I usually don't write reviews for books because it becomes redundant. Either it's a good book, and almost everyone will say so, or it's horrible, and the readers will let you know. This book, however, has received rave reviews, even though it is totally worthless and even detrimental to your LSAT preparation. I can honestly say that this book was written for the sole purpose of banking in on an industry of people who will read anything if they think it will improve their test score.[...] (Update: That ... was added by Amazon, who edited out part of my comment. What was taken out, is that people have been paid to write positive reviews for this book.)

That issue aside, the book should not be purchased simply because its methods are ineffective and even detrimental. The author advocates a thoughtless approach of attacking the questions without making any initial deductions. It is essential to make deductions. The Law Services people will not only tell you the same thing, but also design the questions with the expectation that you will be able to make logical inferences. I tried to use his method, just to see if it would work. I remember distinctly one game where, using his method, it took 3 pages of the text to do the diagrams necessary to answer one question. The question could have been answered almost instantly with a little forethought. Not only do you not have the time to do that on the test, you don't have the space to draw that many diagrams.

My last complaint is his writing style. He admits upfront that he takes a conversational tone in writing in order to better engage the reader. But he is very longwinded and boring, not to mention that he repeats himself constantly. I found myself skipping through several paragraphs of useless jabber in an attempt to find something of value. The only thing useful was his recommendation on the order to answer the questions, and that's why I gave this book two stars. However, a little experience working problems will lead you to this order.

I ended up using the other major logic games book. I used deductions on the October LSAT and was able to answer all the questions in 31 minutes with perfect accuracy. You will not be able to do that with this book, so don't waste your money.

This book is about 200 pages and uses 12 games for practice. It is the best written, most concise and most coherent book about the LSAT on the market. It reinforces the concepts taught and I found it very engaging (which I cannot say about most LSAT books).

The author stresses that there's no "right" diagram just what works for you. He emphasizes diagramming based on the variable that changes least. He strongly de-emphasizes deductions but does discuss them and where he feels they might be appropriate - his thought is that most of the time you figure out what you need to know as you work through the questions while making unnecesary deductions costs time. There is also a specific order to answering questions and choosing games which makes a great deal of sense, especially if a person cannot complete all of the games. The book is broken into beginning, intermediate, and advanced techniques, which build on one another; you could manage games using any level of technique. Each game is thouroughly reviewed using the book's techniques.

I used the book after 2.5 months of LSAT preparation and probably 200+ games under my belt...I still found useful information. I learned the hard way many of the lessons elucidated so well in the book - I wish I had found it sooner. That said, I still picked up a few tricks and the general LSAT preparation information at the end of the book was a comfort. The book outlined methods that it took me those months to develop/figure out on my own. The only thing it didn't teach are those mystical moments when you look at a game and know exactly how it's going to play out or when you look at a question and just know the right answer without thinking about it.

How did I perform you ask? Well I received a 173, but more importantly I scored a perfect games section compared to my overall average of 3.243 wrong and my average on the last 10 tests of 1.4 wrong. I tell everyone I can to get the book. My only complaint: they don't have a book for Reading Comprehension and Logical Reasoning yet.

UPDATE:
I used this book for the October 2005 LSAT and scored a perfect on the games section. I did use deductions but I didn't spend an inordinated amount of time on deductions, which is a major stumbling block for people. You could spend all day on deductions but a lot of deductions aren't necesary if you approach the questions in a certain order and preserve your work.

It seems like people who dislike this book are wedded to another test preparation company's methods, maybe to the extent that they work for said test preparation company.

This book helped me a lot. I used to finish only 3 games, but Brian's method helped me make it through all of them. I took the LSAT in October (for the second time) and got a 175 (which is 9 points higher than my first score). I liked the way this book really broke down the questions by category and guided me through the process of studying. The games was by far my worst section before, but I got all of the questions in the games section correct on the day of the actual test. I would recommend the book to anyone; it was better than all of the other books I used.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I bought the LSAT practice exams, just as Brian recommended in the book. I studied for almost two months, took all the practice exams I could stand to take. And viola - my scores jumped more than 15 points! I have a lot of test anxiety, so I really short-changed myself on what I thought I'd score, but I scored 10 points higher than even I anticipated.

When I took the exam, I was so relaxed that I flew through the questions. I started to worry that I was doing something wrong, but took Brian's advice and relaxed. He said not to stress over the answers, they had to be right, because I knew how to take the exam and beat it. I did. I only missed two questions in the entire section, a personal best!

I know a lot of recommenders have complained about the book's suggestion to ignore deductions, but I think they are reading it wrong. I took Brian's advice and took the practice exams without trying to make deductions. When I focused my energy on setting up the questions and answering them in the order he specifies, the deductions came on their own. Answering question one gave me information that I recognized as a deduction and put in the rules. I didn't waste time looking for them, but used them when they became apparent.

I have recommended this book to everyone I know, and will continue to do so! Save your money on expensive prep classes, and spend your time working with this book. It'll pay off in the end, I guarantee. The only complaint I have is that Brian Talbot hasn't published books on the other sections - I could have scored even higher!

This book is like caviar in a way - no matter how great it is, there will be a small group of people who turn away in disgust. Perhaps it's because they prefer a nice Peanut Butter -n- Jelly sandwich?

Here's my take: The book is exceptional - Brian's manner and conversation-like writing style are a great way to learn a difficult subject (perhaps the most challenging part of the LSAT). He analyzes a selection of games in sequence from easy to (very) difficult and, along the way, teaches you principles and methods that will help you attack games which you have never seen. He explains what you should have achieved at each stopping point and makes suggestions about what to do and what to not do. I found it a comfortable way to learn.

A couple of caveats: [1] Any time you learn a new technique, it's natural to slow down a bit until the techniques become a part of the way you think - you'll find that, as you work through more games using Brian's techniques, your speed will increase greatly in a short period of time - this will benefit you greatly on the actual test, [2] You won't really realize the benefit of this book until you take the test and, then, of course - it's too late. If you trust the methods, they will work for you and you will come out of the test knowing you did great. I made quantum leaps in my skill with this book - it worked for me.

If you work carefully and follow Brian's timeline and methods, you'll do great. If I had it to do over again, I'd use this book. It's worth every cent!