Can I study using pdf electronic materials?

Law School Admissions LSAT Prep and Discussion Forum
1

I will begin my LSAT studying this fall and want to start purchasing the needed books. Based on the suggestions on this forum, this will consist of PS bibles and or Manhattan guides (along with all of the actual LSAC tests). The problem is that I am moving to Japan for 6 months for work and need to minimize the printed material that I bring. My questions:

  1. Do you typically write/draw a lot in the actual books?
  2. Would it be possible to effectively use kindle/pdf/electronic versions of the bibles or manhattan guides?
  3. Are the PS workbooks necessary?
  4. If the workbooks are not typically necessary, would they be more so in this case because of the lack of physical bibles/guides?
  5. Any other suggestions for reducing printed material?

Any advice you can sure will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

2

1) Do you typically write/draw a lot in the actual books?

Meh, it depends on your style. I would write in my books when working on practice questions. Having a piece of paper next to you could make up for it.

2) Would it be possible to effectively use kindle/pdf/electronic versions of the bibles or manhattan guides?

I’m sure.

3) Are the PS workbooks necessary?

Not necessary, you could simply use actual practice tests.

4) If the workbooks are not typically necessary, would they be more so in this case because of the lack of physical bibles/guides?

Umm.. not really. See above.

5) Any other suggestions for reducing printed material?

Cambridge LSAT sells their own LSAT stuff (actual tests and workbooks) that are entirely in PDF form. It’s worth checking out in your situation.
http://www.cambridgelsat.com/

3

in order to write effectively on blank paper, you sort of need to sketch out the question space format before getting going.
this is a waste of time

4

:laughing:

5
  1. yes
  2. probably not, you want to emulate test conditions as much as possible.
  3. no
  4. there is plenty of other options. If you want to drill PS also sells books containing every LR, LG, and RC questions. Much better deal in my opinion.
  5. buy the printed copies of the books, you really only need 3: LRB, LGB, and Manhattan RC (which is only like 150 pgs). You can buy pdf PT’s off lsat blog and print those out in japan as needed.
6

For what it’s worth, while I was in France, I took PTs on my phone (using an app) and just always kept a small notebook with me for sketching out necessary games, and found this useful.

If you’re insistant on not bringing books, this might be an effective way.

7

The only part of the Powerscore books I ever write on are the question pages. You could always buy the electronic version and just print a few copies of the question pages. I wouldn’t recommend doing full preptests from an unprinted source, but you could buy preptests in PDF format and print them when you get to Japan (assuming you can/you’re only cutting back on printed material for travel reasons).

8

Echoing the above posters, perfectly fine to do the books electronically w/ some scratch paper for games/answer questions (sketching out a,b, c, d, e; doesn’t take that much time). PTs should be at least printed, doing an entire PT electronically wouldn’t mimic the real deal very much and may mess with your timing by a few minutes.

9

Oooh you were in FRANCE??!

10

I agree. PTs should be on paper. Everything else is inconvenient but doable in an e-book.

11

Logic games need to be on paper always. In the beginning you can do LR in pdf format but eventually you will need to move to paper.

12

can’t you just buy the PDF/Kindle, then print when needed in Japan?

13

.

14

It works as long as you know there is limited room on the LSAT to write stuff down.

15

Study abroad. I had just finished the Bibles before leaving, we weren’t allowed to print anything that wasn’t directly related to our coursework, and left the one PT I DID print at home… so I really had no choice but to take what I could get. It was a good start, though I’m much happier being on paper now.

16

Tried using an e-reader for Manhattan RC. Even with a stylus, it’s not that efficient IMO. id rather have purchased the paper version (that’s just my $0.02 though).

BUT, it might work for LG drilling from Manhattan’s PDFs sorted by type, and it could save tons of printed paper.

17

Thank you for all the comments.

I think I will at least bring the 10 actual/next/more PT books and the manhattan RC book. I will have some printing abilities at work, but printing a ton of whole tests or a lot of pages from a book would not go over too well.

For the LG/LR bibles I haven’t made up my mind yet. Since I still have some time before my trip maybe ill buy the electronic versions first and see how it goes. If I feel like the paper versions would really be significantly better, I guess I will have to figure something out.

18

I personally hate pdf format when studying. Hurts my eyes and after a few hrs my head hurts. Not to mention you cant write on it. This is a personal choice on what works best for the individual

19

Keep it to paper. No computer screens on gameday

20

Just get the pdf version and print individual PT’s as you do them.