I found that by subscribing to "economist.com" and reading science or law based articles and breaking it down to the authors and articles purpose has helped me these last couple of weeks. Breaking down the articles has got me not only to understand better but it has also increased my speed in reading which is huge. I read so slow its ridiculous!
This idea of translation is something I hadn't thought of. We don't even have to know an animal because you can substitute in any word. For example "Do I know of a species that is found only in a single defined geographic location?"Yes, Texans only live in Texas. I can see this being useful if you're reading a complicated scientific passage or working on passage recall.
It reminds me of Akeelah and the Bee. Her spelling coach, Dr. Larrabee showed her long advanced words, and taught her to analyze each part of the word. For example, "Soliterraneous" when split up uses the words "sol" meaning sun, and "terrain" meaning of the earth.
He asked Akeelah, "What are big words made up of?" She answered "Little words!" and he said "Right!"
I absolutely love this concept and I think is a great tool for understanding complex information, but I also see how it could create assumptions for me that would skew my test taking. How do we use this technique without it in turn hindering us?
that is why SevenSage is the greatest platform to study for the LSAT, as they take boring massive and complex topics and turn them into simple and fun analogies, as unicorns and Pandas.
I’m so glad to have read this, as I have been doing this subconsciously since learning how to read. I’d ask teachers questions on whatever we read and tried to connect them to real life, but ended up being called a know it all, a time waster, etc.
This was a helpful tip, because I often find myself rereading a sentence over and over when it's complex trying to understand what it's saying. going to practice visually thinking of the information in the sentence and drawing it out to help parse out the information
I'm so excited to try out this strategy. So many of the science/economics passages are beyond me, but I can definitely make things up and translate them to make more sense!
Excellent. This is gold. Not only will this tip help for the LSAT, but in comprehending all texts I read. That will improve my quality of life. Thank you for making this content available!
This tip is amazing! I started to rack my brain to come up with endemic species. Once I read unicorn, it clicked! My example can be whatever I need it to be to understand a statement.
I am still having issues translating, I read the sentence and I kinda undertand what it is saying, but in reality I do not know the meaning of the words I understand. Like they are grammatically correct and the sentence makes sense, but I really do not know the meaning of what I just read. I think that I have to re-wire my brain to just go directly to translating into the actual meaning of the sentence. I hope that I am making sense.
Translation of abstract ideas need to come full circle. If you translate/analogize something that is abstract to a tangible idea, the translation cannot stop there. You must translate the tangible understanding back into the abstract idea. If you only do half of the translation, then you will not see the full connection that is necessary to grasp the full idea. Think about it, let's say you are reading something on the LSAT about 400 B.C. artifacts and the composition of iron the artifacts contain, then you translate it by visualizing a stone tablet in your hand and you put it under a light that shows it has iron.
Okay fine. But, now, you need to get back to reality of the LSAT, we ARE talking about an abstract idea of artifacts and iron, we are not talking about your imagination. I know this seems pretty obvious, but if you neglect to translate back to the abstract idea, you might make sub-conscious inferences because you have a muddied idea between the actual abstract idea on the LSAT and whatever you imagined to help your understanding. So, when in doubt, feel free to conceptualize freely, but always come back down to the actual idea on the LSAT.
Another thing about translating, sometimes it is hard to translate something that we can barely comprehend. So, the solution is to focus on the relationship of the idea. The LSAT is all about relationships, for example, let's say we have the example of trying to comprehend 400 B.C. artifacts and their composition of iron. Focus on the relationship first, we have relata 1 which is 400 B.C. artifacts, relata 2 we have iron, and we are talking about how much of relata 2 makes up relata 1. Ok now we can bring together these two things into a synthesized understanding of artifacts and how much iron is in the artifacts. FOCUS ON THE RELATIONSHIP.
Focusing on the relationship(s) of a topic (on the stimulus) that feel foreign to me is much better. Sometimes the relationship is key to the answer, rather than the 'meaning'; but, translating is an essential skill nonetheless. Learn both!
While it can feel like these skills in this earlier part of studying feel tangential to the LSAT, I'm grateful for re-learning these at a post-graduate level. These will help with the LSAT, of course, but they'll also help day to day in some part
Thank you for sharing Richard Feynman as well. Very insightful and inspiring to buckle down and really learn and comprehend what I am learning. I admire insightful intellect that goes beyond the surface and causes you to think differently and thoroughly.
I get the idea of isolating and conquering since the lessons so far have helped me with that. My problem is that I tend to overthink on a specific word and then I lose the definition and I have to start from point zero again.
Perhaps it is my interest in the topic, but The Perfect Predator by Steffanie Strathdee is a wonderfully easy, yet detailed memoir that remains interesting through out. It exposes readers to the world of antibiotic resistant bacteria in a way that I thought was simple. Maybe give it a shot as a means of expanding your knowledge base to be more scientific! It's a great read.
86 comments
I found that by subscribing to "economist.com" and reading science or law based articles and breaking it down to the authors and articles purpose has helped me these last couple of weeks. Breaking down the articles has got me not only to understand better but it has also increased my speed in reading which is huge. I read so slow its ridiculous!
Yes!! This was also a recommendation I used. Also grabbing books from the local library helps.
This idea of translation is something I hadn't thought of. We don't even have to know an animal because you can substitute in any word. For example "Do I know of a species that is found only in a single defined geographic location?"Yes, Texans only live in Texas. I can see this being useful if you're reading a complicated scientific passage or working on passage recall.
It reminds me of Akeelah and the Bee. Her spelling coach, Dr. Larrabee showed her long advanced words, and taught her to analyze each part of the word. For example, "Soliterraneous" when split up uses the words "sol" meaning sun, and "terrain" meaning of the earth.
He asked Akeelah, "What are big words made up of?" She answered "Little words!" and he said "Right!"
That is the approach I take with long passages.
@ElliotRosin: I could not agree more with you. Great example!!
@HealthLaw@28 Thank you. It is a criminally underrated film!
I absolutely love this concept and I think is a great tool for understanding complex information, but I also see how it could create assumptions for me that would skew my test taking. How do we use this technique without it in turn hindering us?
Embarrassed to admit that i literally just googled "are unicorns real in scotland"
@cchtexas Same : (
that is why SevenSage is the greatest platform to study for the LSAT, as they take boring massive and complex topics and turn them into simple and fun analogies, as unicorns and Pandas.
It’s incredible how analogizing using imaginary species like unicorns and pandas makes real world examples feel much more accessible.
I literally questioned whether unicorns were real until I reached that last paragraph lmao
I’m so glad to have read this, as I have been doing this subconsciously since learning how to read. I’d ask teachers questions on whatever we read and tried to connect them to real life, but ended up being called a know it all, a time waster, etc.
imagining two rival shrimp gangs
@laurpie lol
This was a helpful tip, because I often find myself rereading a sentence over and over when it's complex trying to understand what it's saying. going to practice visually thinking of the information in the sentence and drawing it out to help parse out the information
I'm so excited to try out this strategy. So many of the science/economics passages are beyond me, but I can definitely make things up and translate them to make more sense!
Excellent. This is gold. Not only will this tip help for the LSAT, but in comprehending all texts I read. That will improve my quality of life. Thank you for making this content available!
This tip is amazing! I started to rack my brain to come up with endemic species. Once I read unicorn, it clicked! My example can be whatever I need it to be to understand a statement.
I am still having issues translating, I read the sentence and I kinda undertand what it is saying, but in reality I do not know the meaning of the words I understand. Like they are grammatically correct and the sentence makes sense, but I really do not know the meaning of what I just read. I think that I have to re-wire my brain to just go directly to translating into the actual meaning of the sentence. I hope that I am making sense.
I was naturally doing this so its nice to see that its a useful skill.
"You really can just make stuff up as long as you don't take your own examples seriously. "
That is so funny and true. I mean what if we get caught up in our own fantasies haha
A couple notes on this:
Translation of abstract ideas need to come full circle. If you translate/analogize something that is abstract to a tangible idea, the translation cannot stop there. You must translate the tangible understanding back into the abstract idea. If you only do half of the translation, then you will not see the full connection that is necessary to grasp the full idea. Think about it, let's say you are reading something on the LSAT about 400 B.C. artifacts and the composition of iron the artifacts contain, then you translate it by visualizing a stone tablet in your hand and you put it under a light that shows it has iron.
Okay fine. But, now, you need to get back to reality of the LSAT, we ARE talking about an abstract idea of artifacts and iron, we are not talking about your imagination. I know this seems pretty obvious, but if you neglect to translate back to the abstract idea, you might make sub-conscious inferences because you have a muddied idea between the actual abstract idea on the LSAT and whatever you imagined to help your understanding. So, when in doubt, feel free to conceptualize freely, but always come back down to the actual idea on the LSAT.
Another thing about translating, sometimes it is hard to translate something that we can barely comprehend. So, the solution is to focus on the relationship of the idea. The LSAT is all about relationships, for example, let's say we have the example of trying to comprehend 400 B.C. artifacts and their composition of iron. Focus on the relationship first, we have relata 1 which is 400 B.C. artifacts, relata 2 we have iron, and we are talking about how much of relata 2 makes up relata 1. Ok now we can bring together these two things into a synthesized understanding of artifacts and how much iron is in the artifacts. FOCUS ON THE RELATIONSHIP.
Focusing on the relationship(s) of a topic (on the stimulus) that feel foreign to me is much better. Sometimes the relationship is key to the answer, rather than the 'meaning'; but, translating is an essential skill nonetheless. Learn both!
While it can feel like these skills in this earlier part of studying feel tangential to the LSAT, I'm grateful for re-learning these at a post-graduate level. These will help with the LSAT, of course, but they'll also help day to day in some part
love this page!!
Thank you for this TED talk🫡
Loved this lesson! Going to definitely try this method when reading RC passages.
So our instructor DIDN'T find a unicorn in Scotland? :/ we have to cancel our flights, guys
Thank you for sharing Richard Feynman as well. Very insightful and inspiring to buckle down and really learn and comprehend what I am learning. I admire insightful intellect that goes beyond the surface and causes you to think differently and thoroughly.
I get the idea of isolating and conquering since the lessons so far have helped me with that. My problem is that I tend to overthink on a specific word and then I lose the definition and I have to start from point zero again.
Perhaps it is my interest in the topic, but The Perfect Predator by Steffanie Strathdee is a wonderfully easy, yet detailed memoir that remains interesting through out. It exposes readers to the world of antibiotic resistant bacteria in a way that I thought was simple. Maybe give it a shot as a means of expanding your knowledge base to be more scientific! It's a great read.
@rodahmed1 ill try it