#2 in a series of Q&A’s with representatives of leading LSAT companies.
On to The Princeton Review. Andrew Brody, National Content Director for LSAT Programs for The Princeton Review, filled me in with all the necessary info.
How long have you been offering LSAT prep?
We have been offering LSAT prep since 1988.
Where are you located?
All across the country we have local offices, and internationally. We also have online programs for people who are not located near a site.
Please describe your traditional in-class courses?
We have two main classroom courses. The first one is our Hyperlearning course—it’s an 84-hour program, leaves no stone unturned, 24 classes, it covers every aspect of the LSAT, every question type, logical reasoning pattern, every section. It covers every topic two or three times, it has homework review, exam review, drills, and basically real hand-held guidance through the test.
We also have an Accelerated program for people that can’t make the time commitment of an 84-hour class. That’s the 28-hour program that covers all the essentials of the LSAT. We still cover every topic, we just don’t hit everything two and three times. There’s a lot less homework review, a lot less exam review, it’s more for people who are willing to take on the burden of prep on themselves a little more.
Please describe your online options?
Our online course is just as robust as our in-class course. There are a few different types, some where you’re taught directly by a teacher, some where you’re taking classes at your own convenience, not with a teacher but with online instruction. It uses the same materials and covers the same ground as the classroom course. It’s actually relatively new, that format; we just launched it in June. We used to have an online course, but it was sort of a miniature version of the real thing; this one now mirrors the real thing.
Do you offer a self-study option or study guides?
We have some other options. We have a small-group tutoring model, where, say you and a couple friends want to take a class and want to fit it to your schedule, you can get a group of people together and we’ll give you an instructor and a schedule. We also of course have tutoring options. For real self-studying, the online course is the best route because you have all the instruction but you can do it on your own time. That’s opposed to the instructor-led one which is the live online course.
Do you offer any one-on-one or individualized tutoring?
We offer one-on-one tutoring at all our sites as well. Those programs are customizable, but start at, depending on where you are, between 24-30 hours is the basic package. Our tutors are among our most experienced LSAT instructors, and they are especially trained to work individually with students to diagnose their strengths and weaknesses. We cover all topics, but we really focus on where students can increase their score.
What is the focus of your instruction?
Our focus is on understanding the actual internal logic of the test. There are of course tricks to the test, you know the test prep basics that you can sort of get from anyone. But we really focus on teaching people how to think like the LSAT test writers do. We try to train our students to anticipate the tricks that are going to be pulled on them by the test writers, and get inside the test writers’ minds so that they can be prepared for the types of patterns that are sort of served on the LSAT. So instead of just saying, “here’s a game, here’s how to do it,” we say, “now look at this type of game, this pattern of game, what are the types of clues that you know from doing other games of this type? What will you expect to be on this game, what are the tricks you expect to be laid down for you, what are the mistakes that you’ve made when dealing with this type of game before, and how are you going to protect yourself from making those same mistakes again?” When it comes to the arguments sections we really go into the details of how you read on the LSAT, and so we think of it like teaching someone how to play a musical instrument or something that you really have to refocus their brain and the ways that they think, combine the strategies with the time and the work and the rigorous homework process and focused activity to see real improvements.
Do you cater to any particular kind of student?
Our program really serves students of all levels. That being said, different courses and course structures cater to different types of students, depending on how you learn best.
What qualifies someone to teach for Princeton Review?
To teach our Hyperlearning course, teachers have to score in the 98th percentile on the LSAT. That is our most rigorous course and we want to make sure that your instructors have the scores that you are shooting for. That’s just the start of it, though. After that they have to go through a pretty rigorous training that we put them through. We have a small group of master trainers around the country that train our new teachers, and they’re instructors that have been around forever and have been qualified through a national process to become trainers, and they evaluate the skills of the teachers and watch them do teach-backs. Being good at the LSAT is just a part of being a good LSAT instructor—you have to be able to convey that information effectively to students, so we have a national certification process that does that.
What are your company’s unique strengths?
I believe our unique strengths are our instructors, who are passionate about the LSAT, and extremely qualified. Our training program is really very rigorous and our instructors are very good at making the LSAT real to students, making connections to their lives—instead of just saying, “here are the rules of the LSAT,” our teachers are really good at presenting information in a way that really makes sense to students and that they can grab on to. Our students consistently rate our teachers very high.
Just like the other major competitors, we offer all of the available LSATs to our students, so that they can practice all of the material that’s available through LSAC, and that’s true for all of our courses, from tutoring, small-group tutoring, online courses, they all get our materials, and for anyone who is studying for the LSAT we have a program that meets their needs.
Read the full article: LSAT Prep Company Reviews: Princeton Review Q&A