University of Michigan
Before TestMasters: 149
After TestMasters: 165
“Coming into my LSAT prep I honestly knew very little about the format of the test, only that it was a very important part of a law school resume and that I wanted to do well. I had heard some about the games section and knew that there was reading comprehension but knew nothing of the logical reasoning type questions. I signed up with TestMasters based on the recommendation of three friends who had taken the TestMasters course for the June 2007 LSAT and had nothing but good things to say about the class. While I expected to do better on the first diagnostic, I was not disappointed with my score (149) because I knew we had learned no strategies or ideas yet and had a feeling that these types of questions were very learnable. I struggled mightily with reading comprehension on the first diagnostic—although I finished I did not have nearly enough time to seriously contemplate most of the questions. I was also very lost on the games section—my diagrams were simply not good enough.
Once the class began I immediately saw personal improvement. Studying for the LSAT was truly a brand new way of thinking but one that TestMasters was clearly prepared to teach. Aside from being an expert on all of the sections, my teacher was clearly very knowledgeable about many other LSAT related topics. These included more general test-taking strategies (slow down, relax, read carefully, etc.) and perspective on the importance of this test, whether or not to retake, etc. I felt that this was a very valuable part of the class as well and I credit him for that.
In the first few class lessons, the diagramming strategies learned for games were very valuable (along with extra homework). I developed great confidence in the games section during these first few lessons and beginning with the second diagnostic I did not miss any questions on most games sections (-1 on the real LSAT). Reading comprehension is obviously the hardest part to teach and practice since there are a limited number of strategies and passages to work with. I did like many aspects of the general TestMasters reading comp strategy and used it as a basis for my own personal strategy. I remained very constant throughout the entire class in reading comp, usually getting 4 or 5 wrong on every section (-5 on the real LSAT).
All of these game and reading lessons, while valuable, pale in comparison to the way that TestMasters teaches the Logical Reasoning sections. Without the unique TestMasters strategy for logical reasoning, I am confident I would have not achieved a desirable score increase. By dividing all of the LR questions up into different types, it allowed me to pinpoint exactly what kinds of questions I was repeatedly getting wrong and practice those questions over and over again until I began to increase my percentage of right answers. Also, by providing the approximate percentages that each question type is used on the LSAT, TestMasters really showed the students what types were the most valuable to learn. Another positive aspect of the class was the order in which the LR questions were taught, allowing the students to build upon their skills and use similar strategies for different types of questions. After getting anywhere from 9 to 12 wrong on every LR section at the beginning of the course, I was down to 3 or 4 by the end of the class (-4 and -5 on the real LSAT). Since LR questions make up the largest percentage of the test this improvement was obviously vital.
Overall, I found the class to be an excellent experience. While the class and materials were great, the confidence that my TestMasters course gave me may actually have been its most valuable part. I could not have been more prepared.”