I think the title says it. My son will be taking the LSAT the first week in October (I think). He’s been out of college a few years, double major of EE and history, graduated with Latin honors, & I can’t think he will have a problem with the LSAT, but he’d like some kind of study guide. Any recommendations?
TIA.
I’d recommend any of Kaplan’s prep books, but I’m biased, since I work there.
And studying for the test is vital. As a history major with honors, he should have no problem whatsoever with the Logical Reasoning and Reading Comp, but everyone gets blindsided by the Logic Games unless they are expecting it. He should start by focusing on that section; just having a method helps you out a lot there, although the learning curve plateaus rapidly.
Finally, a mod should move this to IMHO, since it’s asking for advice, not facts.
He should buy the one with the most practice tests and just take practice test after practice test. Everyone’s experience varies, of course, but I did best with a steady diet of practice. As you may know, your son can retake the LSAT as many times as he wants, but scores are averaged together, so it behooves him to do as well as possible the first go round.
I went to the bookstore and looked for what I considered to be the prep book with the most “value”: largest number of pages for the price. 
I didn’t do so hot in the first practice test I took (my theory was, take a practice test and if I’m happy with my score, then I don’t need to study), but with practice, I got my scores to a respectable level. Best of luck to your son.
Make sure to go to LSAC.org and download the “real” LSAT they have avilable for free (I believe it was administered October 1996). Take the test under real timed testing conditions. The more often you test under timed testing conditions, the better off you’ll be.
Not to mention, re: the “take the test as many times as you like” theory, that only really applies if his Law school goals are far in the future. Realistically, there are only 2 testing dates left that will allow you to get your application in for fall 2006 (October and December) and there is a huge disadvantage to the December test date, since so many schools work on a “rolling admission” basis – they review applications in the order they were received.
But no pressure of course. haha. Best of luck to him.
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
I seem to recall that, for me, the Arco prep was the best and the Cliff’s book was the worst based upon the type and wording of questions on the actual LSAT.
Also, get your hands on actual genuine previous LSAT exams.
Test under real timed conditions as much as possible. When you grade your tests, actually study the ones that were wrong and understand why they were wrong.
Also, mark in the margin and study the ones that were right, but they were only right because of a quasi-guess.
Good advice. LSAC publishes a book called 10 Actual, Official, LSAT Prep Tests, which contains (no surprise here) ten complete LSATs that have been used in the past. I worked my way through them all, simulating the timing and other conditions as much as possible.
The study guide I had (IIRC, it was Arco) was good for explaining the answers to its questions, but I found I could do a lot better on its questions than on the actual LSATs in the book I mentioned above. Working through the previous LSATs let me know what I was really going to be in for.
Yes, get the actual, official tests and training materials from the LSAC folks. The others, no doubt, are similar, but IMO you’re better off training with the real thing. (I’m a 2L, by the way.)