Disappointed with score of 157 on June 2014 LSAT.
921705
Background: I am a 20-year-old undergraduate philosophy major with a 3.7 GPA and one more year left in college. I do not know what I want to do after I graduate. I took the LSAT to see if I had a strength for law. If I scored high enough to qualify for a top law school, I would consider going to law school. I decided to buy Mike Kim's prep book because of the great Amazon reviews. His book, along with the 10 New Actuals, was the only prep I used prior to taking the exam. I finished my spring semester April 30th, and began studying for this test for hours a day for 6 weeks before June 9th, the day of the exam. Having just received my score, I am now scratching off law from my short-list for a future career.

The structure: The June 2014 LSAT had six sections (as typical): logical reasoning (26), reading comprehension (27), logical reasoning (26), logic games (23), logical reasoning (25), writing sample. Since there were three LR sections this time around, one of them was almost certainly the experimental section. Since there is usually no more than one 26-question LR section, the experimental section was either 1 or 3. Mike Kim noted in the LSAT Trainer that the experimental section is usually one of the first three, and he seemed to be correct. My score reports indicates that it was 1. This is what I expected since in 1 there were a couple times when there were two questions for a given stimulus, which I hadn't come across in the LSAT Trainer. LG had 4 games as typical, and RC had 4 passages as typical (3 singular, 1 comparative). The writing sample was also as typical: argue for one course of action over another given a set of criteria. This one asked you to argue whether a certain lawyer should become a judge or a politician, given the criteria of wanting to influence public policy and wanting to stay close with family.

My results: I received my score today (July 2nd, 2014). My scaled score was a 157, which is 71 percentile. My raw score was 68/101 (-33). My raw score by section was 1: (experimental), 2: 17/27 (-10), 3: 17/26 (-9), 4: 17/23 (-6), 5: 17/25 (-8). It is interesting that I got a 17 for every section. While my score was better than the average, I was seriously disappointed with it considering that I took the first 6 practice tests out of the 10 New Actuals prior to the real one, and received the following scores: 161, 163, 167, 166, 171, and 175. However, I should note that some of those tests were not timed, and timing has proven to be my biggest challenge on the exam. Nevertheless, I find it hard to believe that my diagnostic test (161) was better than my actual (157).

My experience: The actual exam was tougher than expected. LR didn't present many surprises. RC seemed to ask more questions about details and inferences rather than main point, tone, and word choice, making it more time consuming. The passages were also slightly harder to understand. LG was a standout for me. During my practice tests, I scored perfect on this section three times out of six. The 4th game on the real exam was something I had never seen before. I didn't know how to diagram it, and I basically had to guess every question, resulting in a 1/5 for that game, and a 16/18 for the three others combined. Mike Kim's LSAT Trainer did not prepare me for that game.

My recommendation: What I have said so far may suggest a 1-star review. However, I do not place all of the blame for my score on Mike Kim's book. I am in part to blame for allowing only 6 weeks of prep, only taking 6 practice exams (some untimed), and not doing all the exercises in his book. However, I am still puzzled how I could score a 175 on a prep test only to score a 157 on the real thing. Mike Kim's LSAT Trainer is not magic. I wish I could recommend another prep book, but I am not familiar with the contents of any LSAT prep book besides this one. What works for you may not be what works for me. I wouldn't tell a friend to avoid this book, but I wouldn't recommend it either, so I give it 2.5 stars, rounds up to 3.
1369437
I thought the questions were good and liked the layout.  However, they updated the test for the job I was studying for and so this book didn't help me at all.  Make sure it's pertinent to the test you are taking before spending a lot of time.
2273814
I just took the NCE, Oct 19, 2013. The material on the test doesn't match up with the material in the book. Waste of time. Hopefully comps will be a different story.
4499410
Don't buy this - it is completely unusable. I had to "return for refund" after clicking through the whole thing looking for a way to make it formatted like the actual LSAT.  It is formatted as one continuous flow of text.  There's no way to see all questions for a given logic game on the same page, for example, and reading comp passages have no line numbers. Thank goodness you can get a refund (I think just within a certain amount of time?) or I would have been even more annoyed.
423968
I don't want to spend several thousand dollars on Becker or any other CPA review programs to review what I have been doing very well in school. Yet I still need a guideline of what I should study for the exams, so I decided to spend a couple hundred dollars on this set.
Mine is the July 2014 version. What Wiley claims in their advertisement is true. This set of study guides does contain everything you need to study for the exams. To some extends, it has more than what you have to know... My friend who passed the exams with Becker looked at my Wiley set and said, "Oh my God, this is a dictionary!" But anyway, I want to save money, so I went through the dictionary and now passed 3 of the exams. I am gonna take my last one in July. My strategy is to briefly go through the readings and then work on the exercises, find what my weakness is and improve it. The exercises in this set is much harder than the actual CPA exams. I found I missed over half of the multiple choice questions in the books but still passed the exams.
What I don't like about this set is the errors. It contains quite a lot of editing errors, like missing illustrations and wrong answers to questions(you can find out the correct answer by reading the explanation...). Although most of these errors are not significant enough to mess your accounting knowledge, it is quite annoying.
I still recommend this set of study guides because I passed the exams with it. You should also consider it when you choose your review materials. Be prepared to put in time. The study process is painful, but I guess the other expensive programs do not make you any better. This set save you money.
1999119
Today is May 4, 2017, I just failed the exam with a score if 69.5% and 70% is passing.

This book is generally well written compared to the CBK-a few glaring typos and I got no access code, so I can't access the test bank. However, I work for the US Coast Guard and the DoD Safari account has this book in electronic format but I didn't know about it until after I bought so I burned a little money needlessly.

I've used this as my primary source so when I take the exam, but about 50% of the material from this book may appear in the actual exam. Because I got no access code which is required to access the flash card and other content and I basically wasted my money plus the book by itself did not help me pass, I have to rate it poorly.  I have 15 years in the IT field and 3 years of dedicated security experience, which doesn't really help when it comes to this particular exam.

From my experience CISSP (version 2015) does not demonstrate skill or experience-it's just a security test.  I'm not sure I will take it again even if my employer pays for it-I actually felt cheated during the exam.  ISC2 cannot simply grab whatever facts and expect people to remember so many details on so many topics, which is what's required.
3385561
I made the mistake of using this book as my only study resource the first time I took the 70-410 exam. Maybe it accurately reflected the test content when it was first published, but currently it doesn't even come close.  Stay clear.
4198024
Comparing this with the other materials my friends bought, I think EK was sub par.  If I could do it again, I think I would have gone with berkeley review.  I think Kaplan was also better put together, but maybe not as in depth as needed.
504544
Was supposed to get by 15th, and now it could come anytime between 19th qnd 21st. Not exactly thrilled, especially when i paid that much money....
3622290
While I passed, I actually did worse on the GMAT than I did on the practice tests provided by Kaplan. The quantitative section especially was different on the actual exam than the practice questions I did with Kaplan.
2653670
This book is one of the LSAT materials no longer for sale new. It contains old LSATs (old, as in before December 1995). The value of these tests is limited; if you were to study only three previous LSATs it would be best to take three of the newest LSATs. If you're doing all the old LSATs available then this book is one of the materials you'll need.

It contains PrepTests 2, 4, & 5 which correspond to October 1991, February 1992, and June 1992, respectively. As near as I can tell, you cannot obtain these tests from any other LSAT book (but testing companies may have them available for their students).

If you use these tests, use them early on in your practice. Work towards the newer exams as the date approaches the LSAT. If you're taking all 50+ LSATs available, you'll want at least one day off per week. So figure a maximum of 6 tests per week along with time adequate to review all your wrong answers and questionable responses. Count backward from the test and you'll have your study plan.
3614818
It was ok with me - out of 200-400 my pretest score was 375. I bought it as a review. If a student was using it when they were in the 200's, it wouldn't help much. It did not "teach me" much... it wasn't in detailed. It was just good so I could review.
4233146
My wife, "I gave it two stars because it was kind of helpful but not what I expected.  It gave me a chance to do more practice questions which was great.  However, it is set-up weird and nothing like the actual test. First, it's only one full exam test (one reading, one math, one writing section) and I thought it was going to be two full exams. So it's over priced for only being the one. You actual have to purchase AGAIN, the other part, part #1.

The reading section is only 40 questions not 50 like the real test.  Then there is a writing section after the reading that has to do with grammar and punctuations, which isn't even on the real exam. I skipped that part. The math section is only 40 questions not 50 and it doesn't start over with number 1,  it starts where the other questions left of on 79. Which is no big deal but a little annoying to me. Lastly, the the writing is only 1 essay questions not two essay questions.

Overall it was great to have extra questions of the practice but not what I expected. Not sure I will be purchasing the other part for that price.
3366826
A more accurate name for this book would be "15 Ridiculously Difficult Tests for the SAT Math Level 2 Subject Test".

WAY more difficult than the actual SAT Math, as the author admits in the preface, it'll get you pulling your hair out till you go bald.

I only did 10 of these tests, and they were easily more difficult than my Calculus and trigo finals in Grade 12!!

Not that all of this is a bad thing, after doing these tests, I improved my score by more than 150 points on the actual SAT Math Level 2 test.

Just remember, if you can get even 32-33 out of 50 in THIS book, you'll easily get a perfect score on the actual SAT. My highest on one of these was 31, and I'm expecting about 770-800 on my test, depending on the grading curve.
4480616
The best purchase of my life, all PowerScore bible books. I want to start by saying that I have tried multiple other LSAT prep books and there is NO COMPARISON! I started preparing for the in 2006 and took a Kaplan extreme prep course. I scored a 137 on my diagnostic, and my scores with Kaplan, Barrons, Princeton Review (Cracking the LSAT book) & other courses and/or books never rose above a 147. Kaplan professors are young students who did well on LSAT but have zero teaching experience. In fact, when I or anyone in the class asked for clarification on an answer out of scope was the regurgitated answer. This is a completely useless answer. I studied consistently for another year with Kaplan books and others but never rose above a 147. My weakness in the LSAT was pretty much everything but especially in the Logical Reasoning section. In December of 2016, I purchased the Powerscore bible books and after scrupulously going through their recommended study guide with the PowerScore Bible books; I took the LSAT again in June 2016 and scored a 163! I only wish someone had recommended the PowerScore before and I would have saved $1,600.00 that I wasted on Kaplan. There is absolutely no need to spend $1600 on a Kaplan prep course. Buy the Powerscore bible books and go through them carefully, taking the time to understand each concept. I would stay away from Kaplan. I also believe they pay site to make sure that Kaplan is always rated number one or two of the list for LSAT prep courses. I wish I had known about the PowerScore Bibles first... I would've had to take the LSAT only once, and I could've saved a ton of money, time and aggravation. Hopefully, I can save some else from the same disappointments I went through. Good Luck.
4812253
I did the SHRM Learning system and studied over 60 hours and did over 300 practice questions but the results were unfavorable. This is an overload of information and the test was nothing like the information in the book. I did 150 practice questions the day of the test and not one question was on the test.
3093040
This awful book receives two stars from me only because of the serious paucity of other study guides for this exam. I won't say that it was completely useless--going through all the practice tests did alert me to some areas that I needed to review, and prepared me well in advance for the stress of the 230-questions-in-170-minutes format--however, as other reviewers point out, this was accomplished with the maximum pain and minimum impartation of useful information possible. The explanations to the (hair-splitting, uninformed) questions were generally more frustrating than the questions themselves, and were often amibiguous when not downright incorrect.  I did poorly on all three practice tests, and while this may have been helpful in that it spurred me to more and more panicked last-minute study, I can't say that unnecessary fear and rage are particularly desirable additions to my GRE experience. If you are knowledgeable about literature, skip this book or be prepared to throw it down and gnash your teeth on a regular basis. If you are already using the book, don't despair: I scored a good 220 points higher on the real test than on any of the practice tests in this book (the Princeton review practice test and the one that ETS sends with registration were much better predictors of my actual score). You are probably much smarter than this poorly written book will make you feel. My advice is to stick with the Princeton Review book, which is much friendlier and more accurate (though it needs a few more practice tests and some updating in the contemporary lit. and criticism sections) and to read, read, read those Nortons. If you do decide to use this book for the reasons mentioned above, just remember that it REALLY does not reflect the difficulty or quality of the actual test questions.