Hi Sonopaal,
Thanks for the message. You ask a question that can't be answered completely because we don't have access to Mike's student data (and to some extent neither can he since he doesn't run courses or programs where he sees student performance). Regardless, let me share a few thoughts on differences in the books and programs:
1. Single Focus vs All Sections
As you likely noticed, the PowerScore Logic Games Bible is focused solely on the Logic Games section whereas the LSAT Trainer attempts to address all sections of the test. Yet, the LGB is 720 pages and the Trainer is 600 pages. So, when thinking about how the approaches differ, you can see that the LGB goes much more in-depth than the Trainer on the LG section--our entire book on one section is longer than his on three sections. For serious students looking to maximize their Logic Games score, you simply get more with PowerScore.
2. Comprehensive Test Preparation vs Just Books
PowerScore has been in doing LSAT preparation for over 25 years, and we run in-person and online LSAT classes and also do personal LSAT tutoring. In other words, every single day we work with LSAT students in a variety of ways and this gives us repeated opportunities to see how they learn, how they perform, and the best ways to help them improve. I can review thousands of student practice tests and drill sessions and see the problem areas, and then use that information as well as my own extensive LSAT teaching and tutoring background to develop and create prep strategies and methods. the book is grounded in actual teaching experience with thousands and thousands of students.
Mike Kim's Trainer has been around about 10 years, but there is no Trainer LSAT course or study tools, just the book. So, Mike has no broad way of seeing LSAT performance or of working with groups of students to see how they absorb the material. It's likely one reason why the Trainer only is updated every few years whereas the LSAT Bibles are updated every single year.
3. Student Success
The PowerScore Games Bible was written in 2003 and has been used by
millions of LSAT students. It's the most used LSAT Logic Games book of all time. That also means that it's been vetted by millions of readers, and if there were problems or deficiencies with it, I'd have found them long ago and fixed them. In fact, my desire to address even the smallest possible improvement is why I update the books every year--if I see something that could be a bit clearer, or should be added because the test changed, I can do that. Because of this, student feedback is overwhelmingly positive, and we have thousands of positive comments about how people's futures were changed by the books (here are just some comments we have received; so any have come in that we stopped adding them long ago:
https://powerscore.com/lsat/student-com ... =36&page=2).
As mentioned above, I can't speak for Mike on this topic since I don't know what people say to him. But as far as Logic Games, any info he'd have would be anecdotal since there's no formal test prep company associated with Trainer that gives practice tests, uses LSAT analytics, teaches classes, or has tutors. What Trainer does is books only, but that doesn't have as many dimensions or depth compared to what PowerScore does.
4. Engagement and Public Presence
One of the great tests of credibility is whether an author will talk to the public about what they are recommending. As the author of the LSAT Logic Games Bible, I'm present and talking to students in the public constantly. For example you can find me daily on Reddit's r/LSAT (
https://www.reddit.com/user/DKilloranPowerScore/), on Twitter/X (
https://twitter.com/DaveKilloran), and on this PowerScore forum. I also present webinars attended regularly by thousands of LSAT students (the LSAT Crystal Balls, for one) and I co-host the most popular LSAT podcast (
https://www.powerscore.com/lsat/podcast). In other words, I am always present to take questions on the books and to explain why we make certain recommendations. More importantly, I am out there every day backing and supporting what we teach in the book.
Mike, perhaps because there is no live student component to what he does, isn't out in the public supporting the Trainer in the same way I support the Bibles. I'm not saying he has to be, but people always know where they can find me, which I think speaks to just how much we believe in the concepts and methods in the LGB.
Just for the record, I count Mike Kim as a friend in the LSAT world, and I like him personally, so none of the above is personal. I just think that while the Trainer is a nice starting book, it doesn't go to the same levels as the PowerScore Bibles and there isn't the same data behind the book or the same public backing that the Bibles have.
Please let me know if that helps. Thanks!
