PR or Kaplan course

[hopeful1985]

Well I think the consensus was Kaplan is better than PR if you HAD to choose. Ive heard horrid things about both but have talked to students who took one of the two and the general feedback is Kaplan has less negatives.

[pe402]

Princeton Review and Kaplan are my only options. Powerscore isn't anywhere near me, and with my work and family schedule (I have kids), traveling for a course isn't possible. I appreciate the insights, though. I've heard a lot about Powerscore's books.

Sounds like Kaplan would be a bad idea, so I will likely go with PR. Add'l input is still helpful.

Thanks for the replies so far!!

Hold on a second! While both aren't the best, I'd say that Kaplan is a better company than PR. Granted I took the Kaplan course and am a little biased. When I was looking into choosing my course, I liked the fact that I could take the course again with Kaplan if I wasn't satisfied. Also, Kaplan's online features are pretty good. I used them extensively. They helped me target my problem areas. Also, you can take the advanced or extreme courses for more prep. That said, the classroom time wasn't very useful for me but I learn best on my own. 

[philosopher]

I took Princeton Review and I thought it helped a lot.  I was able to go 19 points higher between my first and last diagnostics (and there are only 6).  I of course had a really awesome teacher and he was really dedicated.  But I know of people in PR who didn't have good teachers.  I guess it just depends.  Any class should have its benefits if you are willing to work hard.

[Variant]

I teach for TPR (I wonder if I'm that one really good teacher in all of TPR-dom that cbbrazier referenced ).


Here's what you do.



Give both local offices a call, or stop by.

Ask them who's teaching the course you're interested in.

Say you'd like to meet them, before signing up for the course. Insist on this.

Meet said instructor, or at least talk to them on the phone, or via email.

Get a feel (don't cop one, though). Figure out what they've scored on an LSAC-administered LSAT (if they haven't taken one, run for the jungles). See if you could see spending the next few months with this person, learning from them. Find out if they have BO. Whatever.

Don't commit to buying the product until you've seen it. Ultimately, go with the instructor who inspires the most confidence.

If you have questions, feel free to PM me or something. If you want to tell me what part of the country you're in, I can try to find out who's teaching for you, if you'd like.

[tcwhat]

Princeton Review and Kaplan are my only options. Powerscore isn't anywhere near me, and with my work and family schedule (I have kids), traveling for a course isn't possible. I appreciate the insights, though. I've heard a lot about Powerscore's books.

Sounds like Kaplan would be a bad idea, so I will likely go with PR. Add'l input is still helpful.

Thanks for the replies so far!!

Did you check Testmasters?

If you did, follow this advice:

I teach for TPR (I wonder if I'm that one really good teacher in all of TPR-dom that cbbrazier referenced ).


Here's what you do.



Give both local offices a call, or stop by.

Ask them who's teaching the course you're interested in.

Say you'd like to meet them, before signing up for the course. Insist on this.

Meet said instructor, or at least talk to them on the phone, or via email.

Get a feel (don't cop one, though). Figure out what they've scored on an LSAC-administered LSAT (if they haven't taken one, run for the jungles). See if you could see spending the next few months with this person, learning from them. Find out if they have BO. Whatever.

Don't commit to buying the product until you've seen it. Ultimately, go with the instructor who inspires the most confidence.

If you have questions, feel free to PM me or something. If you want to tell me what part of the country you're in, I can try to find out who's teaching for you, if you'd like.

[aaaaack]

Thanks, Variant. That's the best advice yet! (and thanks to everyone else, of course).

I will plan to check out their instructors.

[hope4harvard]

Also, get yourself the Powerscore bibles (all of them).  I bet you will learn more from reading those bibles than you will in class (no joke).  The main benefit to the Kaplan class (have not taken PR, so I can't speak for them) is the experience you get in taking proctored tests (not their methods for arriving at correct answers).  Other than that, Powerscore hands down has more effective methods for arriving at correct answers on lsat.  For instance, on the games, I was using all of the time just to finish the section using the Kaplan method (trying to figure out if it was a grouping game/matching game, etc--their method is very time-consuming as you will find out).  Powerscore methods allowed me to finish the games section usually with almost 10 minutes to spare. You might check out their online course (they have a sample on their site).  The first time I took the lsat, I took Kaplan and was only able to get my scores into the low 160s. Second time around I took powerscore and brought my prep scores into the 170s (hopefully I did as well on this past lsat).

[EarlCat]

I taught for Princeton Review for 2 1/2 years.

The new hyperlearning is really good imho.  There's something in the neighborhood of 86 hours of class time, 6 proctored tests (our office would proctor more if you requested), access to every LSAT question (except I think the ones in superprep) with explanations, and scheduled "office hours" with the prof.  Your score goes up or your money back, or if you're not satisfied with your score increase (no matter how high) you can take again free for up to a year.

Variant said what I've said a hundred times on this board, and which I think is more important than anything...meet the instructor.  Every company has good and bad instructors, and they will make or break your class.  We all use real prep questions from real tests, we all have proctored exams, and I think pretty much everyone now gives out every question with explanations.  The instructor is what's going to make all the difference. 

Don't trust what anybody (including me) says on the internets, or what your friends heard from their friends friend about what they heard about a class in a city you're not in.  Do the investigation yourself.  If TPR and Kaplan are the only companies in town, call them up and ask to speak to whoever would be teaching you.  If they refuse, I'd suspect they're hiding something.

[Variant]

... access to every LSAT question (except I think the ones in superprep)

It's small, but FWIW, TPR includes Preptests A, B, and C (the three tests in SuperPrep) now, along with every other test.

[EarlCat]

nice.  I still recommend buying the superprep...the commentary in the front of the book is absolute gold imo.