#4 in a series of Q&A's with representatives of leading LSAT companies.

Dave Killoran, CEO of PowerScore, gave me the lowdown on his company.

How long have you been offering LSAT prep?

We’ve been doing this over 12 years now.

Where are you located?

Our main headquarters is now in Charleston, South Carolina, but we offer classes in about 150 different physical locations throughout the US and Canada.

Please describe your traditional in-class courses?

Well, we have a couple different in-class courses. We have a full-length course, and we have what we call the weekend course. The full-length course is kind of our flagship course—it’s a total of 80 in-class hours, and 64 of those are actual lecture time, 16 of those are practice test time. And then outside of that, in our online student center, there’s an additional 45 hours of online teaching sessions. So when you wrap that all together, it’s actually over 120 hours worth of instruction and practice tests. But that’s just the structure of the way the class is and the number of hours that you can access if you wish to. The way we always describe it is it’s really like a college course for the LSAT—you’re meeting in class typically one to two times a week, you’re taking tests at regular intervals, we’re using real LSAT questions in the class to kind of get the highest quality material, and then the class is being taught by instructors who have all scored in the 99^th percentile. So what we’re attempting to do there is to really provide a comprehensive amount of time with the best possible materials being conveyed by the best possible instructors. And then outside of that there’s a whole lot of support options, from our LSAT hotline to the online student center to our e-mail assistance programs.

And then the weekend course—I guess the way I’d describe it is I’d say it’s like the little brother of the full-length course. We teach the ideas in the same manner, but the in-class component time is shorter. So this works really well for people who have very busy schedules, or they’re traveling a lot, or they all of a sudden realize, “we have three weeks before the test, gee I haven’t done enough preparation.” So that class—actually, it has pre- and post-course components, is what we call them—but there’s 16 hours of actual class time, and then there’s another 19 or 20 hours of online time as well, so it’s a more intensive course; it’s kind of like a concentrated version of our full-length course. It’s over one weekend, and when you sign up you have access to our online student center, and so we get you preparing before the class. What we want to do is to get people up to a certain level, so that when they walk into the class they’re not saying, “what’s a logic game, what’s a logical reasoning question?” We want to get all those basics out of the way—how the test operates, the types of questions they’re going to see—so when we’re in class, we can spend the entire time talking about concepts, going over approaches, and working with students on the problems that they’re having.

Please describe your online options?

Well our online option is our virtual course, is what we call it. It’s not a traditional online course the way students are used to from, say, the University of Phoenix, or what have you. This is actually a live, interactive version of our course. When students sign up for it, they have the ability to actually talk to their instructor—there’s somebody teaching the class live, you log into a virtual classroom with two instructors there, there’s a lead instructor who’s actually doing the discussion, answering questions and using the whiteboard and so forth. And then there’s a second instructor who can chat with students on the side, can IM with them, can take them into a private room and literally talk to them directly about their questions. And students are given headsets so they can actually basically click in to the class and say, “hey, I have a question,” and there’s all sorts of different interactive tools. And we use the same materials in this class that we use in our full-length class. There’s over 2500 pages worth of material that students are actually given. But the one thing about this class that I love is the fact that as the class progresses it’s being recorded, so the next day say you’re studying something and you’re like, “I wonder what my instructor said,” you can actually go back into your account and you can click on that and you can actually review the class as many times as you want. And if you miss a class, same thing—you can actually go back in. So this class has proven to be really popular, just because so many people are just so busy these days that they miss a class, or their schedule is such that they really can’t make class on a regular basis, or maybe they’re just really struggling with the test—they can all go back in and they can rewatch this as much as they want and literally pick up the points that they missed or see what was actually happening during the class. So really, what this is it’s an online version of our full-length class.

Do you offer a self-study option or study guides?

We publish the LSAT Bibles, which is probably the best-selling, certainly one of the best-selling LSAT preparation book series out there. Our LSAT Logic Games Bible is really considered the go-to resource for a lot of people, in terms of learning about logic games. And we have Bibles for both logical reasoning and reading comprehension, and so forth. So this is something that we promote greatly to our students, and a lot of people—especially these days with the economy the way it’s been—a lot of people have kind of looked to those to help them out in their preparation. Instead of spending $1,000, they can spend $100 and be able to get the same type of high-quality approaches. Because in these books what we have done is instead to try and take a 400-page book and explain the whole LSAT, we’ve taken 400 pages and just explained one section. So they’re much more comprehensive than other resources that have previously been on the market, and there’s something that certainly for us has started to really contribute to our popularity.

For the self-study option, a lot of that goes back to the LSAT Bibles, because they are really a self-study program, and we also have workbooks that go along with those, and even flashcards. So those books can actually be used as a self-study option. Next year we’ll actually release a more-or-less on-demand version of our virtual course, which will allow someone to simply sign up and receive the entire course at once, and that will be its own full, live self-study option.

Do you offer any one-on-one or individualized tutoring?

You bet. When it comes to all the tests that we do, we’re pretty much a full-service option—whether it’s books, or short classes, or long live classes, or whether it’s online classes, we do all these things. And really what we’re trying to do is to cater to the different needs of students, and of course, one of those needs is the individual attention. And so we have a number of different LSAT tutoring packages, anywhere from say, an hour, to five hours, all the way up to 20 to 60 hours. It really depends upon the student, and one of our theories here is that different students need different things. We might talk to a student and say, “you just need to read this book, we think that’ll probably get you the score you need,” whereas to another student we might say, “the online course is going to work best for you,” and to a third student it may be that private tutoring is the best thing for them. And so what we want to be able to do is to say when we’re talking to people, “alright, we think we can help you this way, this is the most specific program.” A lot of companies have one course, and when somebody calls they try to sell them the same course over and over again, and we don’t want to do that. We really want to fit what we do to what they need, because we feel like in the long-term that’ll make people score the best, that’ll make them the happiest, and that’ll help our business thrive.

What is the focus of your instruction?

I’d say the focus of our instruction is really, we want you to have fun in class, and we want to make sure that it is clear and concise. We don’t want to waste your time. One of the problems that people have even with college courses is that they’re dull. You know, you have some instructor and they’re droning on, and you see people kind of falling asleep in the back row, and the LSAT is tough enough—we don’t want to make it any harder. So we actually try and have fun with the LSAT. I love the test; I think it’s a really enjoyable exam when you feel comfortable with it. And so we try to make it easy for people, we try to make it crystal clear, and we try to make it fun.

But underneath all of that, we have a very strong methodology that we teach, and it is very comprehensive, and so we are really trying to convey a tremendous amount of information, and we know that’s tough, so we try to do it in the easiest possible way. And really, what that means in class is that we do a little bit of lecture, but we do a lot of discussion about actual problems. We use an approach that’s a tried-and-true approach, it’s the theory and application of teaching—we talk about the theory of an LSAT idea, an LSAT concept, and then we actually apply that to questions drawn from the LSAT. So, the student can say, “did I understand that?” And then they can look at actual questions and see it in process and really learn from the way the people who make this test present the ideas. The LSAT can be pretty challenging, it’s got some interesting logic on it—logic games, for example, is just a section that really frustrates and confounds a lot of people—so we try to get away from that and get away from that frustration and really just bring out some of the humorous things that they do on this test. It’s still academic, but we try to make it as palatable as possible.

Do you cater to any particular kind of student?

I think the students who come to us are students who really want to maximize their potential. They’ve gone out, they’ve done their research, they’ve really looked at the different options, and they’ve seen what it is that we do, or they’ve heard from their friends how we approach the test, and the differences between us and the other companies. And so I think it’s people who really are looking to do as well as possible, who are selective in the approach that they want. This is not a cookie-cutter approach, it’s not one size fits all, and so when people come to us it is typically because they determined that we’re going to be able to help them, not because they just heard that 20 other people had taken some particular course.

What qualifies someone to teach for PowerScore?

There are certain components that we require people to have to teach here. For example, we’re the only national company with a 99^th percentile requirement for our instructors. Anyone who teaches here has taken an actual LSAT administered by Law Services, and they have scored in the 99^th percentile. The reason we want them to have this high score is because when a student is in class saying, "I want to get a top score," our instructors are able to say, "I know how to do that, I’ve done it, and these are the steps you have to take."

As we often tell people, having a high score is a necessary component, but it’s not sufficient for you to teach here. We do not hire applicants just because they have a high test score. What we really look for are people who have a passion for teaching. We want someone who has fun in class, and who has a real ability to convey ideas clearly. The material you use is critical, but the teacher conveying that material is equally important if not more so. The instructor is the one that is a main conduit for the information we have about the LSAT. The instructor is the one passing that along to the students, which is why selecting the right applicants is one of the most crucial things we do here.

A lot of times we are asked if we hire just attorneys or law students. You have to have instructors who love to do what they do, and the ability to convey ideas clearly is not limited to individuals from just one background. So, we do not draw people from just one discipline, and we do not limit our hiring to certain types of people. We do have a number of attorneys who teach for us, but most important to us is that we hire people with the right type of personality and interests for the job. Everyone has been influenced by a great teacher they had in the past; at PowerScore we dedicate a huge amount of time trying to find teachers in that same mold.

What are your company’s unique strengths?

I think there are two main strengths that differentiate us from other companies. The first is the quality of our methods and techniques. A lot of people know us for our LSAT Bibles, and part of the reason those books are well-known is that people feel the methods they contain make more sense and are more effective than the methods used by other companies. Tests like the LSAT are intellectual battles, and you have to go in armed with the best set of weapons you can get. People who buy our books or take our courses know they are getting the best approaches in existence for attacking the LSAT.

The second strength we have is the people who work here, and the level of service and friendliness they provide. I’ve talked a bit already about what we look for in our instructors, and I certainly believe they are one of the pillars of our success. But I also think that the people who work in our offices are equally important. When you call here, you don’t get voicemail hell. Instead, you will typically speak to someone directly within a ring or two. We are definitely professionals when it comes to testing, but there is no reason we can’t help make this whole experience more enjoyable for our students. Taking standardized tests like the LSAT is stressful, but the friendliness and service we provide goes well beyond what you will find at any company, let alone other test preparation companies, and that helps our students keep their stress levels down.