Just got a 171 LSAT score back yesterday, and I had to write in this review as soon as I could, because the Testmasters prep course had everything to do with my 11-point improvement from first diag to test day.
Dave Ganin was my instructor for the live course in Manhattan. Dave struck a great balance between communicating a mastery of the material on the one hand, and finding a sense of humor and play in the learning process on the other. Seriously, some of the questions are kind of funny when you stop to think about them. I would strongly recommend the live classroom course, because checking in with Dave and the other students twice a week, for 4-hour classes, was invaluable in keeping me on track. You'll spend time going over new concepts, doing questions in class, and then having in-depth discussions of every answer (including basically every wrong answer choice too, which is key).
If you take the course, I would really recommend sticking to the advice your instructor will give about focusing on learning the fundamentals in the beginning. Essentially, the exam will test your ability to think logically, quickly. Before you get to the "quick" part, take the time to run the drills that the Testmasters curriculum provides for you. Go over the concepts you're taught, and practice them with the untimed questions assigned online. Watch the explanation videos. The course is excellently designed, and if you start out this way, then once you start taking diagnostics (about a month into the 2.5 month course), you find that difficult concepts come to you more quickly. The course had me often finishing LSAT sections well ahead of time by the end.
I want to make sure I touch on the online material, because the website material blew me away. You will be assigned A LOT of homework. Really, you need to clear a bunch of time away to do as much of this as you can. That said, I only finished 80% of the homework by test day (and only about 40% of the supplemental questions), and felt like I had definitely prepped enough. Don't destroy yourself, but do be prepared to put in 2-3 times the amount of time you spend in class on homework.
Online is also where you will become friends with the one-and-only Robin Singh, truly an LSAT legend. Robin is the head honcho of the Testmasters LSAT prep course (and company overall?). Initially, he comes across as kind of a surfer-guru. Make no mistake. This man knows his stuff - after all, he has more perfect LSAT scores than anyone in history (12!?!). Even better, he's really adept at explaining the material. I watched Robin's explanations for a TON of the practice questions, and they really helped. Especially on the Logic Games. A lot of people rave about the 7Sage Logic Game videos, which I think are pretty good, but no longer free. However, I would say that Robin's explanations are much more helpful and thorough than any 7Sage video I watched. He'll spend half an hour on some Logic Games, with lucid, dependable approaches. Logic Games was the section I was most concerned about going into the course, absolutely bombing it on my first diagnostic. On test day, it was the section I was most confident about, thanks to Testmasters. And yes, if you want to go all the way on Logic Games (or LR&RC), there is an enormous ODYSSEY of Logic Games you can go through on the website in addition to the huge number of games that are assigned as homework.
I really can't recommend Testmasters enough. As long as you're willing to do your part and put your nose to the grindstone, this course will provide everything you need to see you through to a happy result for your law school applications! Good luck! And as they say in "the biz," don't forget to lock down the ran!
P.S. I saw "Lauren M.'s" 1-star review based on the "thin" online content. I don't know what she's smoking, because the online content is insanely thorough. It's so insanely thorough I'm more than willing to bet that you WILL NOT FINISH IT ALL by test day. But I do recommend taking a live course, because it really keeps you honest to meet in class twice a week. read more