Hi Ashley,
First off, congrats on registering for a FL prep course in July! You have two months until the course begins, and it would be foolish to waste that time doing nothing.
Before I tell you to spend another couple hundred bucks on study aids, let’s make things clear: our FL LSAT course is designed for students who have no prior experience with the test. Many of our students do, of course, but your instructor will not expect that of you. We make a tremendous amount of LSAT prep material available to our course students, as you'll see when you receive your coursebooks - from lessons and homework, to additional practice tests, and even course supplements and additional lectures. You do not need to invest in “additional” materials to help with your studies for the duration of the course, or after - you'll have access to all of our online resources up until the December 2016 LSAT. It's a nice perk
With all that said, studying on your own
before classes begin—if done right—can help quite a bit. Why? Because it will virtually guarantee that you'll pick up the material faster. Your homework will probably not take as long, because you’ll be familiar with at least some of the conceptual material covered in it. You will feel more confident in class. And you will start taking practice tests earlier than your classmates, giving you more time to figure out where your weaknesses lie. Most importantly,
you can never predict how quickly your score will improve, so the earlier you start preparing, the better prepared—and more relaxed—you will feel in the end. Trust me on that one.
It is absolutely imperative to avoid learning poor techniques or inefficient approaches, which you will most likely need to unlearn once classes begin. It’s an avoidable mistake provided you stay within the PowerScore's LSAT “ecosystem." These materials present the same approach to the test and its various sections as your course books, so there will be no conflict between what you learn on your own and what you will learn in class. In fact, the Bibles provide an in-depth look at our methodology, and are particularly helpful as a starting point.
Keep in mind, also, that by their very nature, the Bibles are pedagogically “static”: you can read about our approach to, say, Assumption questions and understand the Assumption Negation Technique, but you cannot interact with the material in the same way you can in class. This is why studying on your own will not render your classroom experience monotonous or useless: on the contrary, students who are familiar with our techniques tend to stay more engaged in class, and benefit even more from reinforcing the knowledge they already have. Although there is indeed some overlap between the Bibles and the course materials, this is primarily due to the fact that we try to keep our approach consistent. Rest assured, however, that your coursebooks will have significantly more problem sets than any of our publications, and each of the thousand or so problems in your homework will be explained on-line in our Student Center.
You have about two months to study before classes begin, which is the perfect amount of time to complete our
Two-Month LSAT Self-Study Plan. You will need to purchase the
Bible Trilogy and corresponding workbooks, but not any of the PrepTests listed in the plan, as you'll be able to download those from the Online Student Center upon receipt of your login credentials. Since you'll be taking a Full Length course, I'd probably skip the Question-Type Training assignments, because these questions will ultimately be part of your course homework. So, don't buy any of the Question Type Training volumes, unless you insist on going full-speed
I am pretty sure that the Trilogy + Workbooks will be enough to keep you busy for the next two months.
Hope this answers your question; if not, please don't hesitate to reach out again.
Good luck!!!
Post #1
We anticipate that your books will be shipped in the beginning of June, and should reach you within just a few days.