Strategies for a Slow Reader

RGiggi13

To any other slow readers out there--what strategies have you used to understand LR and RC stimuli and passages well? I find myself needing to go through a significant number of LR stimuli and answer choices twice, and I often need 5+ minutes to get through RC passages (let alone decode the questions and answer choices.) I've done well with these sections outside of timed conditions, but I'm really feeling the crunch when the clock is running. What has worked for other people?

LSATcantwin

This is one of those things that is really hard to answer. Reading is something each of us has done for the majority of our lives. We all have habits and ways in which we go about doing it. Addressing speed is something that is hard to do because it's such a unique thing to each person.

One major thing that can't hurt you is to read more. Not just the LSAT, anything. Read GOT, Harry Potter, a magazine you like. Get Reddit and read comments and articles posted. Sign up for a book club, join the local library. Doesn't matter what you do, just read. Many times speed just evolves from practice. The more you read, the more use to it you get, the faster you read.

This is something that will probably take a while to do and fix.

Another thing that MIGHT help for you in regards to the LSAT, skim questions first. That way when you read you will have a sense of what to look for. This can save time, since you already spend a lot of it in the passage.

Edit: 7Sage ap booted me before I was done here. Not quite sure how it even posted.

Of course skimming is not the best option.The thing you'd want to do when skimming is look for words, phrases and sentences that they reference. That is IT. Do not read the AC, do not sit an read every question, get a quick sense and start. It should take you less than a minute, hell less than 30 seconds. It can't hurt to try it once or twice to see if it helps you focus better during the passage.

The main idea is that we want to be able to see the structure of the passage, and how ideas/opinions interact. When I very first started studying for the LSAT I would go -10 to -11 on RC. By slowly getting use to what was going to be asked of me I was able to bring it down to -4 to -8. It's not a HUGE improvement, but it is an improvement. I credit most of it just to experience and understanding what types of questions will appear. After a while when you are reading you'll see something and say "heh that kind of looks like something they'd ask about" and then a lot of the times they do.

Alex

@RGiggi13 said:
To any other slow readers out there--what strategies have you used to understand LR and RC stimuli and passages well? I find myself needing to go through a significant number of LR stimuli and answer choices twice, and I often need 5+ minutes to get through RC passages (let alone decode the questions and answer choices.) I've done well with these sections outside of timed conditions, but I'm really feeling the crunch when the clock is running. What has worked for other people?

Practice not getting caught up in unimportant verbiage. Get super good at zeroing in on the premise + conclusion in each argument. That's generally what you need to know; the rest is sometimes just unimportant context. Have good habits and strategies for each specific question type. I would recommend writing out index cards for each Q-type and write on them the steps for correctly answering.

For RC, I'll be honest, the only thing you can really do to improve is practice getting better at reading. Don't get bogged down in complex language and details. Try to just read and get a good idea of what the passage is saying. I've known those so good at RC that they could answer every question on an RC passage with just a summary of the main points of the passage. You can always go back and look for details. Read for structure and what the author's argument and purpose is.

I think reading the questions ahead of time is a waste of time. First, as humans we're not very good at keeping two separate ideas in out head. So this will likely be a distraction. Second, generally they are going to ask the same or similar type questions for every passage. The detail-oriented questions are going to generally require you to look back anyway, and the rest can and should be answers because you've read for structure anyway. Trying to remember the questions and where to look from them are going to take away from you reading for the big picture.

I think a good analogy is looking at the LG questions ahead of time. There's probably going to be a standard acceptable situation question, a MBT, a CBT, etc. However, unless you have a good diagram and understand of the rules, reading the questions ahead of time won't help much and will just waste precious time. Similarly, on the RC section, unless you read and understand the passage then knowing the questions ahead of time likely will hurt more than help.

RGiggi13

This is super helpful, thank you @LSATcantwin and @"Alex Divine" !