Usefulness of LSAT books & materials?

This is a great and timely topic.

I think the idea of using LSAT prep to supplement GMAT prep is kind of like a Venn Diagram problem. There are items that are:

1. Unique to GMAT (Sentence Correction)
2. Shared by both (Logical Reasoning = Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension)
3. Logic Games and formal logic problems in the Logical Reasoning section which are not that relevant to GMAT students. But, if you have a nack for Logic Games, I see them as useful mental exercises to stretch the mind before a study session.

Reading Comprehension is pretty much 100% the same as for LSAT as for GMAT.
The logical reasoning ones are a little tricky because there are formal logic problems, unnecessarily hard for GMAT students, mixed in with the other logic problems, which will be more familiar with GMAT students. (Was that last sentence constructed correctly?)

That having been said, the Powerscore Bibles are all solid materials. BTW, if you look hard enough online, you can find paper versions of every LSAT ever administered.

Also, as someone who has taken the LSATs in the past, I can definitely say it has been a big help. I've been able to largely ignore a) studying for the verbal section and b) spending money on verbal study materials. The one area I've had to supplement is in sentence corrections. But this has allowed me to focus on Quantitative, which is my weaker area.

I'd be interested to know if any other former LSAT students have had similar experiences as well.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I will use the LSAT Powerscore RC book. I'm not going to read everything, but I will try all the exercises and read the answers. I've read a little bit of this book and so far:

1. Yes, they assume you can mark up the test since LSAT is paper/pencil. It looks like they even devote a whole chapter to how you should mark up each RC passage.
2. Many of the RC passages deal with law-related material, whereas GMAT doesn't have any of that. LSAT passages use law, science, social/humanities topics, and economics topics. So most of the passages are relevant except for the law-specific ones.
3. The main advantage I see in using this book vs. 1000RC is there are answer explanations and you know that the answers in the book are correct. I will supplement with 1000RC/GmatClub explanations as well.

I won't be getting the MGMAT RC or Powerscore RC (for GMAT) as my RC is already ok and now I have this book. I may use the Logical Reasoning Bible sparingly since I've already finished the Powerscore CR Bible (for GMAT).

Topher,

I'd recommend doing the law/humanities/social science problems as well, even if they seem unrelated to the GMATs. Even if they are topically different, it really is about the mental exercise. The more you do, the better you'll get elsewhere.

And besides, you don't think you'll encounter items related to law, humanities, social sciences in business school?

Yeah I plan on doing all passages in there. The thing I like about these questions so far is the answers are CLEAR. They use real past LSAT questions and it's not like MGMAT CATs where 2 answer choices look ridiculously similar. From what I gather, the real GMAT is also similar to the LSAT in this respect (clear answers).

Are LSAT RC passages/questions similar to GMAT?

I can vouch for the LSAT CR bible - there's a wealth of information about how to tackle CR problems in that book. Frankly, if you can read the first 5-6 or so chapters, understand and implement every technique in those chapters - you'll hit a jackpot in GMAT CR. Not to belittle other books but the CR bible is a joy to read as well.

No clue about the RC book - I need to take a look at that sometime.

seems like overkill, but honestly if you are shooting for 760+ then yeah its worth it.

I'm considering Powerscore RC, but it might interfere with my quant and SC studies. If I choose to go for it, I'll write a brief review later.

dont know how good the powerscore RC is, but i do recommend the powerscore LSAT LR bible... it does seem like overkill at times but it prepares you very well for the gmat

Here you go: another-question-on-powerscore-cr-and-lr-86056.html

LSAT passages are much longer and, I find, more complex. The question difficulty for both is roughly the same, though I have encountered a few LSAT RC questions that are very hard. Also, the LSAT includes topics not tested on the GMAT, such as law.

With that said, I think LSAT questions are good practice.

1] So if i have powerscore CR and RC book for gmat and have read them ( off course i have leisure time ) which LSAT books should i go thru.

2] One of my friends is doing LSAT's and i can get some powerscore books from him ( i wont be going thru them in the early phase of my gmat )

3] he has 36 or so official lsat's or something from kaplan , would it be worth while to go thru RC's and SC's of those ?

thanks,

i think the CR is more useful than the RC - only because RC really depends on you and how you ultimately interpret the passages.




if you time yourself using strict LSAT time limits (it's been awhile, so i'm not sure what they are now), then yes i think it would be worth it if you could take the RC sections fully timed and answer them. the caveat is that the LSAT covers some topics (like law) that the GMAT doesnt cover. however, i think you will still get the basics from these practice tests. i would only say save these LSAT tests towards the end of your study cycle. if you are weak on the basics, then the LSAT tests wont help you as much.

Thanks mate.

all of your replies were very useful . I will keep the lsat stuff , but wont use them as of yet.

just one more query , how different is lsat lr from gmat cr ?

Is this the thread for those of us studying for both?

I'm finding LSAT LR slightly more challenging than GMAT CR, but I'll know better when I tackle OG. so far just going through mgmat cr book. I'm finding my Powerscore LSAT bible and Grouped by Question type book helpful for supplemental material.

Why is GMAT so protective of their questions? You can buy every released LSAT so it's almost impossible to run out of real practice material.

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i think this thread is mostly for those who are looking for additional hard practice questions and are turning to LSAT.
If you are taking both, and do well on LSAT, you have nothing to worry about on the GMAT Verbal section...

Lots of useful info here. I'm probably going to buy LR, but it looks very expensive. Too expensive.

The price is the main problem with it for me.