways, during my review, a lot of the things that Testmasters taught me were useful.  I would try to find a good instructor.  My first instructor left for Harvard Law School in September 2003 and the replacement was awful.  Hardly anyone showed up to his class. 

[Troy McClure]

i think that the weekend course is almost a waste, might have some marginal benefit

I agree with that.  It's a waste of money.  My instructor was great, but I would have gotten a lot more out of a full course.  The weekend one tries to do too much in too little time.

[BAFF213]

Franz - your numbers are absurd.

Did you retake in December?  Do you think December was easier than October?

i think that the weekend course is almost a waste, might have some marginal benefit, but only do weekend if that is the only option you have.  testmasters has great instructors, i would reccommend the full length course if you need the help.

[hocuspocus]

I did the full course.  If you're already scoring 168+ on practice tests, it's not worth it.  I actually scored lower on the October LSAT than I did on any practice tests I took prior to taking Testmasters.  I retook it in December without using any Testmasters material and did much better.