Kaplan LSAT 2005 with CD-ROM (Kaplan Lsat)

Rating:
Summary: Confidence busting
Review: I agree with the second reviewer. This is the only book I bought to practice for the LSAT. I scored a 163 on an actual LSAT practice exam, and each time I wrote one of these Kaplan practice exams, my score dropped. The first time by five points, the second, by another point. The explanations are verbose and complicated, yet do not go into enough detail in the right areas. Before I read this book, I was confident and looking forward to the challenge of the LSAT. Now I am discouraged, constantly second guessing myself, and feel it is pointless to even take the test. If you did well on the LSAC provided practice test, don't bother with this book as it may just bust your confidence and not improve your scores at all. I plan on trying to get a refund for this book.

Rating:
Summary: A bit on the Easy Side
Review: I found pretty much every single question in this book to be easier than the 10 Actual LSAT Tests and 10 More Actual LSAT tests. My scores typically average around a 164, while on the 10 Blah Blah Blah, a 159. So really, just a heads up.

Rating:
Summary: Friendly but not that useful
Review: The Kaplan book is chatty, easy to read, and confidence building, but a lot of the information is just not that useful. They write, for instance, don't waste a lot of time drawing elegant charts during the logic games section. Or, in the same chapter, "With Logic Games, you must remember that identifying the type of game and understanding the subsequent flow of action are the keys to the kingdom of point-scoring." Good ideas both, but as we used to say in grade school - Duh! The book is certainly not a total waste of time, and not having read any other LSAT books I don't have much to compare it to, but unless a person is feeling very insecure or dimwitted, he/she could probably find more useful advice elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the price you pay....
Review: The problem with this book is it is too wordy and has a definition for everything. If you are like me and want things straightforward and to the point--forget it. You won't get it with this book. In fact, I was averaging about 40% to 45% correct on the logical reasoning section prior to reading this book and I dropped by 15%! Why? Again, because this book makes everything more confusing with there explanation's. I will admit that it did help me a little with my games, but that is the extent of it. Additionally, and I still can't make sense of it is when I took the practicums in "The Next 10 Actual, Official LSAT PrepTests" (GREAT BOOK) I score on average between a 153 to a 158. About 18 on games, 16 on LR and 20 on RC, give or take a few. Yet, in this book I'm lucky if I scored above a 145! Why? Your guess is as good as mine considering I'm scoring relatively well with actual exams as oppose to Kaplan exams. I just don't think this is a very good book. Neither does my LSAT instructor who previously worked for Kaplan for over 12 years. Enough said.