From what I can tell, Nathan produces polarized responses from his students. Some folks love him, and other folks hate him. That being said, there may be a bit of selection bias in these reviews. I don't love him and many of other folks in my class felt the same. We also may not be representative, but you should know the full picture before you spend 900 on a prep class. I feel like I wasted my money. Also, warning, I come from a teaching background. Here's why I wasn't a fan:
Nathan's irreverant and glib tone is refreshing when directed at the LSAT. The same can't be said for when it is directed at his students. He frequently dismisses and shuts down wrong answers in a rude manner without fully a) attempting to understand how a student misunderstood the question as a way of b) adequately providing a better roadmap to finding the correct answer. The grating thing is, he is capable of doing this in his books, he just doesn't consistently do it in his class. Book Nathan is better prepared and more explicative. Book Nathan doesn't always take cognitive shortcuts and refuse to explain himself. In-person often Nathan does. I think he would do well to annotate his instructor copy of his test with full explanations of wrong answers so he doesn't jump down the throats of folks who genuinely don't understand what they missed in the question. If you can clearly understand exactly why something is wrong, you can demistify your students and prevent future misunderstandings. That is pretty much the essence of teaching. For someone who brags about having his dream job, you'd think he'd put in a little more time on the front end to ensure his results.
It's also important to note that Nathan is pretty chill when it comes to time, which means he sometimes will "let you go" sooner, often times an hour early, thus shortening your class (especially since lunch is an hour). This really bugged me. I get it, people are showing signs of strain, but this just seemed like a waste of time and money. We're paying until 6, help us out? Have some additional material to stretch the time. Give people what they pay for. (This might just be me). Admittedly, the last day of class, I left early because I couldn't take him anymore.
Most importantly, his website says if you were ever unhappy with his class, he wouldn't want your money and that no one has asked him for a refund, and that's simply not true. After the second day of class, a friend of mine anonymously asked via text message about his refund policy. I saw Nathan's response and I've got the screenshot. Nathan says he doesn't give them and didn't show any signs of not wanting my friend's money. Once you're in, you're in, no prorated refunds, no make-up classes. Nada. If you're unhappy, he still wants your money and will still keep your money. Propaganda be damned.
His books were decent, he is accessible via text, email, and phone call, and I don't think he's a bad person. I just think he needs to plan for his classes more and dignify his student's questions with adequate responses. Laziness is unbecoming in an instructor and students can always tell. read more
