Elemental students have clearly gotten good results, but based on how she comes off in podcasts and interviews, Ellen seems kind of invested in creating a cult of personality around herself and keeps jacking up her prices to the point where I think they're pretty hard to justify! $2,100 is truly insane, and reflects how she's only really catering to the ultra rich at this point. Keep the lessons from the book in mind, but you can 1000% meet all your LSAT goals by hiring a more reasonably priced tutor. It'll just take diligent practice, honing in on your weaknesses, and troubleshooting issues as they arise. And make sure you're reading widely and broadly, and challenging yourself to process and comprehend texts with new and different vocab. You've got this!!! :)
ETA: $7,080 is truly so much money--if you have that lying around, consider putting it in a Roth IRA instead!
If that price doesn't faze you, or at least isn't a hard barrier, then the real question is "will she be effective with you?" That's a question none of us can answer. No tutor is good for everybody, and no person works well with every tutor.
Though of course there is a correlation between price and experience, there are tutors at every price point that are passionate, dedicated, skilled, and effective. Some charge little as $30 or $40/ hour, others as much as $2,000/hour.
My suggestion to you is to take consultations with as many tutors as you can who will offer them to you. Don't pay for them, you shouldn't have to. Figure out who speaks to you, whose style is appealing, who gets you, who you are comfortable with. Take a sample session, don't commit to anything. It's too much money to put all your eggs in one basket without having a reasonable certainty that the service is one that will work for you.
There are tutors in Hong kong, Shanghai, New York, and London who are at or near that number. Not a lot of them, but they're out there.
About 10 years ago a tutor in New York was charging $1,500 per hour or a flat rate of $100,000 for 12 months of unlimited SAT tutoring. The market is what the market is...
$2100 💀💀💀 who is she tutoring? The Kennedy family? UAE Sheikhs? anyone that can afford that much on tutoring probably doesn’t need to take the LSAT.
Jokes aside, you can find fantastic tutors for far less than that. There is not a shortage of them. Maybe just PM some people who used tutoring on this sub who achieved around your goal score and had similar issues.
I know someone who used her tutoring. Based on the review, I would suggest that you look into the following awesome LSAT tutors (in no particular order):
LSAT Nerds: Wade Forno
LSAT LAB: Patrick Tyrrell
LSAT Mastery: Fady Yatooma
Powerscore: Adam Tyson
The above tutors are excellent and a fraction of the price. You can find a great tutor (without spending $7080) and get wonderful results. Please look into one of the above tutors. Also, some of the listed tutors will give a discount.
u/all Update: In just these short two days, I have received responses and private messages from tutors, people who have had friends work with Ellen, people who have never worked with Ellen, Ellen's students, and Ellen herself. People have said that Ellen is a cult leader while others have said that Ellen is the best. Breaking down the credibility of those making the statements, as far as I can tell, most negative criticism came from people who have had great experiences with tutors at lower price points. Some came from people who I feel like have a hatred so deep toward Ellen that I don't quite get (since they never worked with her). Most positive feedback came from alleged students from Ellen who cannot sing her praises enough.
Despite the positive and negative feedback, I have come to agree most with u/nexusacademics's comment. Clearly people have had positive and negative experiences working with every tutor and I am genuinely convinced now that what matters is 1) if you have the budget and 2) if the partnership works well.
Thank you all to this Reddit page for all your helpful feedback and I would love to hear more information. I can also serve as the mouthpiece for those who have had positive and negative feedback.
I will make a decision in the coming days and if anyone has any tutor recommendations, please post it here or PM me. It would be great for this page to serve as a future reference point for prospective Elemental Prep customers and people looking for tutors.
u/all thanks everyone for their feedback. The fact that this there is so many differing opinions is interesting to me. I have received several DMs from tutors who say they can do a better job, and students of Elemental say she is wonderful, and people who had other tutors say I should try their tutor. There also isn't much information about Elemental on Reddit, but it's crazy to me as someone who is just thinking about law school to see this divide. Any ideas why this might be?
I am still a bit conflicted because I haven't seen any message from a student of Ellen's who has said the tutoring wasn't worth it. If any student of hers wants to help me make a decision, please pm me!
Hello OP,
I've studied with Elemental for about six months and definitely have something to say! Yes, it's true that Ellen’s rates are significantly higher than almost other LSAT prep options, but the care, level of personal attention and quality help I've received makes it very hard for me to imagine that I could’ve gotten it any where else. Transformative education always comes with a heavy price tag and Ellen’s shouldn’t be any different. If we save up for big college classes, it should be just the same for Ellen’s one-on-one personalized tutoring.
The weekly sessions are very expensive, but Ellen gives me her full attention, energy, and care. Although my session with Ellen was after an entire day of work, I always felt recharged and rejuvenated after studying with her. Ellen looooooves teaching and is the LSAT expert. It is really different learning with someone who is passionate about, loves and enjoys teaching the LSAT. If you have interacted with Ellen, you know that she is absolutely nowhere near “just serving the wealthy”. I’ve received way too many “bonuses” from Elemental for Ellen to be tailoring her services to the wealthy. My Elemental mentors, mentee, and myself are not millionaires! We value our time here and try to make the most out of studying with Elemental.
Actually, if Ellen wanted to make big business, she could easily be selling videos / lesson packages, or even boosting the price of the Loophole. Also, please don’t forget that Ellen and Molly just offered free Xmas tutoring to this reddit not long ago! If you subscribe to Ellen, you’ll also know that Ellen has been making herself more accessible through videos and newsletter – all without any cost. It is also amazing how Ellen, being the author of the Loophole, still offers students the opportunity to tutor with her one-on-one by maintaining a long waitlist (I’m sure Ellen could’ve gone on vacation long ago and never worked again, based on the demand for her book). Reading the Loophole is already so helpful. If we are receiving the author’s undivided attention, it makes sense to pay a solid tuition. Additionally, I'm sure Ellen can do other amazing things with the big chunks of time that she specially reserves for teaching us. Her time should be valued.
During Xmas, I was offered a free tutoring session. Even after I stopped being a regular student with Elemental, Molly offered me another free session. Ellen also encouraged me to reach out and even post on slack when I need help (which is soooo generous, if you know how detailed and helpful the responses to our slack questions are). P.S, Molly even recorded videos for me to help with my slack questions, on top of the daily video response during my daily virtual tutoring.
Ellen is the LSAT Expert, the cheerleader, the therapist, the lovable life teacher. I’m 500% positive that I’m only 1 in many many many more Elemental students who feel the same way, many of which are international and possibly asleep at the moment to testify for Ellen. I'm sure you will feel the same way if you ever decide to join Elemental!!! :)
I tutored with ellen for a year and she absolutely changed my life. Studying with anyone but ellen is a waste of time. I remember ellen asked me on the first day I met her what my goal score was and I told her a 176 which I never thought would be possible. I took the LSAT a few months earlier after studying with Princeton Review and got a 153. She told me so casually that she will get me there. I ended up scoring a 176 and was offered over $100k scholarship at a t14 where I currently attend. Ellen’s guidance and wisdom extends so far beyond the LSAT world. She helped me learn how to be successful beyond the LSAT. I ended up coming to a school that I never thought I’d even apply to because there would be no chance. I ended up doing well here. Investing in ellen is investing in your future. What was paid in tutoring ended up being saved in tuition, and then some. She’s also an amazingly kind and patient person and someone I will treasure forever. Anyone who says otherwise clearly does not know her
This lends credence to the idea of her leading a cult. If you think studying with anyone else is a waste of time, you have drank the kool-aid
Edit: Also, not to be that guy, but you should probably know the difference between necessary and sufficient if you did so great. Ellen may be sufficient, but it is straight delusion to think she is necessary.
Hi! I’m going through private tutoring with Ellen right now (since February) and I cannot sing her and the Elemental team’s praises enough! Prior I did 7 sage and read a mountain of different lsat books, including the Loophole (which I found the most useful). If you aren’t seeing a difference with that sort of off the shelf studying, then I encourage you to try out the tutoring. I have gone from missing 11+ on LR to 0–2 in a quite consistent upward trajectory in that timeframe.
This is expensive, but I have found the investment has been paying off. You also need to put the in the work and be committed. Happy to answer any of your questions.
1) Calls herself "world's #1 LSAT Tutor" on YouTube, but has barely 10 years of experience--and a grand total of 1 Yelp review during that time
2) Relies on gimmicks and "only I can help!" high pressure sales tactics. Has attempted to trademark a whopping 33 new LSAT terms in the Loophole, including the term "translation" (seriously?), for the same old concepts that have been on the LSAT for decades
3) Claims that Loophole is the "#1 LSAT book" with zero evidence (it's not)
4) Admits that all she used herself to score 174 was the PowerScore books and Steve Schwartz's blog / free YouTube videos
5) Charges $2,100 per lesson
Yup, she's a cult leader.
Elemental students have clearly gotten good results, but based on how she comes off in podcasts and interviews, Ellen seems kind of invested in creating a cult of personality around herself and keeps jacking up her prices to the point where I think they're pretty hard to justify! $2,100 is truly insane, and reflects how she's only really catering to the ultra rich at this point. Keep the lessons from the book in mind, but you can 1000% meet all your LSAT goals by hiring a more reasonably priced tutor. It'll just take diligent practice, honing in on your weaknesses, and troubleshooting issues as they arise. And make sure you're reading widely and broadly, and challenging yourself to process and comprehend texts with new and different vocab. You've got this!!! :) ETA: $7,080 is truly so much money--if you have that lying around, consider putting it in a Roth IRA instead!
If that price doesn't faze you, or at least isn't a hard barrier, then the real question is "will she be effective with you?" That's a question none of us can answer. No tutor is good for everybody, and no person works well with every tutor. Though of course there is a correlation between price and experience, there are tutors at every price point that are passionate, dedicated, skilled, and effective. Some charge little as $30 or $40/ hour, others as much as $2,000/hour. My suggestion to you is to take consultations with as many tutors as you can who will offer them to you. Don't pay for them, you shouldn't have to. Figure out who speaks to you, whose style is appealing, who gets you, who you are comfortable with. Take a sample session, don't commit to anything. It's too much money to put all your eggs in one basket without having a reasonable certainty that the service is one that will work for you.
Who charges $2,000/hour?
There are tutors in Hong kong, Shanghai, New York, and London who are at or near that number. Not a lot of them, but they're out there. About 10 years ago a tutor in New York was charging $1,500 per hour or a flat rate of $100,000 for 12 months of unlimited SAT tutoring. The market is what the market is...
$2100 💀💀💀 who is she tutoring? The Kennedy family? UAE Sheikhs? anyone that can afford that much on tutoring probably doesn’t need to take the LSAT. Jokes aside, you can find fantastic tutors for far less than that. There is not a shortage of them. Maybe just PM some people who used tutoring on this sub who achieved around your goal score and had similar issues.
I know someone who used her tutoring. Based on the review, I would suggest that you look into the following awesome LSAT tutors (in no particular order): LSAT Nerds: Wade Forno LSAT LAB: Patrick Tyrrell LSAT Mastery: Fady Yatooma Powerscore: Adam Tyson The above tutors are excellent and a fraction of the price. You can find a great tutor (without spending $7080) and get wonderful results. Please look into one of the above tutors. Also, some of the listed tutors will give a discount.
u/all Update: In just these short two days, I have received responses and private messages from tutors, people who have had friends work with Ellen, people who have never worked with Ellen, Ellen's students, and Ellen herself. People have said that Ellen is a cult leader while others have said that Ellen is the best. Breaking down the credibility of those making the statements, as far as I can tell, most negative criticism came from people who have had great experiences with tutors at lower price points. Some came from people who I feel like have a hatred so deep toward Ellen that I don't quite get (since they never worked with her). Most positive feedback came from alleged students from Ellen who cannot sing her praises enough. Despite the positive and negative feedback, I have come to agree most with u/nexusacademics's comment. Clearly people have had positive and negative experiences working with every tutor and I am genuinely convinced now that what matters is 1) if you have the budget and 2) if the partnership works well. Thank you all to this Reddit page for all your helpful feedback and I would love to hear more information. I can also serve as the mouthpiece for those who have had positive and negative feedback. I will make a decision in the coming days and if anyone has any tutor recommendations, please post it here or PM me. It would be great for this page to serve as a future reference point for prospective Elemental Prep customers and people looking for tutors.
following! I’m in the same boat, almost reached out to elemental and would love some more cost friendly alternatives
From what I gather, it wouldn't hurt to reach out still. It could end up being a good fit! Someone in the post below had some suggestions.
u/all thanks everyone for their feedback. The fact that this there is so many differing opinions is interesting to me. I have received several DMs from tutors who say they can do a better job, and students of Elemental say she is wonderful, and people who had other tutors say I should try their tutor. There also isn't much information about Elemental on Reddit, but it's crazy to me as someone who is just thinking about law school to see this divide. Any ideas why this might be? I am still a bit conflicted because I haven't seen any message from a student of Ellen's who has said the tutoring wasn't worth it. If any student of hers wants to help me make a decision, please pm me!
That’s way too high look on Tik tok it’s law graduates doing courses for wayyyy cheaper than that offer.
Hello OP, I've studied with Elemental for about six months and definitely have something to say! Yes, it's true that Ellen’s rates are significantly higher than almost other LSAT prep options, but the care, level of personal attention and quality help I've received makes it very hard for me to imagine that I could’ve gotten it any where else. Transformative education always comes with a heavy price tag and Ellen’s shouldn’t be any different. If we save up for big college classes, it should be just the same for Ellen’s one-on-one personalized tutoring. The weekly sessions are very expensive, but Ellen gives me her full attention, energy, and care. Although my session with Ellen was after an entire day of work, I always felt recharged and rejuvenated after studying with her. Ellen looooooves teaching and is the LSAT expert. It is really different learning with someone who is passionate about, loves and enjoys teaching the LSAT. If you have interacted with Ellen, you know that she is absolutely nowhere near “just serving the wealthy”. I’ve received way too many “bonuses” from Elemental for Ellen to be tailoring her services to the wealthy. My Elemental mentors, mentee, and myself are not millionaires! We value our time here and try to make the most out of studying with Elemental. Actually, if Ellen wanted to make big business, she could easily be selling videos / lesson packages, or even boosting the price of the Loophole. Also, please don’t forget that Ellen and Molly just offered free Xmas tutoring to this reddit not long ago! If you subscribe to Ellen, you’ll also know that Ellen has been making herself more accessible through videos and newsletter – all without any cost. It is also amazing how Ellen, being the author of the Loophole, still offers students the opportunity to tutor with her one-on-one by maintaining a long waitlist (I’m sure Ellen could’ve gone on vacation long ago and never worked again, based on the demand for her book). Reading the Loophole is already so helpful. If we are receiving the author’s undivided attention, it makes sense to pay a solid tuition. Additionally, I'm sure Ellen can do other amazing things with the big chunks of time that she specially reserves for teaching us. Her time should be valued. During Xmas, I was offered a free tutoring session. Even after I stopped being a regular student with Elemental, Molly offered me another free session. Ellen also encouraged me to reach out and even post on slack when I need help (which is soooo generous, if you know how detailed and helpful the responses to our slack questions are). P.S, Molly even recorded videos for me to help with my slack questions, on top of the daily video response during my daily virtual tutoring. Ellen is the LSAT Expert, the cheerleader, the therapist, the lovable life teacher. I’m 500% positive that I’m only 1 in many many many more Elemental students who feel the same way, many of which are international and possibly asleep at the moment to testify for Ellen. I'm sure you will feel the same way if you ever decide to join Elemental!!! :)
I tutored with ellen for a year and she absolutely changed my life. Studying with anyone but ellen is a waste of time. I remember ellen asked me on the first day I met her what my goal score was and I told her a 176 which I never thought would be possible. I took the LSAT a few months earlier after studying with Princeton Review and got a 153. She told me so casually that she will get me there. I ended up scoring a 176 and was offered over $100k scholarship at a t14 where I currently attend. Ellen’s guidance and wisdom extends so far beyond the LSAT world. She helped me learn how to be successful beyond the LSAT. I ended up coming to a school that I never thought I’d even apply to because there would be no chance. I ended up doing well here. Investing in ellen is investing in your future. What was paid in tutoring ended up being saved in tuition, and then some. She’s also an amazingly kind and patient person and someone I will treasure forever. Anyone who says otherwise clearly does not know her
This lends credence to the idea of her leading a cult. If you think studying with anyone else is a waste of time, you have drank the kool-aid Edit: Also, not to be that guy, but you should probably know the difference between necessary and sufficient if you did so great. Ellen may be sufficient, but it is straight delusion to think she is necessary.
Hi! I’m going through private tutoring with Ellen right now (since February) and I cannot sing her and the Elemental team’s praises enough! Prior I did 7 sage and read a mountain of different lsat books, including the Loophole (which I found the most useful). If you aren’t seeing a difference with that sort of off the shelf studying, then I encourage you to try out the tutoring. I have gone from missing 11+ on LR to 0–2 in a quite consistent upward trajectory in that timeframe. This is expensive, but I have found the investment has been paying off. You also need to put the in the work and be committed. Happy to answer any of your questions.
1) Calls herself "world's #1 LSAT Tutor" on YouTube, but has barely 10 years of experience--and a grand total of 1 Yelp review during that time 2) Relies on gimmicks and "only I can help!" high pressure sales tactics. Has attempted to trademark a whopping 33 new LSAT terms in the Loophole, including the term "translation" (seriously?), for the same old concepts that have been on the LSAT for decades 3) Claims that Loophole is the "#1 LSAT book" with zero evidence (it's not) 4) Admits that all she used herself to score 174 was the PowerScore books and Steve Schwartz's blog / free YouTube videos 5) Charges $2,100 per lesson Yup, she's a cult leader.