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What is the LSAT?

(LSAT Answers: Unauthorized, Unofficial & Unsurpassed Explanations)

LSAT Answers: Unauthorized, Unofficial & Unsurpassed Explanations

Get Prepped, 2004-08

Price: $39.95

ASIN: 0974853348
Keywords: Education, LSAT, Reference, Test Prep Central

Reviews:

Mediocre LSAT Study Aid
This book could be a lot stronger. The answers are not visually appealing, the games are laid out in ridiculous ways, there are numerous typos, the authors resort to explanations that amount to "just because", and I have found reasoning flaws in some of their explanations of why an answer is correct.

You might be wasting money on the book, but there isn't another option out there. GetPrepped's explanations in this book are of the same caliber as what I've seen of Kaplan and possibly Princeton Review. The explanations are also surpassed by GetPrepped's next attempt at explanations: 'LSAT Explained: Unofficial Explanations for "The Next 10 LSAT PrepTests"'

If you get this book you'll want to try to figure out why you got a question wrong before you turn towards "Answers" for explanations; even then the explanations may not be completely helpful. Personally, I wouldn't want my understanding of the LSAT or the individual questions to hinge on this books but it is a mediocre supplement for thinking in greater depth and getting another perspective on the questions.
good for arguments and reading, but not necessarily games
This book is pretty helpful in terms of discovering what you did wrong - unless it's in the games section. The diagrams that this book creates are unrealistic in my opinion because they take up too much space and also they are difficult to follow. They look like something done in a word processor, so they aren't aesthetically pleasing, but also, more importantly, they're not great at organizing lots of information. There are crazy lines and arrows all over the place that are supposed to show flow of logic, but I don't see it. There are just too many and it's difficult to discertain which arrow came first.

Princeton Review did a good job explaining games and how to diagram. I wish they made an answers book. Because then I would understand what I did wrong.

But this book gets 3 stars nonetheless because it was helpful for the other sections.
As expected
Friendly notification of item sent, and quick delivery! Item as described. A highly recommended seller!
Be Careful Assuming It Actually Has All the "Answers"
Because there aren't comparable books out there with explanations for every test question in every released LSAT Preptest included in "10 More Actual, Official LSAT Preptests," I would still consider buying this book for lack of a better option. However, calling the explanations "Unsurpassed" is reaching quite a bit.

The reasoning given for why wrong answers are wrong is often not helpful, and sometimes even incorrect. The book occasionally makes a correct answer sound like it should have been chosen as the best selection among poor choices, but if someone understands the actual logical basis behind a correct answer, then the correct answer is clearly the only choice that would satisfy a question.

For example, the book has a habit of dismissing incorrect answers with the terribly unhelpful explanation, "So what?" That is not a paraphrase; the book will actually analyze an incorrect answer choice with the words, "So what?"

Now, if someone picked that answer choice, and needed help understanding why it was wrong, "So what?" would not even begin to help him or her. "So what?" is not a sufficient explanation because, if it were that obvious, no one would have ever been tempted to choose an incorrect answer choice in the first place!

Regarding the inaccurate reasoning given for eliminating wrong answer choices and selecting the right one, an example wouldn't be very clear here because it would be totally out of context for someone who didn't have the Preptest questions in front of him or her to examine. However, consider looking through the book at a bookstore after taking a Preptest, and carefully reading the explanations that "LSAT Answers" provides for why any of your correct answers are correct. You won't have to read many before you'll find one that is really nothing but fluff.

As I said, because it suffers from a lack of competition, the book still might be worth buying. But don't make it your only source of reference because there are better explanatory texts out there, even if they don't cover all of the questions from all of the Preptests in one of the 10-Preptest volumes.
OK if you're struggling to understand wrong answers
If you are taking LSAT tests 19-28 and are able to figure out why your incorrect answers are wrong then do not waste your money on this book. I immediately purchased this book when I bought tests 19-28 assuming that I would need the book to improve my performance. The book has turned out to be unnecessary. Of the dozen or so old LSATs I have taken I have yet to find an incorrect answer that didn't become apparent within a minute or so of reflection. When I initially consulted this book for help in understanding my mistakes I was very disappointed with the superficial reasoning and, in some cases, by the text's failure to actually explain the reasoning behind some of the answers. I gleaned some useful tips (ie, save parallel reasoning questions for the end of the section, etc.) but otherwise it was a wasted thirty bucks. If you understand your mistakes save yourself the cash.


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