"The Art of War—but for the LSAT"
LSAT prep does feel like a battle sometimes, but I’ve gotten an enemy general to write up a battle plan for us.
Yes, really.
I got Dr. Stephen Harris, a former writer of actual LSAT questions(!) to write an LSAT prep book called Mastering LSAT Logic Games.
This guide covers how to approach each major type of Logic Game as well as the questions associated with each one.
- Introduction and Overview
- Setting Up Games
- Common Logic Game Types
- Sequencing Groups of Elements
- Solving Items
- Rare Item Types
- Sample Games
Each of those chapters has several sections that really get into understanding the nuts and bolts of Logic Games and how they’re built.
Get your copy for only $24.97:
Fun Facts:
-This is a PDF available for instant download after submitting payment, so you can download it and begin using it right away. (After all, nobody likes waiting for anything to ship.)
P.S. Here's a real photo of Dr. Harris in the flesh!
P.P.S. If you consider how much money you'll make from increasing your LSAT score and getting into a better law school...or getting more scholarship money...$24.97 is such a tiny drop in the bucket.
Hey guys,
ReplyDeleteI bought this packet hoping I would be able to find some other tips besides what I've already learned through Powerscore's logic games bible. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to find this useful, I wouldn't recommend investing in this, especially if you are tight on time and money. It's a good primer for beginners but the actual tips and strategies it teaches are not very insightful. Again, this is coming from the perspective of someone who has been using the Logic Games Bible and this blog (LSATBlog that is) quite regularly. In addition, the diagrams and set-ups are not very clearly drawn out, i.e. it seems like the writer had a hard time drawing set-ups with Microsoft Word and decided to just settle with using indents, tabs, underscores, dashes, etc.
I will say that it's classification of logic games is the most helpful piece of info, as the classification system here is a little bit more specific than Steve's but less so than the really detailed ones taught in the Logic Bible.
Overall, while I have no doubt that Steve Harris has a TON of advice to give LSAT takers, I don't think this particular resource is the best to invest in if you are already past the "what is a logic game?" and "what types of logic games are out there?" stage. The strategies are a little thin, and, if I may, also somewhat confusing and definitely less tangible than what I've learned through Steve's blog and the LG Bible.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteThanks for allowing me respond to your reader’s comments/review of my AR ebook. As I respond I’ll say a bit about who this resource is designed for, and what I hope readers will get from the book.
First, I cop to the editorial issues. I’m sorry the diagrams aren’t clear enough for this reviewer.
More substantively, the reviewer continues, “ It's a good primer for beginners but the actual tips and strategies it teaches are not very insightful…” and “The strategies are a little thin, and, if I may, also somewhat confusing and definitely less tangible than what I've learned through Steve's blog and the LG Bible.” These comments deserve a thoughtful reply, which I hope to provide.
First of all, who is likely to benefit from this book? If you score 16 or below on a timed AR section, this book is designed for you. If you routinely score in the 20+ range, then this book will probably not give you the secret you need to improve significantly. Realistically, at that stage the answer probably isn’t coming from any book. If you fall in between, this book may give you that extra insight that you miss, but maybe not. In any event, the book offers a conceptual analysis of stimuli and items that, given my experience, most students will find beneficial, even those who end up scoring 170+.
So, yes, this book is introductory, in that it presupposes no familiarity with the LSAT and is aimed at the roughly 80-90% of test takers in the situation I just described.
But how, exactly, is this book intended to be beneficial? There are two separate groups of skills required for success on the AR section: setting up the games, and solving the items. I am glad that your reviewer found the classification of games helpful. But I hope that readers pay special attention to the broader discussion involving game set-ups. More generally, what the discussion in the book was intended to convey was how, rather than learning a complex taxonomy of games, one should analyze each game into its conceptual components – ordering and/or grouping. Then one will be equipped to handle any game the LSAT sends your way. Sure, familiarity with the common game types is important, but the flexibility provided by an understanding of the conceptual underpinnings of these games is far more valuable. So while in a superficial way the book’s discussion may be short on detail, in another way I hope that it is long on deeper conceptual insight into the structure of game stimuli.
ReplyDeleteWith respect to item solving skills, there are two levels of analysis that should be distinguished from one another. At one level, the tactical level, each specific game type has special features that are relevant to solving items for that particular game type. Items for sequencing games, for example, involve significantly different considerations than do those for grouping games.
At a higher level of analysis, a strategic level, there are item solving approaches that are game independent, and involve instead the logic of the item stems. For example, “could be true” items are all the same in important respects, and “must be true” items are all the same in important respects, regardless of the type of game.
My experiences in the classroom have taught me that a clear strategic-level analysis is of supreme benefit to virtually all students. In particular, thinking of the strategies as rule based, answer-choice based, and arrangement based, and being able to make reasonable judgments about which approach to use in a given case, is the key to improved efficiency and speed, even for proficient test takers.
As for the strategies being “a little thin” and “less tangible,” to the extent that the reviewer is commenting on the lack of emphasis on tactics in the book, the reviewer is correct. The book covers many key points in this regard, but a comprehensive discussion of logic game tactics is not the goal. Rather, the purpose of the book is to provide a clear conceptual analysis at the strategic level – why one tries to make answer choices to “must be true” items false, for instance – and to give practical advice on how to approach items at this level of analysis; for example, attending to stem focus in order to determine the best approach to solving a particular item. Now I will grant that a conceptual analysis of this kind may be less tangible than one that is concerned with the nut-and-bolts of ordering, but I submit that it offers insight that most test takers will find helpful.
In fact, the only thing that I find a little thin is the book itself, something that I do not regard as a shortcoming since, as I point out there, one who masters the approaches presented in it should reliably score in the 19+ range; and if one can achieve this goal by reading 70 or so pages, what’s the downside? If, once at this stage, a test taker has exhausted the usefulness of my little book, I doubt that she will feel disappointed in her progress to that point, and I would encourage her to keep working on the particular tactics associated with various game types by practicing with real LSAT games.
To sum up, the book is intended to give readers a concise conceptual map of AR stimuli and item solving strategies, and to offer practical advice to help determine in particular circumstances which approaches are most promising for them, so that readers have the flexibility to play to their strengths, and to maximize their AR scores.
So as someone who has no familiarity with the LSAT, would you say that this is a good primer? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely.
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