Test Prep Books (Barrons, Princeton Review, Kaplan, etc)

kclubs323

Hi,

I'm not using any of these test prep books because of what I've read on law school forums about how they're not very helpful and not "actual" LSAT questions. But I'm just curious to know, what makes them unhelpful? Is the making of an LSAT question so complex that it's just impossible to replicate unless you are an LSAT test writer?

CFC152436

I think it comes down to availability. Some standardized test companies don't release official questions - in this situation, it's much more understandable to use made-up questions simply because that's all the student has access to. The LSAC, however, has released 72 official preptests for students to use. Assuming each test has 100 questions, that's 7200 real questions for you to practice with. To answer your question, then, there's simply no need to use made-up questions when you don't have to. I'm not sure how different Kaplan's questions are from the real questions, but, again, why risk using a flawed question when you have over 7000 real questions right at your finger tips.

Nilesh S

Might not be impossible to replicate... but then you don't exactly know if it has been replicated right... and it has been recommenced time and time again by LSAT prep experts that you use nothing but genuine LSAT questions for prep. I mean are you willing to take that risk? Also... the 'methods' these companies teach to solve problems (via their courses and books) are sub-par on many occasions and will ingrain faulty technique in you. Not the best thing to have going into a test that will pretty much decide how the rest of your life will be in large part.