Guys, I need your help. I have improved in RC in terms of actively reading the passage. I took the advice of reading every passage like its hot gossip and it works for me to stay curious and engage with the passage really well. I also take time reading it. But when I answer questions I at least get two wrong. Since I am taking my time reading the passage more than I should, I won't have time to go back and forth once I move to questions. maybe that's why?
What am I doing wrong?
Please give me tips and advice! really appreciate it.
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9 comments
i'm not sure if you're doing the low res strategy. it works for some people, but personally, I do better without it. I like reading the passage once slowly and carefully ("aloud silently," or moving my lips to each word helps me), then I do the questions I feel good about, and read it once more quickly / for structure before I answer the harder questions. I actually almost never write anything down.
flagging is my friend
@Mjamail also, maybe give working backwards a try? Sometimes main point comes clearer to me when I've answered the rest of the questions first. Again, I don't have data to back this up really, but going backwards just feels better to me
i've noticed an improvement when i started skimming instead of trying to read every word. it helps me focus on the structure of the argument. who are the parties, what do they believe, what does the author believe, tone, etc. Highlight things you might think are important. But try not to overread and focus on unnecessary details.
@Mabimoeng Do u have a highlighting strategy? like using a specific color for a specific thing
@DulasiTennakoon author's voice in one color bc tbh thats the most important and if you have time choose different colors to track different parties/arguments
i would recommend using the search bar at the top of the screen (above the passage). I found that helped me a lot for answering questions. I mainly use it when the question is asking for the authors view on a specific thing, I'll search that specific thing up and read around each of the times the word was used. However it is also helpful for a lot of other questions. Split passages that ask what was mentioned in passage A but not B, for example, you can just search all the words and pick whatever is highlighted in one but not the other. Additionally, you can search specific words in an answer choice to check if the passage talked about that specific thing. I used to be afraid to do this because i thought i would waste a lot of time searching the words, but personally i found i save more time just searching and finding the answer with 10 seconds than i would if i didn't search and just kept rereading the answers trying to remember what i read/didn't read.
Adapting the mentally that you dont have to finish RC also helped me. If you spend longer than recommend on a passage or an answer in order to make sure you are getting all of the answers you encounter right, then it doesn't matter too much if you cant get to the last few questions in the final passage and just have to guess on them.
I also saw a comment asking about highlighting, and personally, i highlight all opinions, author & critics, in yellow and then i highlight everything that i think will be important to the main point or for answer the questions in pink. It makes it useful for when the answers ask for an opinion, i can just glance back at the passage and skim my yellow highlights, and for really hard mp questions, if the answer isnt obvious, you can also go back and skim your pink highlights to get an idea of the most important stuff. Obviously you have to use some intuition for whats most important, but i think that part also helps me focus on whats really going on in the passage and practice active reading.
Best of luck, you got this!
@MorganLSAT this is really helpful. Thank you so much!
i’m really bad at this too, but what I learned from someone is that every single day read a passage and then immediately after put the passage away and then write a whole summary of everything you remember, and if you can do this every single day leading up to your actual LSA it will improve your recall so that way you already are expecting yourself to write a summary so you know the main key points of the passage. This will also help with actually retaining the information.
One thing I found really helpful is having the main point of the argument super clear (I do this through saying it out loud). If you really get the main point all the other question types really just fall into place.