<p>My baseline score was around 172, and I would like to improve to 178+ by February. I had been planning to study myself for the February LSAT using the powerscore books, but I just won a free Kaplan LSAT course through my school. </p>
<p>I know that a lot of people on these boards think Kaplan courses are a waste of time compared to Powerscore or Testmasters. The major advantage of taking the course to me would be getting to take the practice tests under real conditions--I'm afraid that practicing in my room won't be quite the same. However, I also don't want to waste time in classrooms if I could improve faster on my own, or if the Kaplan course is poorly taught and would affect my performance negatively.</p>
<p>Should I take the free course, or is it more time efficient to study on my own (enrolling in the course would mean having to cut a trip to Asia short)? </p>
<p>Has anyone had positive / negative experiences with Kaplan LSAT courses in general?</p>
<p>Take the Kaplan course, but don't go to any of the classes. You get a bunch of books with real tests, which are useful. Just go for the four proctored tests.</p>
<p>I wouldn't take Kaplan for all the gold in Fort Knox. I took their cram course for my securities license and it was like blitzkrieg warefare. I understand these courses move at a fast pace, but I wasn't at all impressed with Kaplan. I've heard that Get Prepped and Powerscore are good courses.</p>
<p>I'm in the same boat. I won a free Kaplan course through my school today. I'm inclined to do it since it's valued at like $1300. What would you guys think of taking the Kaplan course plus another course?</p>
<p>If the marginal revenue of taking another hour of a Kaplan course is greater than the marginal cost, it would be beneficial to take it, until the point where marginal revenue equals marginal cost, at which point the profit earned from my having taking Kaplan course hours is maximized. The question still remains of what constitutes marginal revenue/cost and profit maximization in this case, how it can be measured, etc. The answer is that all are relative to the LSAT score: so long as taking another hour of a Kaplan course is a direct or indirect cause of an additional point guaranteed on an actual LSAT test, then it would entail an increase in marginal revenue; vice versa for marginal cost. The point of profit maximization is where the LSAT score would be the highest possible under the assumption that the Kaplan course is the only means of raising it (i.e. ceteris paribus).</p>
<p>I would do it, and I am not planing on taking the LSAT again. It is free! Plus, the games section is fun. In all seriousness, go for it. More practice tests is never a bad thing.</p>
<p>That said, I wouldn't be too disappointed if you can't get that 178+. A 172 is a fantastic score, and once you are talking about the 176 and up range a lot of it comes down to luck.</p>