Incorporating Full Class Materials into Self Study Schedule

[slu57]

Hello-

Approximately a year ago I completed a full Powerscore classroom based course. I was unable to take the LSAT after the course due to other obligations and had to push off the test for 1 year. I am now preparing for the Oct 2015 test date and am struggling on which materials to include in my self-study schedule (hopefully the 4 month plan). Currently, I have all the materials and books that were provided when taking the full course. I also have the LG and LR bibles. When reviewing the materials needed for the 4 month study plan, I noticed there was several other workbooks and materials that are suggested that I do not have. Can someone please provide some advice on if it is possible to incorporate the materials that I already have into the 4 month study schedule. With the materials that I have, am I missing something substantial that would be critical to the self-study schedule?

With the vast amount of materials out there, I want to ensure that I am not overwhelming myself with too many materials, which could just be 99.9% duplicates of each other (as observed when comparing the LR bible to the full course textbook).

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hello slu57,

Thanks for your question! You do have a lot of materials at your disposal, and you'll definitely need to get organized about how you use them.

The 4-month plan assumes you will primarily use the Bibles and Workbooks, supplementing them with practice questions from the Question Type Training, Volumes 1 and 2. You will either need to purchase those, or else use the questions from your homework (as you know, they are broken down by type, which is what you need). The only problem is, if you took the course already, a lot of your homework is probably marked up. You may have to erase your prior answers so as to avoid bias, or use whiteout to cover them up. Either way, the 4-month plan is a good backbone to get you in shape, but you will definitely need a substantial number of practice questions that can be procured either through the coursebooks, or else through the Question Type Training volumes. You can also purchase a new set of books, but those aren't cheap.

There is also a third option to consider: for a $150 fee, you can reinstate access to the Online Student Center. As you may recall, this gives you a plethora of resources that can be invaluable to someone studying on his or her own, including:

• 1. Prerecorded lectures that you can listen to, as you complete each chapter of the Bibles. The chapters aren't always presented in the exact chronological order of our FL course curriculum, but it's close enough. You can gauge what to listen to, and when.
  
  2. Supplemental questions (LR/LG/RC) that you can add to your homework. These are PDF files you can print, so prior markings won't be an issue.
  
  3. 20+ additional practice tests that haven't been used in your homework.
  
  4. The ability to score your tests and obtain actionable score reports to help sharpen your focus as you progress through your studies.

If you wish to reinstate your OSC access, feel free to call our Home Office at 1-800-545-1750. They will be happy to help you out.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and definitely don't hesitate to reach out as you progress through the plan.

Thanks!

[slu57]

Nikki,

Thanks for the response!

I have a few follow up questions to hopefully clear some of the confusion. You are spot on with a lot of my in class workbooks being marked up. If I wanted to avoid having to whiteout or erase all the answers is it safe to say that the third option (online student access) would provide all those same practice problems that I could print a clean copy of? If this were the case, then would I be able to use primarily the bibles while supplementing the practice problems from the online student access? (Basically avoiding having to buy all the additional workbooks or utilize the current in-class workbooks that are already marked up)

Thank you!

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi,

Unfortunately, the only way to avoid having to whiteout or erase the answers from your coursebook homework is to purchase all the supplemental Question Type Training volumes (1 and 2) for each of LG, LR, and RC. Per our licensing agreement with LSAC, students are only allowed to use the questions once; so, any repeated use will require purchasing either the full set of coursebooks (not sure what the price is, but it's definitely at least $600) or else the Question Type Training volumes.

The online access will allow you to download supplemental question sets, as well as access lesson-specific explanations and drills, practice tests and score reports, etc. However, you cannot access your homework problem sets online; those are only available in your coursebooks. Online, you will only find the explanations to these problem sets, not the problem sets themselves.

The only way to avoid buying the additional Question Type Training materials and workbooks would be to utilize your existing coursebooks. I know it's a pain using whiteout on so many pages, so why not get someone to do it for you? Plenty of kids at my school would do it for the price of a good meal

Let me know if this answers your question.

Thanks!