Self-Study 2017 vs 2018 vs On Demand

[aaraya]

So I'm in a bit of an odd predicament. Years ago during undergrad I bought the 2013 versions of the PowerScore Bibles with the intention of going to law school right after graduation. Life happened. My GPA was nowhere near what I'm capable of, so I took a few years to get some working experience.

I started to study in June of this year with my 2013 versions, trying to follow along with the 1 year outline. The more blogs I read, the more guilty I felt about using such outdated material. But I was still learning a lot so I stuck with it. Late September I asked some customer support line when the 2018 versions would be released and I was told sometime this fall, so I figured I would keep using my 2013s until the 2018s were released. Here I am late November and the 2018s are not here yet and I've pretty much gotten through the 2013s. ---side note: the reason I went through the material faster than the plan is because I was privately messaging Marvin who outlined his process through a series of posts on this site. I followed his advice to power through the material to master it. I felt the 12 month plan moved way too slow.

I now have a friend who is offering to give me her 2017s because she is done with the LSAT... Financially, that's my best option obviously, but I understand that there will be substantial updates to the 2018s. The best option for my budget is to subscribe to the on-demand course, so that speaking one-on-one with tutors will help me to correct any dated methods I have learned with the 2013 versions. But the initial enrollment fee and the monthly subscription make my eyes water. I don't even have a laptop right now...

My target date is June 2018, with September as my backup.

Any advice or guidance is appreciated. I created this problem for myself, but I've seen how helpful PowerScore is to it's students through the forums, blogs and Dave on Twitter, so I thought I'd give a shout to see what you all suggest.

Thank you!
Alex

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the questions and comments! Part of the reason the 2018s have been delayed is due to the fact that I have wanted to make more changes than usual, but to do so requires a fair amount of time, which has been difficult to carve out given the help I try to give students directly. It's is literally the choice of ignoring student questions to me or working on the books, and I chose to answer the student questions So, instead of those books coming out this fall as planned, they have been pushed back (but the LGB and RCB changes are done, and the LRB is in progress). It might help to note that in prior years now is the general time is when the books usually come out, but this year I had planned on releasing them earlier and I told our student services representatives that, so they aren't to blame for them not arriving—I am!

If you didn't have access to the 2017s for free, I'd say get the 2018s. But, it's really difficult for me to look at a free copy of the 2017 books and tell you not to take those. Yes, I believe the updates I'm making from 2017 are important, but frankly I'd rather see you save your money there and instead look at something like the On Demand course, which will make the material come alive (and which does not use the Bibles as the course material).

Hopefully, that gives you a better sense of comfort as you move forward here. The key thing for you is to look at some of the differences between those 2013 and 2017 versions—especially to LG sequencing.

Please let me know if that helps, and please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions!