TESTMASTERS Weekend Course...Worth It??

[decemberbandwagon]

Hey all, I just discovered this board and I'm so bummed I've been missing out on all this great advice!  Oh well, better late than never.  Anyways, quick question for those who have experience with Testmasters:

I've been through the Powerscoree LR and LG Bible and am familiar with the Princeton Review matierials (a friend of mine taking the class gave me hers to go through).  I'm scoring anywhere between 166 and 172 on my preptests and am looking to score more consistently in the 172 end.  The only Testmasters course running in my area is a weekend course right now (the all day Saturday, all day Sunday).  Just wondering if anyone has taken this schedule before, and if so, if it was helpful, and do you think it would help someoene in my position (with these numbers and having already gone through the Powerscore materials). 

It just seems like a lot of info crammed in a a few sessions.  Any feedback would be much appreciated!!!
Thanks!

[Alan Shore]

I took the full course, and during one of class, my teacher said that she had a hard time teaching games because they don't learn all of the rules in the weekend course. I'm assuming it's that way for the other sections as well.

But you already have the LG Bible, and you have probably mastered the games with those scores, so I don't know if that even concerns you.

If you do take the weekend course, you'll still get a teacher who has scored in the 99% percentile... and who is dang smart about the LSAT!!

HTH

[ms]

I dont really see the value for you. I think you won't really find anything new in the short course that you couldn't get from the Bibles. I really would only suggest the 80 hour course, and seeing where you are starting I probably wouldn't even advise that. You can definitely get there, just take lots of tests and really break them down and understand what you got wrong and why.

[decemberbandwagon]

Thank you guys for your advice and quick response!  I've been studying on my own the past 2 and a half months.  I thought about taking the September test but realized I wasn't where i needed to be for some of the schools I'd like to go to (Columbia and NYU in particular).  I guess I'm just looking for that little bit to push me over the edge into 170+-most-of-the-time-land.  I suppose there's no replacement for persistence...but dangit!  It sure feels like crap to be sooooo close to the score you want but feel like it's just not happening fast enough! 

[bosco17]

would anyone recommend the testmasters weekend course for someone who's already taken the 80 hour course, and just wants to refresh their memory leading up to the dec lsat?

[LizPendens™]

would anyone recommend the testmasters weekend course for someone who's already taken the 80 hour course, and just wants to refresh their memory leading up to the dec lsat?

i haven't taken the weekend course, but i say, if money is not an issue, it can't hurt, might help, and most valuable, get you fired up from the "live-ness" of it all.

[pokeherface]

I'd much rather spend the weekend f-ing sorostitutes, but that's just me.

[to1313]

don't do it... i tried the same thing as you this past septemeber...

i did it b/c i wanted to try either TM or PS prior to selecting the company I would go with from there until the dec lsat.

like u, i had done the bibles and done them thoroughly.

going for the weekend course was like shooting myself in the foot for the following reasons:

1--i was bored to tears b/c they painfully went through information that having completed the bibles was now obvious to me

2--the instructor has to go slow enough for EVERYONE in the course to understand the material

3--they don't integrate all the strategies they cover in the full length course... the instructor claimed that they did, but there were clearly important strategies left out that were in the bibles... w/o the advanced strategies, talking about hard questions in simplified terms is just freakin frustrating.

4--its extremely time consuming and exhausting to sit thru that many hours.  I am a visual learner--i hate sitting thru stuff unless its disseminated quickly and its stuff i don't know already.  the fact that many people in my group didn't have a clue about the basics exacerbated the situation.

5--my instructor did not offer individual "help" at all during the breaks or b4 & after the sessions. they get tired too.

[dbmuell]

Having done the PS full length course, I tend to think that you would be bored to tears in just about any class if you are practicing in the low 170s. Remember, when you take a course, the class will slow down and wait EVERY time somebody does not understand an answer.  You will spend most of your time listening to the instructor explaining material to people who are crossing their fingers and praying for a 150, while the material will come almost immediately to you (disclaimer: not intended as a dig on people scoring in the 150s).  I was not a particularly high scorer (low to mid 160s on my preps) and I was often bored stiff.  The courses offer generally good instruction but if you're already scoring well, you're much better off with private tutoring, self-study or just an insane amount of practice.

[seacotton]

decemberbandwagon,
are you taking old tests?  It could be that you are already where you want to be and you just don’t know it yet.  This happened to me when I discovered the more recent tests.