Reading Comp Frustration

mcmlaw36

Hi all,

I'm doing really well with LG/LR and am consistently improving in these areas.
RC, however, is a completely different story.

Quick background: I have been studying on and off since Dec. 2015, while working full-time & part-time simultaneously. Right now, I'm doing about 2 PT's and 2 BR's/week. I wrote Dec. 2016 and Feb 2017. I improved about 5 points on the latest write, putting me just barely at the average score for students (huge disappointment). Because it wasn't enough for admissions in Ontario, I am giving it another shot and writing in December again.

RC is still by far my weakest section. No matter what I do, I cannot seem to improve on timing. I find it so difficult to obtain enough info from the passages AND accurately answer all of the questions in under 7-9 min/passage. Along with the RC curriculum (which I plan to redo this week) I have turned to the Trainer. I consistently see the same advice: focus on the WHY, not the WHAT. Ok, easy, so I read and get a general idea of reasoning structure, relationships between paragraphs, fine. As soon as I do that, I run into EASILY 3-4 questions asking for specific meanings of words in sentences, or details from the passage. I have a general idea of where to find all of these details but I end up referring to the passage to re-read the necessary sentence anyway. Everything about RC is sucking up time for me. Long story short, I am finding RC impossible these days to the point that when I'm writing a test and I see RC, I immediately panic.

My shortcomings in RC have been mentally draining to the point that I have days where I wonder if law school is even for me. This kind of thought process is so far from my usual way of thinking that I am beyond frustrated with both myself and the exam. I do not give up. Anyone who knows me knows that I will make law school happen whether or not it's now or three years from now. I'm not changing my mind for anything or anyone. The LSAT, though, has made me come close.

It has a way of making you feel like such a failure, and I find myself putting in daily effort to change this mindset.

SOS people!!! Please helppp

StellaBlue

Hi! Sorry to hear about your frustrations, but it's awesome that you're consistently improving in LG/LR!

I've been having a tough time with RC recently as well. Something that has been pretty helpful so far is learning to identify the different types of questions, much like we would do with LR. If you're succeeding in LR, it could be useful to approach the RC questions in a similar manner. After all, we're often tasked with finding the main point/conclusion, looking for assumptions, and identifying inferences. If this is a strength for you elsewhere, maybe becoming more confident with the types of questions and thinking of them as individuals instead of one piece in an intimidating set will help your brain not freak out.

Similarly, keep an eye out for those indicator words, like "all", "some", and "most" that we've dealt with elsewhere in the curriculum. When I see those in an RC passage, I always make a note and keep in mind what they're supposed to be indicating.

Not sure if this will be helpful at all, but I hope it is. Good luck!

LSATcantwin

Try this with caution:

Maybe take a timed section where you try scanning the questions for these types of questions BEFORE you read the passage. If there are 1-2 of these questions with the passage it'll give you a bit of a heads up on what to look for when you start reading.

It's worth a shot with at least one section or passage. If it doesn't work out, or hurts your time too much you can always revert!

It might help with eliminating time spent looking back over the passage.

OlamHafuch

Maybe a tutor would be a good idea to get a better handle on where you're going wrong and what you can do to get better. 7Sage has some approved tutors who are very reasonably priced.

sandy180

To the OP: Try reading the AC's first. Or at least preview them before reading the passage. I am a relatively slow reader and time is the killer in RC for me. Once I began scanning the answer choices first (not recommended for most), my accuracy and speed drastically improved. It worked for me is all I can say. Also, if you are doing well in LR than there is absolutely no reason that you cannot transpose that ability to RC. Keep at it and you'll get there, I promise.