LSAT Books
Feb 28
LSAT books can help you study
While our LSAT Course and free Logic Games Explanations are all you need to study for the LSAT, you may find certain books are useful as supplements to your studies.
The most important books are the official LSATs from the LSAC. We sell many tests with video explanations, but you can find even more past LSATs on amazon.
Some of these tests are quite old. You should use them if you have a decent amount of time to study. If you have less than a month, stick to the more recent tests.
Best LSAT Books
Ten New, Actual, Official LSATs (LSATs 52-61): The most important book from the list. This book is only $19.50, and has ten of the most recent LSATs. You can’t get them cheaper anywhere.
The Next Ten Actual Official LSATs (LSATs 29-38): These tests are older, but still quite useful, especially if you have a few months to study. These tests are also quite cheap.
Hacking The LSAT: Explanations For LSATs 29-38: These are full explanations for every question in The Next Ten LSATs. Written by our VP of Curriculum, they’re a great resource to figure out exactly why an answer is write or wrong. Volume I covers the first five tests, and Volume II covers the final five tests.
LSAT Superprep: This is LSAC’s guide to the LSAT. It comes with strategies for each section; the Reading Comprehension guide is short but good. It also has three tests you won’t find anywhere else. The best part is that these tests come with full explanations by the LSAC.
They are the ONLY official explanations from the LSAC for any test, so it’s useful to see what they’re looking for in answer choices. The questions also have difficulty ratings.
Ten More Actual Official LSATs (LSATs 19-28): The LSATs in this book are fairly old. In particular, the logic games are different from those on the modern LSAT. But these are still useful tests, especially if you think you’ll use up all the modern LSATs.
Ten Actual Official LSATs: Old tests from the early 90s. You should be aware this book exists, but only use this if you’ve got a lot of time to study and will run through all the other tests.
The Law School Admission Game: Not an LSAT book per se, but this book is a great introduction to law school applications.
Note: All the official LSAT books come with bubble sheets to mark your answers. You should definitely use these to get the most authentic test experience. Otherwise you’re giving yourself extra time.
If you need more bubble sheet, or a timed LSAT proctor, check out our LSAT tools page.
comment
June 2013 LSAT Giveway!
Feb 25
Are you getting ready to take the upcoming June LSAT? Enter to win of two free LSAT Complete courses! This contest is open to everyone.
If you’re already enrolled in a course and win, you get a free upgrade to the next higher course. If you already have LSAT Ultimate, then you win the Mystery Prize.
There are two ways to win. You can win by random draw, or if you collect the most entries.
This contest ends at 11pm ET, March 8th.
Pro-tip: You can get dozens of extra entries! You get 18 more entries for following the simple steps, one more entry for every person that clicks on one of your links, and FIVE(!) extra entries for every person who enters the contest with your custom link.
(Contest has ended)
Follow the steps, spread the word, and rack up tons of extra entries to boost your chances at the draw prize, and to shoot for the prize for the most entries.
2013-03-10 Update:
Congratulations to Anthony E and Claudia M! They won the contest, and both got full access to the LSAT Complete course.
For everyone else, don’t despair, our courses are several times more affordable than other courses. So enroll now, then take the hundreds of dollars you saved to have some fun :D
8 Comments
The LSAT is hard. There’s no getting around that. But it is a learnable test. Study hard and study right, and you will get better at the LSAT. There are three things you need to do to get a great LSAT score.
1. Master reading and logic
The LSAT is a test of reading and logic. Read that again. If you get good at reading and logic, you get good at the LSAT.
Reading? Yes, really. Reading. The language used in the LSAT is confusing, yet precise. The LSAT tests your ability to parse and decipher complicated sentences. Sentences with words you never heard of, triple negatives, and clauses within clauses.
Let this sentence be a warning if you never thought that lack of grammar understanding impacts how many students do on the LSAT in a negative manner and you don’t find yourself seeing that it’s not unclear from this sentence that it actually has such an effect.
After reading, you need logic. Once you actually understand what the questions and answers say, you have to understand how the logic plays out. Concepts like validity, conditional statements, and premises should be near and dear to your heart.
How do you get good at logic? For starters, try to take courses like Introduction to Logic, or Formal Logic in undergrad. But really, a good LSAT prep course will teach you all the logic you need for the LSAT. If they don’t teach you logic, then they’re robbing you blind.
2. Practice until you want to stab your eyes out with a No. 2 pencil
Take as many real, timed, LSAT PrepTests as possible. There are enough old LSATs (over 70) available that you will lose all your friends before you finish all of them.
Take only real LSATs. Most LSAT books that you see in the bookstore do not use real LSATs. They make up their own questions to avoid licensing fees. Made up LSATs are a complete waste of time. Stay the hell away. The whole point of practicing is to get good at doing the LSAT, not Honest Sal’s LSAT-like Test.
3. Review your answers
So once you finished a practice exam, what’s the first thing you do? You check the answers and grade your test right? No, wrong.
You should do something we call “Blind Review”. When you take the practice tests, you circle every question you are unsure about. After the test is over, go through every one of those questions and take however long you need to on the question – without looking at the answer. Then when you mark your test you will have two scores. Your real score, and your blind review score. If your blind review score is low, then you need to work on your reading and logic. If your blind review score is high, then you need to work on your speed.
This is a powerful way of learning that only works when you haven’t peeked at the credited answer!
What now?
So now you know the three things you need to do in order to do well on the LSAT. If you want to test the waters, sign up for a free trial. If you’re ready to dive in now, register for the best and most affordable online LSAT Prep course you can get.
What are you waiting for? Jump in, beat the LSAT, go to law school and become a lawyer.
(Photo credit mezone)
comment
I took PrepTest C (the February 2000 LSAT) under simulated testing conditions. I want to share some of my thoughts with you. This post will cover Logic Games for which I have already made the videos lessons (with links below).
**Spoiler Alert**
Stop reading if you haven’t taken this prep test yet. It’ll ruin the test for you.
LSAT C Logic Game Summaries and Video Explanation Links
Game 1 – At a water carnival, eight lifeguards will participate in two events. One event is a boat race and the other is a rescue exercise. These lifeguards will be grouped into four two-person teams.
Game 2 – A critic ranks exactly seven restaurants. These restaurants are named Lautrec, Medici, Pastilla, Robusto, Scheherazade’s, Tantoko, and Vistula from the best – the highest rank – to the worst – the lowest rank.
Game 3 – Three parks, Jessup, Island, and Hilltop, contain attractions. The attractions are of five types: fountain, garden, museum, playground, or theater.
Game 4 – Dynamic Motors will assemble four new automobile models. Over the next three years, the models Volante, Whisper, Xavier, and Ziggurat will be assembled in its five factories F, G, H, J, and K.
Game 1 – Lifeguards at water carnival
This is a grouping game with an unusual setup. That means it’s hard initially. If you aren’t careful, it reads like an In/Out game. Once you realize that it’s not, that in fact for each of the two events, you are asked to group the eight lifeguards into four teams of two persons each, you’ll see the right game board. From there on out, this game is easy.
Game 2 – Critic ranks seven restaurants
This is a tough sequencing game. You have to be proficient in handling conditional rules in a sequencing game. The conditional rule in this game breaks up the game into, essentially, two sub-game boards. Beyond that, your proficiency with basic sequencing games will determine how quickly you can move through the questions.
Game 3 – Three parks with five attractions
This is an easy grouping game with a chart. If you setup it up with a chart, you can figure out three sub-game boards that represent all possible worlds. The questions are fast.
Game 4 – Dynamic motors assemble automobiles
This is a hard, unique game. The game board doesn’t look like any game board that we’re used to. So, you have to spend some time figuring out what game board works best to organize the information in this game. The rules are also difficult to represent visually. As with all games, spend time upfront understanding the setup, the game board, the rules, and the pieces. Otherwise, the questions will simply be a waste of time.
So, what’s the take away? Games two and four games were hard. You have to be able to move through the easy ones very quickly to save up enough time to tackle the hard ones.
______________
For more Logic Games explanations like these, hop over to our Logic Games page. There, we’ve recorded video explanations for every Logic Game going back over a decade. All in HD, with variable playback speed, and you get to ask questions. Oh, the best part: it’s completely free.
comment
I took PrepTest B (the February 1999 LSAT) under simulated testing conditions. I want to share some of my thoughts with you. This post will cover Logic Games for which I have already made the videos lessons (with links below).
**Spoiler Alert**
Stop reading if you haven’t taken this prep test yet. It’ll ruin the test for you.
LSAT B Logic Game Summaries and Video Explanation Links
Game 1 – Eight boats arrive at a dock. They are named Jewel, Kashmir, Neptune, Ojibwa, Pacific, Spain, Tornado, and Valhalla.
Game 2 – A park contains at most five of seven kinds of trees. The trees are firs, laurels, maples, oaks, pines, spruces, and yews.
Game 3 - Four married couples dine at a circular table. They are named Francisco, Gabrielle, Kyoko, Lee, Olivia, Peter, Raymond, and Simone.
Game 4 – Zeno’s unfinished furniture sells five types of furniture. Footstools, hutches, sideboards, tables, and vanities. From the five, Irene will buy four. Each piece Irene buys will be made from a kind of wood: maple, oak, pine, rosewood.
Game 1 – Eight boats arrive at a dock
This is a simple, easy sequencing game. We’ve seen very similar reincarnations of this game before. You should finish this in under 5 minutes if you want to get through all the games in this set. Your proficiency with the basic sequencing chart will determine how quickly you can push through this game.
Game 2 – A park contains trees
This is a very difficult in/out game. If you do not normally have enough time to finish all the games, this is the one you should skip. The rules that make this game hard are the last two rules. One of them has an embedded conditional. Both of them demand that you represent them visually to fully understand how they control the pieces on the game board. Once you do that, you can split the game into three sub-game boards to use up these two confusing rules.
Game 3 – Married couples dine at a circular table
This is a medium difficulty spatial game. You can think of it as a circular sequencing game. It’s unusual because of the circular game board. Aside from that, this game is not very difficult. Hit the questions quick after a brief, simple game board setup. For many of the questions, you’ll have to draw sub-game boards that cater to them.
Game 4 – Zeno’s sells furniture
This is a hardish in/out game with grouping within the in group. Since there’s only one item in the out group, you should split the game board up into two sub-game boards to accomodate the two possible items that could be out. Once you do that, you can focus your attention of grouping the items within the in group. In the in group, you have to figure out what wood goes with what type of furniture. If you’re not adept with conditional logic, there is a conditional rule that could potentially be confusing.
______________
For more Logic Games explanations like these, hop over to our Logic Games page. There, we’ve recorded video explanations for every Logic Game going back over a decade. All in HD, with variable playback speed, and you get to ask questions. Oh, the best part: it’s completely free.
comment
As the February 2013 LSAT approaches, a blizzard is striking the East coast. The LSAC rarely cancels tests, but this year the storm is severe enough that testing has been suspended at a few test centers.
Odds are, your test center is not affected. Be sure to monitor the official notice of cancellations here:
http://www.lsac.org/jd/announcements-and-news.asp#weather
The LSAT does not appear to have announced what happens if your test is postponed, but from past experience they will contact you to schedule a retake in 1-3 weeks. If that happens to you, continue practicing as usual: timed practice tests are the best way to prepare at this point.
Good luck!
4 Comments
PreProBono Spring Schedule
Feb 04
Looking for live LSAT classes in New York City or Boston? You’re in luck! PreProBono, a NYC based 501(c)3 non-profit also founded by our co-founder J.Y. Ping, is offering weekend LSAT classes at various NYC and Boston colleges and law schools. 7Sage is proud to donate our curriculum and materials to PreProBono. The cost to you? $50 deposit, fully refunded upon successful completion of program. Successful completion of program means that you show up on time to the class you sign up for and stay for the whole time. If you can manage that, it’s pretty much free. Can you manage that?
PreProBono Spring 2013 Schedule
Fordham University at Rose Hill – February 2-3
Baruch College – February 2-3
College of Staten Island – February 16-17
NYU Law School – February 23-24
Harvard Law School – March 2-3
Hunter College – March 30-31
Columbia Law School – April 6-7
comment
Did you know that there’s no such thing as a brand new Logic Game? It’s true. Every LSAT’s Logic Games are only disguised to look like they are new when in fact, they are simply reincarnations of older, existing Logic Games. Dwell on that for a second. That means you’re never going to encounter a brand new Logic Game. That means every new LSAT PrepTest you take (including the one that actually counts) will have Games that you’ve pretty much have already seen before. Not exactly the same, but very similar. Isn’t that awesome?
Think of it this way. Each Logic Game is a cookie. The LSAT’s been baking for over 20 years and they’ve baked close to 300 cookies. But, back in the kitchen, there’s actually only a few different cookie cutters that they use. Each cookie cutter cuts cookies that are very similar to the others cookies from the same cutter. So, a square cookie cutter will cut square cookies. All of these square cookies from the square cutter will resemble each other.
What does this mean for you?
You have to become acquainted with the cookie cutters (the Types of Logic Games) and not just the cookies (the Logic Games). Stop thinking that there’s 300 different Logic Games. Instead, understand that there’s only a few different types of Logic Games. Then, you have to get good at recognizing so called “new” games as old, familiar games. Old games that you’ve done already, games that you’ve already mastered through the Fool Proof Method.
You’re probably thinking “How do I know which Games are similar to which other Games?” We’re going to tell you. Right now, we are sorting all the Logic Games from LSAT PrepTest 20 (October 1996) – 68 (December 2012) into their Types (cookie cutters). We’re publishing the results as they become available.
Below, you’ll find the “In/Out” Game Type. If you’re enrolled in our online course, you’ll know that In/Out Games are the foundation of all Grouping Games (which is one of the two broad category of Logic Games, the other being Sequencing Games). In/Out Games are incredibly important to master. Here, we’ve sorted In/Out Games by similarity and difficulty.
How do I use this?
Look at the set below. Say you had trouble with the Logic Game 2 from LSAT PrepTest 33. You should do and redo (and redo and redo…) every Logic Game in its set (including itself), starting with the Games listed in its set. The ones listed in another set are less similar, though still quite similar because every Game on this page is an In/Out Game.
1. Print this list out and tape it to your wall. Games are displayed as LSAT PrepTest#.Game#.
Optional. Purchase the PDF with all the Games in the list (coming soon!)
2. Do these Game together in their set clusters using the Fool Proof Method.
3. Never miss a question on an In/Out Game again.
The Basic In/Out Games Set
PT33-Game2 | PT40-Game4 | PT45-Game3 | PT58-Game2
These are the “purest” In/Out Games. All the rules chain up very nicely. They require only an understanding of basic conditional logic.
The Basic+ In/Out Games Set
PT34-Game4 | PT41-Game3
Like the Games in the Basic group, these Games also have rules that chain up nicely. They are a little bit harder though. These Games are not immediately apparent as In/Out Games because the LSAT has disguised them.
The Easy In/Out Games Set
PT24-Game1 | PT29-Game1 | PT36-Game1 | PT48-Game1 | PT54-Game1
PT63-Game1
The Medium In/Out Games Set
PT20-Game2 | PT39-Game4 | PT47-Game2 | PT58-Game4 | PT59-Game3
The Difficult In/Out Games Set
PT31-Game2 | PT32-Game2 | PT49-Game3
These Games resemble each other less than the ones in the Basic Groups. Some of them require you to know Bi-Conditionals, De Morgan’s Law, and some are also disguised. Some of these Games have fixed their slots some did not. You also need to be aware of when conditional rules trigger and when they become irrelevant.
The In/Out with Sub-Categories Games Set
PT24-Game4 | PT26-Game4 | PT33-Game3 | PT42-Game1 | PT50-Game2
PT65-Game3
These Games contain game pieces that fall into sub-categories. At first, they are challenging, but once you learn to recognize them and draw the game board correctly, they become manageable.
The In/Out with Sequencing Games Set
PT25-Game3 | PT30-Game2 | PT32-Game1 | PT40-Game2 | PT61-Game3
These Games require you to Sequence items within the In/Out groups. You should master Sequencing Games before attempting this set. Knowledge of Conditionals, Bi-Conditionals, De Morgan’s Law are also required for some.
The Miscellaneous/Difficult In/Out Games Set
PT22-Game4 | PT23-Game2 | PT57-Game3
These Games are challenging and less similar to the other Games in the In/Out Games set.
The Complete In/Out Games Set
PT33-Game2 | PT40-Game4 | PT45-Game3 | PT58-Game2 | PT34-Game4
PT41-Game3 | PT24-Game1 | PT29-Game1 | PT36-Game1 | PT48-Game1
PT54-Game1 | PT63-Game1 | PT20-Game2 | PT39-Game4 | PT47-Game2
PT58-Game4 | PT59-Game3 | PT31-Game2 | PT32-Game2 | PT49-Game3
PT24-Game4 | PT26-Game4 | PT33-Game3 | PT42-Game1 | PT50-Game2
PT65-Game3 | PT25-Game3 | PT30-Game2 | PT32-Game1 | PT40-Game2
PT61-Game3 | PT22-Game4 | PT23-Game2 | PT57-Game3
comment
Prep for LSAT and increase your LSAT score with the latest LSAT prep test!
LSAT PrepTest 68 from the December 2012 administration is now available for purchase through an instant PDF download. In addition to the PDF, you will also get individual video explanations that cover every single question on the test.
The early bird 43% discount ($16.99) is on through Sunday. After that, the price goes back to $29.99. Purchase LSAT PrepTest 68 and all video explanations here.
comment
I just took PrepTest 68 (the December 2012 LSAT) under simulated testing conditions. I want to share some of my thoughts with you. This post will cover Logic Games for which I have already made the videos lessons (links below).
**Spoiler Alert**
Stop reading if you haven’t taken this prep test yet. It’ll ruin the test for you.
LSAT 68 Logic Game Summaries and Video Explanation Links
Game 1 – A realtor is showing a prospective buyer seven houses. The first and second houses are shown in the morning. The third, fourth, and fifth are shown in the afternoon. The fifth and sixth are shown in the evening.
Game 2 – Five witnesses are scheduled to testify at a hearing. The hearing is scheduled on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Game 3 – A maintenance company is taking service requests. Their clients are Image, Solide, and Truvest. For each client, there are two service targets – one for website requests and one for voicemail requests. The service targets are set for either 3 days, 2 days, or 1 day.
Game 4 – An editor will edit seven articles. Three articles cover finance, three cover nutrition and one covers wildlife.
Games 1 and 2
The first and second games are standard sequencing and grouping games where much of the board can be determined. I made a few sub-game boards to better visually represent the placement of items on the game board. Both games were solved in about 5 minutes each with no errors.
Game 3 – Maintenance Company
Since the first two games were quick, I expected the third and fourth games to be harder. The LSAT did not disappoint. The third one was confusing. I had to read the stimulus a couple of times to figure out how to set up the game board correctly. The stimulus used a lot of referential phrasing (“clients” and “service targets”) that made the it hard to follow. The first rule took about 4 or 5 re-readings to sink in. I thought pretty hard about what it meant for “website targets to be not longer than voicemail targets.” As is almost always the case, the time invested up front was worth it. I split up the game board into a few sub-game boards. Even with the sub-game boards drawn out, I still had to redraw them next to most of the questions to avoid careless confusion. This game took about 10 minutes with no errors.
Game 4 – Editor, Very Difficult
Going into the fourth game with about 15 minutes on the clock was comfortable. Still, I wasn’t fully prepared for how difficult it would end up being. After setting up the game board and writing down the rules, I stared at the nearly blank page for a couple of seconds. I was pretty sure there would be no point in trying to spilt the main game board up into sub-game boards. The rules were so open that I couldn’t make any inferences and so I didn’t know where to start. But with plenty of time left on the clock I just hit the questions hard and thought I would brute force my way through them.
That was risky. Most of the questions required a separate game board setup for each answer choice. That meant creating making up to 5 game boards for each question! That felt paralyzing. But you just do it. By the time I got to the last 2 questions, I was down to 2 minutes. Brute force is a highly time consuming strategy. For the second to last question, after spending about a minute on it, I eliminated the answers down to two. I had a strong feeling about one of them and just chose it so I could move onto the last question. I didn’t prove it out. I just moved onto the last question. I got lucky and got it right.
With under a minute left for the last question, I looked at answers and guessed at which one of the five probably was right given what I knew about the dynamics of the rules. Before I could even prove my only guess at the correct answer, time ran out so I had to bubble in my choice. I got lucky again.
So, what’s the take away? Two of these four games were hard. You have to be able to move through the easy ones very quickly to save up enough time to tackle the hard ones.
______________
For more Logic Games explanations like these, hop over to our Logic Games page. There, we’ve recorded video explanations for every Logic Game going back over a decade. All in HD, with variable playback speed, and you get to ask questions. Oh, the best part: it’s completely free.
comment
