The LSAT Trainer Review

The LSAT Trainer costs $48.15 new and it is worth it if you are studying alone and your problem is how you read the test, not how much you have practiced. It is a teaching book with more than 160 official LSAT questions in it, and it contains no full-length practice tests at all.

That second half is where most reviews stop short. They quote a price near $40, which is a third-edition number, and they skip what the book expects you to buy alongside it. Everything below was read on 12 September 2026, including the publisher's own study schedules, which name the PrepTests they assign and the hours they want from your week.

Summary Table

The publisher's site at thelsattrainer.com, captured September 2026.

The LSAT Trainer Overview

The LSAT Trainer is a single 400-page book by Mike Kim, now in its fourth edition and updated for the current test. It teaches both scored question types, Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension, and it is built for a student working without a tutor or a class.

What is in the book:

• Lessons and strategies for every Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension question type.
• More than 160 official LSAT questions, each with a solution that walks through how a high scorer got there.
• Over a dozen original drills aimed at narrow skills such as identifying an argument or translating a conditional statement.
• Reference charts, tables and notebook organizers for tracking your own error patterns.

What is not in the book: a single full-length practice exam. The Trainer is the instruction half of a study plan. You supply the practice half.

There is an unusual amount of it you can have for free. The publisher posts eight sample chapters as PDFs, including Logical Reasoning Flaws, Sufficient Assumption questions, LSAT vocabulary and both end-of-book section reviews. That is a real read of the teaching voice before you spend anything, and it is more generous than any other book on our LSAT prep books shortlist.

The LSAT Trainer Review For 2026

The method fixes how you read, not which label you apply

Most books sort Logical Reasoning into question types and give you a rule per type. The Trainer spends its early chapters on something slower: reading an argument closely enough to see what it actually claims before you look at the answers. The drills reflect that. They isolate skills like spotting the conclusion or translating a conditional, rather than serving up another twenty questions.

That is the right target for the students who plateau. If you are missing 8 or 10 questions a section, you are usually misreading stimuli, not failing to recognise a Weaken question. The cost is time. This is a book you work through over weeks, in order, with a notebook. Skim it and you get nothing.

The fourth edition matches the test you will sit

Check the edition before you buy anything second hand. The current printing came out on 4 June 2024, and the publisher describes it as updated for the latest version of the test. That matters because LSAC's question types page now describes four 35-minute multiple-choice sections, three scored and one unscored, with every question either Reading Comprehension or Logical Reasoning. Logic Games are gone.

Older Trainer printings still circulate cheaply and still contain Logic Games chapters. You would be paying for pages covering a section that no longer exists. Our best way to study for the LSAT guide covers the same trap across other publishers.

The book gives you questions, not exams

This is the honest limit, and the publisher does not hide it. The free study schedules pair the book with official PrepTests, and step two of the getting-started instructions is to purchase the tests you need. The schedules assign PrepTests 131 to 140 and 149 to 158, which is 20 exams.

They also tell you what the plan costs in hours, which almost nothing else in LSAT prep does openly:

Look at the last row before you plan a one-month sprint. Twenty-four to 26 hours a week is close to a part-time job, and it still cuts the assigned exams in half. If your timeline is tight, our guide on how long to study for the LSAT is a better starting point than the 4-week plan.

Pricing

The book is $48.15 new, and used copies started at $32.21 on the day we checked. Mike Kim does not sell it from his own site at all: the Buy Now button sends you to a retail listing, so the price moves with the retailer and no publisher list price exists to hold it steady.

Spread across a 12-week prep, $48.15 is about $16 a month, which is less than one month of nearly every LSAT course we review. The real number is bigger, because the practice material the schedules assume is a separate purchase. LSAC's LawHub account is free and carries four tests; LawHub Advantage, which opens the full PrepTest library, is $124 a year.

What the Trainer route costs in year one. Sources: the retail listing for the fourth edition and lsac.org, read September 2026.

That total is still low for LSAT prep. A 7Sage subscription or any live course runs past it quickly, and both of those also expect you to hold LawHub Advantage for official questions. The Trainer route is the cheapest serious path to a real score improvement; it just is not a $48 path.

Who The LSAT Trainer Is Best For

• Self-studiers who will genuinely work through 400 pages in order and keep a notebook.
• Students whose diagnostic shows scattered misses across question types, which usually means a reading problem rather than a strategy gap.
• Anyone who already owns official practice material and needs a teacher rather than more questions.
• Budget-conscious retakers who took a course, plateaued, and want a different explanation of the same test.

When You Might Look Elsewhere

• Logical Reasoning is your one weak spot. The Loophole in LSAT Logical Reasoning goes far deeper on that section alone, and Logical Reasoning drives two of the three scored sections. Our Logical Reasoning tips show what that depth buys you.
• You want the exams, not the teaching. The official LSAC books and PrepTests are the practice half of this plan, and they are what the Trainer schedules send you to buy.
• You need structure and someone to ask. A book cannot answer a question at 11pm. A course like 7Sage gives you video explanations, a syllabus and a forum.
• You want hand-holding from page one. The Trainer expects you to drive. If you would rather be walked through it, the roundup of the best LSAT prep books compares the gentler all-in-one options on price and official question count.

Final Verdict

The LSAT Trainer deserves the recommendation it gets. It teaches the skill that actually moves LSAT scores, it is current for the post-2024 format, and 160 official questions with real solutions is a lot of teaching for $48.15. Our 4.5 rating reflects that, with the deductions taken for what the book leaves out: no full-length exams, no online platform, and no support if a chapter does not land.

Buy it if you are self-studying and you will do the work. Then price the whole plan, not the book, and schedule it properly. Our LSAT study plan generator will lay the chapters against your test date, free LSAT practice questions will fill the drill blocks between them, and the LSAT hub covers the rest of your options. For how we score and compare products, see our review methodology.

The LSAT Trainer FAQs

How Much Does The LSAT Trainer Cost?

It was $48.15 new and from $32.21 used on 12 September 2026. Mike Kim sells no copy directly from his own site, so the price is set by the retailer and moves. Check the edition on any used copy before you buy, because older printings still cover Logic Games.

Is The LSAT Trainer Enough On Its Own?

No, and it is not designed to be. The book includes more than 160 official questions but no full-length practice tests. The publisher's own free study schedules assign 20 official PrepTests alongside it, which means a LawHub Advantage subscription at $124 a year or buying the tests individually.

Which Edition Of The LSAT Trainer Should I Buy?

The fourth edition, published on 4 June 2024. It is the printing updated for the current test, which has no Logic Games section. The cover says Fourth Edition in the top corner, and the ISBN is 978-0989081566.

Does The LSAT Trainer Cover Reading Comprehension?

Yes. It teaches both scored question types, Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension, and two of the eight free sample chapters are the Reading Comprehension introduction and review. That is the main reason to pick it over a single-section book if you can only buy one.

Can I Try The LSAT Trainer Before Buying?

Yes. The publisher posts eight full chapters as free PDFs, including two on Logical Reasoning question types and both end-of-book section reviews. The study schedules, notebook pages and readiness checklist are also free to download without owning the book.

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