Powerscore Bibles vs. Atlas LSAT
Only the flexible will survive
We’re getting a lot of questions like this: “I’ve already read the Powerscore Bibles and I’m worried that it’ll be confusing if I now read the Atlas books,” so I figured I’d address this here so that we can send folks to read this if they have that same question.
First the bad news: if you’re about 2 weeks from the LSAT, don’t try to add on our books to what you’ve learned. We love to have people use our books and self-study courses, but at that point in the studying process, you should be solidifying what you’ve already learned, not adding on more.
Now, the good news: If you have more time than that, those students who have previously read the Powerscore Bibles – we call them “refugees” – reported that 1) they found our books to be helpful and generally more useful, and 2) they were able to resolve the differences in the two approaches.
Let’s first get the bragging out of the way based on refugee feedback, I can say that for students aiming for top scores our approach to logical reasoning and reading comprehension is more useful. (That makes sense since that’s our company’s mission – we’re not trying to serve every single student in the US.) As for the diagrams, there are definitely some advantages to having a more efficient diagram that makes some of the inferences for you – and I think ours do that (and the refugees agree). However, the LSAT is not testing your diagrams, it’s testing your ability to use them, so when I see a student who is finding success with a different program’s diagram for a particular type of game, I don’t teach them our approach to that game type. Why mess with success? But, with those who are finding themselves locking up during the games section, our approach may help break open the lock, as along with arming you with great approaches to each game type, we focus on being flexible — we know that no matter how much we prepare you, the likelihood is that you’re going to face a game with a novel twist. We assume it’s better to be prepared to be slightly unprepared than to hope that you’ve seen it all and then freak out when you realize you’re wrong because the LSAT is asking you about mauve dinosaurs and you can’t understand a thing the game is saying!
With logical reasoning the Bibles are well known for being very thorough, and they are. Unfortunately, what “thoroughness” means for some students is that they find themselves awash in a myriad of question categories. While the categories-within-categories approach doubtlessly works for some folks, our approach is different in that we aim to simplify the test and create connections between questions types. Our approach is based on a consideration of what top scoring students actually do. From there, we work to figure out how to teach folks how to do that. With reading comprehension, we’re regularly told that our approach is ground-breaking. It’s based on what the LSAT is actually testing in that section; from there, we figured out a tangible way of forcing students to read in the way that fits those expectations (basically, reading like a law student).
The last reason that people have found the transition to be easy is that our books are written to be a stand-alone course (with or without the course or course recordings). The chapters have drills – a.k.a brain-washing sessions – that help students incorporate and apply what they’ve learned. So, it’s not like you’re reading a dry textbook, and instead more like reading a do-it-yourself kit.
So, dive in fearful Bible-thumpers-soon-to-be-refugees!
If you’re not sure, take a look at some sample chapters and decide for yourself.