Self-study
Hello , I've been tracking why I've been missing answers and so far it's either because I was down to two answers but chose the wrong one or I have no idea what the stimulus is talking about . Is there a way where I can learn to comprehend well on harder stimuluses especially the ones where I have no interest in that said topic? I feel like if I can just learn to comprehend on harder stimuluses I can reach my goal score. Any tips and tricks if anybody struggled with the same thing ?
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3 comments
Hello!
On top of great words from others about translating into your own words, I would like to add one minor thing regarding uninteresting stimuli.
I'm not personally interested in science, so whenever I read a dense science stimulus, my brain would go on a strike. But since I need to read this anyway in order to do well in the exam, I thought to myself, 'well, I will try to be more interested in science now.' From then, I read science-related articles on The Economist or watched science-related YouTube videos during free time, just to become more friendly with science.
So you don't need to suddenly start deeply studying the area you have no interest, but since we know that certain genres (like science, history, art, philosophy, etc) regularly show up in the exam, it doesn't hurt if you try to pretend that you're interested in. A trick is to pretend as if someone very important to you is passionately explaining this to you. You will try to understand what they're saying, regardless of what they are talking about.
I hope this helps, and good luck!
100% agree with Phoebe. The best way to improve your understanding of hard stimuli is to put them in your own words. You can practice this by rewriting each sentence of the stimuli you see and eventually it will become second nature and you won't need to write it out. But, as with anything worth doing, it's not easy and it takes time to build those skills up to the point they will help you on the real thing.
Hey there! This is really common. At some point, the only way the LSAT can keep making questions harder is just by making the stimuli more dense and confusing. To combat this, try translating arguments into your own words to the extreme. Fragmented, casual sentences are ideal! For example:
Stimulus: "It is clear that humans during the Upper Paleolithic period used lamps for light in caves. Though lamps can be dated to the entire Upper Paleolithic, the distribution of known lamps from the period is skewed, with the greatest number being associated with the late Upper Paleolithic period, when the Magdalenian culture was dominant."
Translation: Lamps were there the whole time, but most were around in the later part when these guys were around. So people were using lamps to light caves.
This forces you to understand what the stimulus is actually saying, and what pieces are actually relevant. The arguments are ultimately pretty simple; they just cloak them in never-ending sentences.
I hope this helps, and happy studying!