"Reading Comprehension section, you'll encounter referential phrases that refer to not just a word or a phrase, but an entire paragraph. If you don't consciously notice that's what's happening, then you won't follow the paragraph transition. You won't understand the relationship between the two paragraphs."
Let's take a moment and think about this specific statement in the lesson. If you do not believe that reading comprehension becomes increasingly complex as the referential phrases throughout the passage increase, then your belief could be justified, However, unless you have near a photographic memory, when the referential phrase/word is not in the immediate proximity of the thing it is pointing to, the passage does get inherently more complex. Especially, when the word or phrase is not pointing to something that specific, but rather it is pointing to an idea or concept, that is when the questions can kill us on inference questions.
Why? Well, think about it, an inference is your ability to derive accurate information from what is stated in the passage. Therefore, what better way for a inference question to be hard than to use information surrounding the referential phrase which is far from what is pointing to in the passage, and to pile on that, what is being referred to in the passage is not a word but rather a long opinion of some sort, therefore, you have to juggle 2 different balls. The first ball is just knowing what the referential phrase is talking about and the second ball is making the inference.
On the flip side, if we can dominate referential phrases then we can dominate the inference questions. Have you ever thought, especially for RC, why are inference questions so hard? I mean we are literally just stating something with the answer choices that must be true based on what we just read. Well the answer is that they are not hard. Inference questions are innately easy for us. However, grammar, specifically, the role referential phrases plays in a passage can hide the inferences in a beautiful way.
"A turning point in the transition to democracy came when privileged people in society who had been part of its support base realized that the authoritarian regime is dispensable."
I thought it meant they were part of the trasition to democracy's support base.
It took me a while but I figured it out!! The key word is had: They had been part of it's support base meaning the privileged people previously supported authoritarian regime then realized it was dispensable.
I think i realize why this is the case - it's contextual - they realized that the authoritarian regime is dispensable and that is why they came to support democracy -
How can you tell whether or not a referential is identifying a thing earlier or later in the sentence? Sentence 2 example really tripped me up because i thought 'its support base" was referring to 'democracy' and not 'the authoritarian regime'
literally lost in this section and got everyone of them wrong. Not sure how one word is referring to the whole sentence in the last example, and not just traditions. I guess we allow the modifiers into the reference?
I find these grammar sections tedious and ultimately unmotivating. At one level I recognize that increasing grammar competency can in turn increase reading comprehension. That said, I also recognize that without intensive studying of thinking about grammar like this, the grammar comprehension won't occur naturally (and more importantly) fast enough. Importantly, though, I don't think intensive studying of grammar is effective when there is so much more else to study. So, at some level I feel reading difficult material more often and training your mind into a state of active reading is more effective than trying to consciously breakdown sentence structure until it becomes subconscious. I'd appreciate feedback on if anyone else feels similarly.
In the intro videos, he did mention you could skip ahead and come back later if you need to. Personally, though, I switched from another online course and subscribed to 7Sage because I saw it had videos on grammar. The other course skipped foundations to cover Logical Reasoning. Come practice questions, I barely remembered to apply any techniques I learned because my brain immediately went "whoosh" when I saw the overly complex sentences.
Don't just take my word for it though. If it helps, skip ahead to the next section, and if you find that the grammar is impeding your progress, you'll find the motivation to improve it like I did.
I initially skipped this entire section because I understand grammar well, but this is setting you up to identify SPECIFIC trap answers that you will see later. I didn't appreciate it until blind review, and going through all failed questions. I often struggle when they subtly change what class they are referring too, and being able to cut down or work through some of the really nasty sentences is also important, especially for time. I find it helps eliminate bad answers.
@JennyHong I had the same thought, the way that he explained it confused me. I ended not understanding what "it's support base" reffers to the authoritarian regime. I understand that the referential can also point forward instead of backward. Bur I do not get that question.
@JennyHong I struggled with this too and had to go look more into it- Apparently, it's this way because it talks about a transition to democracy, so the people would need to be currently in support of the authoritarian regime to transition away from it to democracy. - I don't know if that helps, but it kind of helped me.
@BraedenB It seems to me like it is less important to be able to name the specific grammatical category of a word or phrase than it is to understand the sentence as a whole. Don't get too caught up in the grammatical jargon.
@BraedenB Not everything will help the same amount. Right now they're giving you tools to use. Some will work for you some might not. It's just about allowing them to present ideas and things that may help you.
How important are these concepts to the LSATs? I feel like I generally understand the sentence just by reading it and breaking it down this way isn't really helping me
@astrysk I think if you understand the sentences just by reading them, and you have strong reading comprehension, etc. then you're probably good. Breaking it down into these parts might actually cause more confusion. (And I say this as an English tutor.)
To people here suggesting the referent in #2 might be "democracy," note that the noun there is "transition" and "to democracy" is the modifier. (That said, I do think you can make a reasonable case that "its support base" does in fact refer to "transition to democracy")
I found this one difficult to grasp in relation to the forward referentials since it is natural to think it relates back to something. A good way to see what it is the referent is to replace the suspected referential with what you think the referent is so you can see if the sentence makes sense.
... Have "authoritarian regime" not noted, it would have been logical to assume "democracy" as the reference point... however, since "authoritarian regime" was noted, "its" has a stronger correlation to "authoritarian regime" than "democracy." I think we have to remember to invoke past lectures that talks about "most likely to strengthen an argument" etc.
151 comments
"Reading Comprehension section, you'll encounter referential phrases that refer to not just a word or a phrase, but an entire paragraph. If you don't consciously notice that's what's happening, then you won't follow the paragraph transition. You won't understand the relationship between the two paragraphs."
Let's take a moment and think about this specific statement in the lesson. If you do not believe that reading comprehension becomes increasingly complex as the referential phrases throughout the passage increase, then your belief could be justified, However, unless you have near a photographic memory, when the referential phrase/word is not in the immediate proximity of the thing it is pointing to, the passage does get inherently more complex. Especially, when the word or phrase is not pointing to something that specific, but rather it is pointing to an idea or concept, that is when the questions can kill us on inference questions.
Why? Well, think about it, an inference is your ability to derive accurate information from what is stated in the passage. Therefore, what better way for a inference question to be hard than to use information surrounding the referential phrase which is far from what is pointing to in the passage, and to pile on that, what is being referred to in the passage is not a word but rather a long opinion of some sort, therefore, you have to juggle 2 different balls. The first ball is just knowing what the referential phrase is talking about and the second ball is making the inference.
On the flip side, if we can dominate referential phrases then we can dominate the inference questions. Have you ever thought, especially for RC, why are inference questions so hard? I mean we are literally just stating something with the answer choices that must be true based on what we just read. Well the answer is that they are not hard. Inference questions are innately easy for us. However, grammar, specifically, the role referential phrases plays in a passage can hide the inferences in a beautiful way.
"A turning point in the transition to democracy came when privileged people in society who had been part of its support base realized that the authoritarian regime is dispensable."
I thought it meant they were part of the trasition to democracy's support base.
Me too, please let me know if we get a more thorough explanation
Same here!
I did too!
It took me a while but I figured it out!! The key word is had: They had been part of it's support base meaning the privileged people previously supported authoritarian regime then realized it was dispensable.
same here
yep me too!
same or thought it referred to society
I think i realize why this is the case - it's contextual - they realized that the authoritarian regime is dispensable and that is why they came to support democracy -
@jpowerslawschool I think you're on to something here mate.
ngl these examples tripped me up
I just got lost in the
saucetextHow can you tell whether or not a referential is identifying a thing earlier or later in the sentence? Sentence 2 example really tripped me up because i thought 'its support base" was referring to 'democracy' and not 'the authoritarian regime'
@gracegabriellejimenez810 I had thought the same too. So confusing
I find this one of the most challenging parts of my so-far learning!
Ya, I'm lost now
This is incredibly helpful for deciphering a buttload of text. I’ve definitely found I get information overload and end up losing the key points.
literally lost in this section and got everyone of them wrong. Not sure how one word is referring to the whole sentence in the last example, and not just traditions. I guess we allow the modifiers into the reference?
Referentials are words or phrases that reveal their meaning by pointing to another set of words (which we call the referent).
They often point backwards but they can point forward as well.
They can point to things, actions, entire sentences, or paragraphs.
In this passage, identify the referential and the referent:
They = Referential
Referentials = Referent
Tehe.
I think I am ready to getting a lobotomy with this stuff. Thank God for Bourgon! :-)
I find these grammar sections tedious and ultimately unmotivating. At one level I recognize that increasing grammar competency can in turn increase reading comprehension. That said, I also recognize that without intensive studying of thinking about grammar like this, the grammar comprehension won't occur naturally (and more importantly) fast enough. Importantly, though, I don't think intensive studying of grammar is effective when there is so much more else to study. So, at some level I feel reading difficult material more often and training your mind into a state of active reading is more effective than trying to consciously breakdown sentence structure until it becomes subconscious. I'd appreciate feedback on if anyone else feels similarly.
In the intro videos, he did mention you could skip ahead and come back later if you need to. Personally, though, I switched from another online course and subscribed to 7Sage because I saw it had videos on grammar. The other course skipped foundations to cover Logical Reasoning. Come practice questions, I barely remembered to apply any techniques I learned because my brain immediately went "whoosh" when I saw the overly complex sentences.
Don't just take my word for it though. If it helps, skip ahead to the next section, and if you find that the grammar is impeding your progress, you'll find the motivation to improve it like I did.
Yeah, I feel like this section is very tedious and not motivating as well.
I initially skipped this entire section because I understand grammar well, but this is setting you up to identify SPECIFIC trap answers that you will see later. I didn't appreciate it until blind review, and going through all failed questions. I often struggle when they subtly change what class they are referring too, and being able to cut down or work through some of the really nasty sentences is also important, especially for time. I find it helps eliminate bad answers.
I 100% agree, I feel so unmotivated and stressed from this section. I really hope it will be worth it at the end somehow.
stick with it! I skipped ahead and found that most of my issues came from not taking the time on this section.
And yes I see the irony. It's 2 AM :P
Free Palestine Ben Gurion University built on stolen Palestinian land!
@JeninZayed from the river to the sea!
@JeninZayed real af
@JeninZayed Free Palestine!
@JeninZayed Was not prepared for that jump scare lol, I heard the name and immediately got annoyed!
@JHabehh FREE PALESTINE
I am having trouble understanding why "its support base" points to authoritarian regime for sentence 2, rather than pointing to democracy. THanks.
@JennyHong I had the same thought, the way that he explained it confused me. I ended not understanding what "it's support base" reffers to the authoritarian regime. I understand that the referential can also point forward instead of backward. Bur I do not get that question.
@JennyHong I struggled with this too and had to go look more into it- Apparently, it's this way because it talks about a transition to democracy, so the people would need to be currently in support of the authoritarian regime to transition away from it to democracy. - I don't know if that helps, but it kind of helped me.
Okay this is more up my alley, I know I'm about to get blind-sighted soon.
really hope this grammar stuff isnt too important in scoring high or its truly over for my chungus self
@BraedenB It seems to me like it is less important to be able to name the specific grammatical category of a word or phrase than it is to understand the sentence as a whole. Don't get too caught up in the grammatical jargon.
@BraedenB Not everything will help the same amount. Right now they're giving you tools to use. Some will work for you some might not. It's just about allowing them to present ideas and things that may help you.
Thanks for saying that. I’ve been able to understand every lesson except this one. My mind just can’t grasp it- or it may be too early in the morning!
How important are these concepts to the LSATs? I feel like I generally understand the sentence just by reading it and breaking it down this way isn't really helping me
@astrysk I think if you understand the sentences just by reading them, and you have strong reading comprehension, etc. then you're probably good. Breaking it down into these parts might actually cause more confusion. (And I say this as an English tutor.)
Feel like I went from thinking this was a no brainer to now being confused/overthinking minor details of simple sentences...
Example (i will try my best) -
The yellow frog eats lots of green bugs when it becomes thirsty in the spring. That behavior is common amongst those types of amphibians.
In this sentence the reference is, "That behavior," and it refers to, "eats lots of green bugs in the spring"
And , "those types of amphibians," refers to "yellow frogs,"
Good example?
@rickyrivas94 Yeah, I think this is a good example of what JY is talking about. Nice job
@rickyrivas94 pretty sure 'it' refers to the yellow frog in your example in addition to that behavior reffering to the yellow frog
To people here suggesting the referent in #2 might be "democracy," note that the noun there is "transition" and "to democracy" is the modifier. (That said, I do think you can make a reasonable case that "its support base" does in fact refer to "transition to democracy")
This lesson wasn't so clear to me
I found this one difficult to grasp in relation to the forward referentials since it is natural to think it relates back to something. A good way to see what it is the referent is to replace the suspected referential with what you think the referent is so you can see if the sentence makes sense.
... Have "authoritarian regime" not noted, it would have been logical to assume "democracy" as the reference point... however, since "authoritarian regime" was noted, "its" has a stronger correlation to "authoritarian regime" than "democracy." I think we have to remember to invoke past lectures that talks about "most likely to strengthen an argument" etc.
I am now so confused this is not clicking for me at all rn
I don't know why I am finding this so challenging :')