LSAT Trainer worth it?

Pride Only Hurts

Is it pointless to purchase the LSAT Trainer if you already have ultimate+ and access to all the drilling material 7Sage has to offer? I'm retaking this year and one aspect of my studies I want to change is focusing more on drills.

eRetaker

I don't have the 7Sage ultimate+ so I can't comment on the amount of overlap, but the Trainer is a great book. I found the LG and LR to be very informative, and I supplemented both sections with the LG bible and Manhattanprep LR. I believe those three books are the best in their respective areas. I don't think there's really a great guide on RC, but the Manhattanprep RC was decently useful?

More specifically, the Trainer was really thorough with the sufficient-necessary conditions, general flaws, and formal logic. The Manhattanprep LR took me 2 reads (1 early and 1 late read) to really absorb how useful it was. Powerscore LR has a great section on parallel reasoning questions as well, but that's it imo.

Before you buy the books, check your local libraries and undergrad resources. My undergrad had copies for alumni to borrow and I found each copy at a local major city library, so you might be able to just save your money.

Pride Only Hurts

@eRetaker said:
I don't have the 7Sage ultimate+ so I can't comment on the amount of overlap, but the Trainer is a great book. I found the LG and LR to be very informative, and I supplemented both sections with the LG bible and Manhattanprep LR. I believe those three books are the best in their respective areas. I don't think there's really a great guide on RC, but the Manhattanprep RC was decently useful?

More specifically, the Trainer was really thorough with the sufficient-necessary conditions, general flaws, and formal logic. The Manhattanprep LR took me 2 reads (1 early and 1 late read) to really absorb how useful it was. Powerscore LR has a great section on parallel reasoning questions as well, but that's it imo.

Before you buy the books, check your local libraries and undergrad resources. My undergrad had copies for alumni to borrow and I found each copy at a local major city library, so you might be able to just save your money.

Awesome advice. Thank you!

Patz4life

I got it used for $10 off ebay (2015) edition and I thought it was great! Really helped my LR and RC. I skipped the LG portion because I thought 7Sage was enough

unclesysy

I started with the Trainer before discovering 7Sage, so I can offer this perspective:

-The Trainer gave me a relatively quick and useful overview of what the LSAT was all about (faster than what I would have gotten from starting with the 7Sage CC), but in almost all respects, 7Sage is more comprehensive. There's just so much more material there.

-For LG, for me, 7Sage completed superseded the Trainer, and doing both was probably a waste of time because they use different systems of notations, and it's best to learn one and stick with it (you should use JY's).

-The Trainer did have some useful things to say about LR, and there are some very basic logic drills that are different from 7Sage that could be useful if you're starting from zero. But I don't think they're really necessary if you've done the CC or are planning to.

-I didn't really need help with RC, so I can't comment on that comparison.

-The other thing is: the Trainer's drill sets using real LSAT questions dip into some later PTs that you may want to preserve as full PTs (there's an appendix in the Trainer that tells you where the questions are coming from). So keep that in mind if you want the Trainer for additional drills not in the 7Sage CC -- they come at a cost.

redshift

I’d say yes. I didn’t absolutely love the 7Sage LR explanations, as I feel you learn LR better by reading through and truly thinking about the material than you do hearing someone else’s thought process. I utilize the LR portions on the Core Curriculum mostly for review, and for checking to see how J.Y.’s thought process differs/compares to my own.

shania.rattan

I don't have Ultimate BUT I will have to say that the 7sage definitely worked better for me for LG. The trainer helped me really master LR however so I do think it is worth it, like mentioned above I just did not use it for the LG portion. I used the practice games in the Trainer with the 7sage method to further my practice etc.

I would definitely recommend the Trainer for sharpening your LR skills, it made and is making all the difference for me in that area.

Hope this helps!

keets993

It varies. Some swear by the trainer but for me personally, it confused the heck out of me. Their explanation of flaws didn't help me at all nor did their explanation of sufficiency/necessity [and I used it before 7sage] and when I switched to 7sage I was trying to reconcile the two methodologies which confused me even more. I kept trying to make links between one system and another. I know some people who found the RC explanations supplemented what 7sage provides but when I went back to it I didn't find it helpful. If you have ultimate+ you have access to all the material the trainer will pull from but their explanations will differ, so you might find certain things that solidify your base.

FallonAlwaysBreaks

I think so--I just bought it and have loved it so far although every person I know say that LG on 7sage is still better. I prefer 7sage in general but I also think supplicating your knowledge is a good thing. I say definitely check it out.

Pride Only Hurts

Lots of great advice. 7 Sage by itself is more than enough to make significant improvement. But if the trainer can offer some useful advice on even just a few kinds of LR question types it's probably worth it. Thanks everyone!

vitamincoverdose

I started with 7sage and did the trainer. I think they are really great together. After trainer I went back to CC and rewatched the videos x2 speed, everything made much more sense. There were some things I didn't understand from cc but somehow going through the trainer helped me with my understanding of the CC. However, I did skip the LG secrion because I love 7sage method.