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PowerScore LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible
The PowerScore LSAT Logical Reasoning Bible is a comprehensive how-to manual for solving every type of Logical Reasoning question. Featuring dozens of real Logical Reasoning questions with detailed explanations, the Bible is the ultimate resource for improving your LSAT Logical Reasoning score.
704 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2004
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287 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
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March 7, 2020logical reasoning makes me sad
August 22, 2024
A very thorough and well-organized “course” in the LR fundamentals.
What I liked best —
While many people (justifiably) laud the amount of detail PowerScore devotes to each individual question type (lists of question stems, characteristics of right and common wrong answers, drills, etc), I also really liked PowerScore’s more general advice, like getting into the habit of identifying the conclusion and prephrasing an answer on any argument questions, or how to manage timing for full sections.
The question-specific drills were excellent: they helped me to apply & reinforce what I learned each chapter (and gave me a concrete sense of progress during this mammoth text LOL — when you’re on page 81 of 736, it’s a good feeling to be able to say something like “i got this right today and last week, this question would have been a cold guess for me.”)
The detailed explanations after drills were fantastic, and really hammered in the mentality of “you should be able to provide 1 concrete reason why the right answer is right, and 1 concrete reason of why each wrong answer is wrong.”
Additionally, especially when it came to (Parallel) Flaw/Parallel Method questions, I liked the suggestion to see the subtle tweak you would need to make each wrong answer correct, or to formulate a stimulus that *would* match: as I learned with more exposure to practice tests, being able to recognize a flaw in a stimulus is just the first part — you’ll also have to recognize how it is worded in the answer choices, which may be purposefully obfuscating or even just different from what you’d expect.
What I thought could be improved —
One weakness is that I felt the PowerScore approach could be overly mechanistic at times: for example, relying on students to memorize lists of sufficient/necessary indicator words in order to recognize conditionals rather than encouraging a more conceptual understanding of what an underlying conditional relationship actually presents.
While it may lack Ellen Cassidy’s emphasis on conceptual grasps or Michael Kim’s strong advice on intuition, it complements them incredibly well and fills in gaps that might get glossed over by their broader strategies. When I decided to actually learn the LSAT fundamentals (instead of just spamming drill sets with no clue of why I could ace one then bomb the next), I’m glad I started here. :) It’s a giant tome, but it’s clear and comprehensive.
What I liked best —
While many people (justifiably) laud the amount of detail PowerScore devotes to each individual question type (lists of question stems, characteristics of right and common wrong answers, drills, etc), I also really liked PowerScore’s more general advice, like getting into the habit of identifying the conclusion and prephrasing an answer on any argument questions, or how to manage timing for full sections.
The question-specific drills were excellent: they helped me to apply & reinforce what I learned each chapter (and gave me a concrete sense of progress during this mammoth text LOL — when you’re on page 81 of 736, it’s a good feeling to be able to say something like “i got this right today and last week, this question would have been a cold guess for me.”)
The detailed explanations after drills were fantastic, and really hammered in the mentality of “you should be able to provide 1 concrete reason why the right answer is right, and 1 concrete reason of why each wrong answer is wrong.”
Additionally, especially when it came to (Parallel) Flaw/Parallel Method questions, I liked the suggestion to see the subtle tweak you would need to make each wrong answer correct, or to formulate a stimulus that *would* match: as I learned with more exposure to practice tests, being able to recognize a flaw in a stimulus is just the first part — you’ll also have to recognize how it is worded in the answer choices, which may be purposefully obfuscating or even just different from what you’d expect.
What I thought could be improved —
One weakness is that I felt the PowerScore approach could be overly mechanistic at times: for example, relying on students to memorize lists of sufficient/necessary indicator words in order to recognize conditionals rather than encouraging a more conceptual understanding of what an underlying conditional relationship actually presents.
While it may lack Ellen Cassidy’s emphasis on conceptual grasps or Michael Kim’s strong advice on intuition, it complements them incredibly well and fills in gaps that might get glossed over by their broader strategies. When I decided to actually learn the LSAT fundamentals (instead of just spamming drill sets with no clue of why I could ace one then bomb the next), I’m glad I started here. :) It’s a giant tome, but it’s clear and comprehensive.
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August 27, 2024I’m logging this idc
May 3, 2014
A solid and thorough guide to the Logical Reasoning section of the LSAT. The book breaks the questions down into types (grouped according to whether the argument or answer choices should be taken as true). Each type is discussed in detail and strategies are presented. There are plenty of practice LSAT problems to work on. Everything is clearly presented and the book is well-written.
The book has a few drawbacks. The first is that the categorization and formality of approach can at times be oppressive or even inefficient. The lengthy list of logical fallacies (in which I do have an academic interest) comes to mind immediately. Related are the chapters on formal and categorical/syllogistic logic. While important, these concepts are applicable to relatively few LSAT problems, so the amount of space given to them in the book seems disproportionate. Some may appreciate the glut of information, however. At any rate, the books seems to focus a bit too much for my liking on the formal structure of the question types, when a more organic problem-solving approach would be far more efficient for the average test-taker. The second major drawback is that some of the specific advice is questionable. For example, the book recommends reading the stimulus before the question stem, even though identifying the question type affects how one reads the question stem. The author presents some justification for this decision, but it is not compelling.
I do recommend purchasing this book because it is quite good (I focused on the negatives in this brief review). I would in all cases supplement it with other texts like the Manhattan LR review and Mike's LSAT trainer.
The book has a few drawbacks. The first is that the categorization and formality of approach can at times be oppressive or even inefficient. The lengthy list of logical fallacies (in which I do have an academic interest) comes to mind immediately. Related are the chapters on formal and categorical/syllogistic logic. While important, these concepts are applicable to relatively few LSAT problems, so the amount of space given to them in the book seems disproportionate. Some may appreciate the glut of information, however. At any rate, the books seems to focus a bit too much for my liking on the formal structure of the question types, when a more organic problem-solving approach would be far more efficient for the average test-taker. The second major drawback is that some of the specific advice is questionable. For example, the book recommends reading the stimulus before the question stem, even though identifying the question type affects how one reads the question stem. The author presents some justification for this decision, but it is not compelling.
I do recommend purchasing this book because it is quite good (I focused on the negatives in this brief review). I would in all cases supplement it with other texts like the Manhattan LR review and Mike's LSAT trainer.
July 2, 2025
Not a great beach read
September 21, 2010
I can't believe I read this entire book. It was definitely not my favorite LSAT Prep Book, I found the Logical Games Bible much more helpful. But if you're struggling with the Logical Reasoning section on the LSAT and you have time to read a 500+ page prep book, then by all means...
October 2, 2019
Yet another prep book that I found overwhelmingly long and overly focused on memorizing specifics.
May 3, 2022
I hate myself and my life.
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June 12, 2024this so called bible has lead me to some pretty unholy thoughts.
April 2, 2020
Good questions & wealth of information, but very long. Excessively long.
A good prep book should focus more on strategies to excel rather than trying so hard to categorize and identify problems. It’s an inefficient and inconvenient way to attack a timed test.
A good prep book should focus more on strategies to excel rather than trying so hard to categorize and identify problems. It’s an inefficient and inconvenient way to attack a timed test.
September 24, 2024
this exam is the bane of my existence
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August 14, 2024Always an angel never a god always an angel never a god always an angel never a god always an angel never a god
January 25, 2025
Would recommend 😍
Currently reading
January 15, 2010OMG...can't wait for this to be over!!!
January 1, 2023
This was really thorough and informative. Clearly, the authors gave a lot of thought and effort into creating a book suitable for self-study.
The main selling point of the book is their categorization of problems into specific question types. Once the question type has been identified on the exam, the test taker should utilize strategies specific to that question type. For example, for problems that are in the “evaluate” question type, test takers should use the “variance” test to check whether the answer is correct or not. I found these to be extremely effective.
I only have two gripes with the book. First, the book recommends that the test taker should read the stimulus first before reading the question. For a book that emphasizes tackling problems based on question types — where those question types involve distinct strategies and affect what test takers should be looking for in the stimulus — it’s a bit odd that the author would make this recommendation. (To be fair though, they did allocate a small section justifying their position, so that is evidence that they did put a lot of thought into this so this criticism is probably unfair.)
Second, I thought that some chapters were lacking in content. For example, the “Flaw in the reasoning” question type is one of the problems that shows up most frequently in the test, and yet this is one of the shortest chapters in the book. The strategy recommended here is to memorize a bunch of common fallacies and match them to the flaw identified in the stimulus. The problem here is that the list provided is not comprehensive so there will be flaws in the LSAT that this chapter doesn’t cover. Memorizing all the flaws is also not really practical.
Overall though, this is an impressive book that will help any future LSAT test taker improve their score. Ultimately, it’s not so much about which resource to use, but more so about putting in the effort into drilling and figuring out why those mistakes were made and how they can be prevented in the future.
The main selling point of the book is their categorization of problems into specific question types. Once the question type has been identified on the exam, the test taker should utilize strategies specific to that question type. For example, for problems that are in the “evaluate” question type, test takers should use the “variance” test to check whether the answer is correct or not. I found these to be extremely effective.
I only have two gripes with the book. First, the book recommends that the test taker should read the stimulus first before reading the question. For a book that emphasizes tackling problems based on question types — where those question types involve distinct strategies and affect what test takers should be looking for in the stimulus — it’s a bit odd that the author would make this recommendation. (To be fair though, they did allocate a small section justifying their position, so that is evidence that they did put a lot of thought into this so this criticism is probably unfair.)
Second, I thought that some chapters were lacking in content. For example, the “Flaw in the reasoning” question type is one of the problems that shows up most frequently in the test, and yet this is one of the shortest chapters in the book. The strategy recommended here is to memorize a bunch of common fallacies and match them to the flaw identified in the stimulus. The problem here is that the list provided is not comprehensive so there will be flaws in the LSAT that this chapter doesn’t cover. Memorizing all the flaws is also not really practical.
Overall though, this is an impressive book that will help any future LSAT test taker improve their score. Ultimately, it’s not so much about which resource to use, but more so about putting in the effort into drilling and figuring out why those mistakes were made and how they can be prevented in the future.
July 26, 2024
Fuck it, I'm counting this as one of my completed reads this year because it took up so much of my time.
"Comprehensive" is right; this book meticulously details the types of Logical Reasoning questions, gives good strategies on attacking the question, and provides example questions to learn as you go along. Great deep dive into LR. The language was very clear, and the right person would find the writer's voice "personable," so there's that.
I liked this over 7Sage Logical Reasoning personally, mostly because it was on paper, but if you don't really have a preference, the material is comparable (though 7Sage does have the edge in that you get to practice the questions on a screen like you would during the actual test). Definitely better than The LSAT Trainer (Mike Kim), which in my opinion was read more like a primer rather than an actual comprehensive coverage of individual sections.
"Comprehensive" is right; this book meticulously details the types of Logical Reasoning questions, gives good strategies on attacking the question, and provides example questions to learn as you go along. Great deep dive into LR. The language was very clear, and the right person would find the writer's voice "personable," so there's that.
I liked this over 7Sage Logical Reasoning personally, mostly because it was on paper, but if you don't really have a preference, the material is comparable (though 7Sage does have the edge in that you get to practice the questions on a screen like you would during the actual test). Definitely better than The LSAT Trainer (Mike Kim), which in my opinion was read more like a primer rather than an actual comprehensive coverage of individual sections.
January 7, 2020
*Review of 2019 edition*
This is a decent starting place for LSAT preparation, but the questions are significantly easier than what you'll see on the actual exam or the official practice tests put out by the LSAC. I suspect that these authors put in easy questions so students think the book is helping them and they are gonna do really well, making them think they made a good purchase. Also, the explanations of what logic is and how to evaluate an argument is way too basic for a college junior/senior that would soon take the LSAT; it is almost insulting.
This is a decent starting place for LSAT preparation, but the questions are significantly easier than what you'll see on the actual exam or the official practice tests put out by the LSAC. I suspect that these authors put in easy questions so students think the book is helping them and they are gonna do really well, making them think they made a good purchase. Also, the explanations of what logic is and how to evaluate an argument is way too basic for a college junior/senior that would soon take the LSAT; it is almost insulting.
December 1, 2017
Comprehensive and informative. The only problem is that I didn't buy this early enough to fully practice all the strategies.
February 20, 2020
Assumptions make no sense
March 8, 2022
Fantastic resource for the LSAT. Not a fun read.
March 12, 2022
It was super clear and helpful!
November 21, 2023
The LSAT seems like it’s backsliding into formal conditional logic in LR again with the forthcoming exclusion of the games. This book along with the Loophole is the way to go.
September 16, 2024
It’s a book and I read it therefore it counts for logging
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October 8, 2024LR for dummies, check
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November 17, 2024if this book has kept me from hitting my reading goal this year then damn it I want it added to the total
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May 27, 2025this shit is the bane of my existence
i skipped one chapter but i read over 600 pages so im counting this shit idc
i skipped one chapter but i read over 600 pages so im counting this shit idc
June 3, 2025
Never again
Read
August 7, 2025I am not actually done w this book but Good Reads does not abide the 2025 edition and her longer page count, so in the eyes of this website I am done
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews