Self-study
I have found that when I take RC sections (and to a lesser extent any later section in a PT), I often have moments when my eyes totally glaze over, and I completely lose focus on what I’m reading. I’ll ‘read’ two or three lines, then have to physically shake my head and re-read, having internalized NOTHING. This also happens when I try to skim for details to confirm answers, I’ll just kind of lose what I’m doing and need to spend mental energy regaining my place in things.
This might not be a strict LSAT issue, but does anyone have any tips for streamlining RC sections in general, or tips to maintain focus on singularly important points?
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If I am feeling like that I will take a min to breathe in and out and refocus myself and hype myself up it usually helps. If u aren’t getting it and have to keep rereading u will waste more time so I find it helps to do take a min or 2 step away from the passage, and tell myself I can do it. But I also have accommodations so I would keep try to keep timing in mind.
I’ve found the answer is to reclaim my focus in my larger life. Read more long, challenging books. Stop scrolling. The ability to direct our attention toward long, focused tasks is becoming so scarce because our devices are training us to be highly-distracted consumers.
Same happens to me. It is even worse after doing 3-4 passages in a day
I have ADHD so I totally get this with the reading. What I've been doing is taking physical notes while reading in order to FORCE the activity to be an active exercise. I also helps cause then I have notes to refer back to when I inevitably forget something that is asked in the question and I don't want to have to re-read an entire paragraph.
Hello! That's a really common experience, and from my own experience, it's often fueled by time pressure. We get stuck in that loop: 'I'm reading this again and still don't get it. Wow, two minutes just passed. Oh no.'
What helped me was shifting my focus from trying to understand exactly what the text is saying, to why the author added it. Focus less on the content/information, focus more on the structural purpose. Once you can label what the author is trying to do here (e.g. 'This is an illustration', 'This is to introduce someone else's perspective,' 'This is a part of explaining the process of photosynthesis'), just move on to the next sentence. When you finish reading the whole passage and revisit that part, you may often realize that the section that looked like nonsense earlier will be a lot clearer.
So the best thing to do next time is not to panic. Gently acknowledge it, shake your head, mumble if you want to, and if you still feel stuck, just identify a key purpose of this sentence and keep moving for the moment. I hope this helps, and best of luck!
I would say highlighting here and there helped me stay active and not lose focus, because this was an issue that I had a problem with for a while. Anytime you see a new opinion, or an author making a point, just highlight the beginning of that sentence so you are signaling to your brain that you're about to then read a new opinion, or an author making a point (these are just a few examples of stuff you could highlight). You could also highlight one word every time you see some kind of evidence to signal to your brain what you are highlighting.. just a small trick that works well for me!
I think this study on meditation is extremely enlightening regarding focus and reading comprehension on standardized postgraduate testing.
@AlexandraFriestman Thanks for sharing! Do you have any guided meditations you recommend for this? Or how do you practice this mindfulness yourself?
@graceslevin guided meditation is great when first learning how to meditate in general, but the kind of meditation discussed in the study is typically not guided. Normally when I meditate I just focus inward and focus on a specific stimulus like the feeling of my ring on my finger and let thoughts pass through without latching on to them. This is called focused attention meditation.
Attunement is half the battle. Everyone has those moments; the main variable is how long they last. The physical head shake is for sure a great in-the-moment intervention. I also start reading aloud to myself (mumble style) when I notice my attention flagging. Harder to ignore words you're saying.