2009-12-01 Best Study Guide EVER!!! (5 of 5)
"Cracking The LSAT" has given me hope of doing well on the exam!! Not only was the price great, the book was brand new and delivery was faster than expected!!!

2009-04-18 Not actual former LSATs. Misprints on questions! (1 of 5)
I have taken three practice tests so far. Two were out of The Official LSAT SuperPrep, which uses actual former LSATs. The third test I took was the first test appearing in this book.

This book does not use real LSATs. This was very obvious when I discovered a significant typo (one that literally made a question impossible to answer and made me waste valuable time) in the first section of the test. How do I know it was a typo? Because the answer key reprinted the full question correctly. Taking a practice test is a serious time commitment. I don't have time to waste taking tests with results that may have been skewed because of poor editing.

Maybe I was having a bad day. Or, maybe other factors, like time-wasting typos and the fact that the questions may not be as rigorously tested as actual LSAT questions, influenced my score. Whatever the reason, I actually scored a full 10-15 points lower on this test than I had on my previous 2 LSAT tests. I seriously question whether or not Princeton Review practice tests are accurate predictors of actual LSAT scores. If not, who needs to have their confidence shaken before they take the test?

The only positive thing I can say about this book is that the practice tests do include the new comparative reading comprehension questions. However, this is to be expected since the book is dated 2009 and they came out with these questions in 2006. But unfortunately many other books don't have them because their tests are older. I just purchased all the individual tests available since June of 2006 at $8 each to be able to practice these. I haven't found a book containing the actual tests that is recent enough to include them (although honestly, I have so many general review books now that I didn't look that hard).

My advice is don't waste your money on this book. Use practice tests with actual former LSATs. And for studying help, I have read PowerScore is the way to go. Just bought their Logical Reasoning and Logic Games Bibles.

2009-02-22 More fun than Kaplan, more compatible with Mac (5 of 5)
Not all the way through the book yet, but it's written in clear, breezy language, and it breaks down the test into really clear and organized bites, which Kaplan doesn't.

2009-02-16 Disappointed (2 of 5)
As a former The Princeton Review teacher, I automatically bought this book when I decided to take the LSAT. I truly believed that TPR was the best test prep out there, and that using real test questions is the only way to learn how the testmakers think.

I was stunned when I found in Chapter 2 of this book an example of an argument (i.e. Logical Reasoning) question that uses an incorrect assumption in its "correct" answer choice. That's when I found out that The Princeton Review doesn't use real test questions like it used to when I coached other tests. That's when I put down this book and ordered books from Powerscore, which does license real test questions from the Law School Admission Council, and the LSAC's own Official LSAT Test Prep books, which contain actual LSATs.

The DVD, while professionally done and gorgeous, isn't helpful either.

2009-01-05 A Decent Introduction (3 of 5)
A quick introductory note, this is NOT a review of the two practice tests and the DVD. I have not looked at those yet, but I cannot see those changing the basic score.

OK, this book is a good introductory choice for those unfamiliar with the LSAT. The book is broken up fairly logically, and the format makes sense. They have an early section of general strategies, and then it gets more specific with large sections dedicated to the three major portions: reasoning/arguments, logic games, and reading comprehension.

Each of those three sections provides general guidelines and tips as to how to prepare for each section, and most importantly, several examples in each section with the reasoning on how to solve the problem. PR deserves credit for not just tossing easy ones in there, and explaining why tricky answers were wrong in a clear, cogent way. For instance, the Logic Game section contains nine different games outside of the practice tests, with full explanation for the results. The other two sections give similar offerings, although I found the reading comprehension section a little lacking in comparison. The book is consistent in fully explaining how one choice was more solid than another, and other than a minor format change on my part (I would have put the answers to the drills at the end of the section as opposed to the middle of the book), a couple stars are earned there.

One nice little perk is that they change their format when asking sample questions to mimic the the form the LSAT takes, and that gives credit to the familiarity they promote in the book (which is the point of the reviewer who opposed the DVD inclusion). With that said, it's a tad unhelpful of them to promote huge diagrams as the method to solve puzzles when they admit you won't have the space for big diagrams, but so be it.

However, the book portion has several flaws in my view. Their explanation of the logic games is HIGHLY dependent on arriving at their diagram. There is some merit to this, as their diagrams work for the example and it was fast with it right. However, the book offered no assistance if you decided to go with a different format, and you could easily get lost. The games are unforgiving in real life, and that's not the problem, but their explanation hinged on using their format of diagram, and the beginner's results show if you steal their format and figure out the information on your own as opposed to using your own diagram.

Beyond the specific complaint, the book seemed to suffer from a lack of truly concrete advice. They often refer to what "not" to do, such as discarding a reading section based on subject matter, but they leave the discriminating to, as they put it, "your gut". The non-example sections were, for the most part, common sense. The parts that were not entirely common sense were helpful, but it seems to me that the 290 or so pages of information could have been broken down to half that size, and that includes the examples. They give processes for how to approach each section (Assess-Analyze-Act for one of them, for short), but they often leave a little too much to the reader, at least in my opinion.

I have no experience with the tests yet, and I'll edit the review when I do, but they admit that they are not as good/official as the ones LSAC puts out choice wise, so that should tell you what you need to know. The tests are bonuses.

If you are beginning your preparation for the LSAT and you are green to the process, I actually recommend the book. Their tips are basic, but it is a respectable introduction to the test, the format, and the types of questions. Their advice sections near the end are useful for mental preparation as well. However, if you are already somewhat familiar with the test and have done decently on a practice one, I may suggest something a little more specialized. It is worth the 25 dollar investment for someone who is curious about the test, but I think the money is better spent on practice tests or put toward specific books if you already know the basic deal.