Self-study
I plan to take the LSAT in September, but on RC questions I keep falling for trap answers and struggle to structure the passages in my head as I read. Does anyone have any tips on improving RC, focusing on structure and avoiding trap answers?
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6 comments
many don't agree with this, but I tried the whole "focus only on structure" thing and it didn't work for me. I need to understand the passage in & out to do well on it. so now I spend 4 minutes reading each passage, highlighting, etc. & then when I get to the answers I knock them out quickly because I know the material well. this also helps me not to fall for traps, because I have a strong grasp on what the passage supports. also maybe try a highlight/underline system. I underline the main point of every paragraph, highlight the author's opinion/beliefs in pink, outside/3rd party opinion in yellow, and background info like definitions/dates in orange. it helps me read with intention
@Marcus91 Do you keep this approach for every type of passage like Critique or Debate , Humanities etc. ?
@SydneyTate yes same approach for every passage type. oh, but for comparative passages I read the first passage, answer which questions I can & eliminate the AC's I can, then I read passage 2 & come back to the questions.
are you making sure to compare the answer choice to the line in the passage? Are you picking "trap" answers that are 'not quite what the passage said," or trap as in "they were in the passage but not where the question was asking about"? Do you have an example?
@julielamberth Yeah, I pick questions that are a mix of both, where sometimes they weren’t quite what the passage said, and sometimes they were in the passage but not where the question was asking about. An example is PT153.S1.P1.Q2: I chose answer D when the correct answer was B because I felt D closely conformed to what the author was trying to get across.
@SydneyTate Make sure you are using the key terms in the question stem to connect back to the passage. Its about how film is different from some other art forms, so we need to go to paragraph 4, and we see it at sentences 2-4. Film is different from other art forms because it is exactly reproducible. This is pretty directly going to B. Instead of "what the author was trying to get across," which sounds like general "vibes," make sure you are looking for the specific exact reference. What statement in the passage made you think D was correct? You need to be able to point to an exact location, not just "I felt like this was correct."