I'm a non-trad applicant with a strong reading background (2 English degrees, including a Master's), so RC has always been my strongest LSAT area. Now that I've been studying for several months, I've gotten to the point where on nearly every RC section, I will miss maybe 3-4 questions total on the whole section, which is pretty good.
However, I would like to get even better and decrease my wrong answers to 1-2 questions on the entire section. The problem is, I can't seem to see a link between the types of questions I'm missing. The mistake I make seems to be different for each wrong answer (sometimes just not reading the ACs carefully enough, sometimes overthinking/assuming about an AC, etc.).
Anyone else gotten over this type of hump in RC? Any suggestions for how I can improve further?
2 comments
I don't have anywhere near two degrees in English, but I do have a minor in English, and I read like 100 books a year minimum. I can relate to being decently strong at RC. I started off with a -2. But then I fluctuated back and forth between -0 and -5 for a couple weeks until I figured out that I needed to have a consistent approach to every single passage every single time. Now I'm getting -1, which is still not where I want to be, but it's been plateaued there instead of having huge variations, which is improvement.
What I like to do in RC is not only make a low-res summary, but also take the time to summarize after each paragraph. I also prephrase:
what is the main point
what is the tone
what are the different perspectives in the passage
how do the paragraphs relate to each other
Then I also have some mantras that I say to myself before every single test/section. Some of them include:
Prephrase on everything.
Trust my prephrase.
Every answer choice gets the same energy as the first one, even when I'm sure.
Before I click, have I proven this is right, or does it just feel right?
No flip-flopping, which means to switch an answer, I have to know that my current answer is wrong and the new one is 100% right.
@ScienceAlex Thank you for the help!