Any tips for RC?

law hopeful

I am about to start on my PTs but I'm a little hesitant because I am doing so poorly on RC.

JDtobeeee

Drill RC sections by themselves, 35 min each. Once you see your scores improving there, you'll feel more confident during a full PT. Also, I know it sounds cheesy, but if you try to get interested in the topics of each passages, I find I always do better when I am engaged. I remind myself before every RC passage that I am about to learn 4 new mini topics (this way RC feels less daunting)

law hopeful

@JDtobeeee I'll do that! Thank you does it matter which PT I pull the RC passages from? like should I do -20 and save 35+ for the actual full PT?

AllezAllez21

I actually recommend you practice RC untimed. If you're struggling with RC, having timed pressure is likely to make you simply reinforce bad habits. Instead, go slow and really analyze the passage, do the questions carefully, and build confidence. Your speed will increase naturally as you become more skilled.

JDtobeeee

Depends on when you're taking the LSAT (how far away you are from your test date as well as how many PTs you can realistically take without burning out (burn out is oh so real). So I'd suggest to plan backwards and that way you can figure out how many sections you need for drills.

Yes untimed is a great way to improve as well!

@"law hopeful" said:
@JDtobeeee I'll do that! Thank you does it matter which PT I pull the RC passages from? like should I do -20 and save 35+ for the actual full PT?

law hopeful

@JDtobeeee @AllezAllez21 I'm planning to write in December!

Heart Shaped Box

I agree with above advice on the untimed approach. If your RC foundation is exceptionally weak like mine, untimed at the begining really is the only honest way to improve. Once you've built up a relatively steady RC foundation, that's where we can talk about strategies like skipping, time management, etc. But at the initial phrase, I would focus on foundimentals first.

law hopeful

@"Heart Shaped Box" Thank you I am definitely going to focus on that over the next few days and hopefully I'll see some sort of improvement! I'd really like to be ready for December and do as best I can

shanedrider

I'd also suggest maybe doing a few RC sections that you have JY's explanations to untimed, reviewing, and then seeing JY's explanations. His charting for RC's is pretty good to show how to focus on the key material in each section. I'd also suggest in doing this, to start with lower-numbered PTs as some of the material is out-dated so it can be confusing in its own right. I remember doing a section about the Internet/technology written on an exam from the late 90s which had me very confused. JY's explanation made it much more clear.

law hopeful

@shanedrider that makes sense, thank you! is it okay to re-do RC passages? (like we do with LG)

Cant Get Right

@"law hopeful" said:
@shanedrider that makes sense, thank you! is it okay to re-do RC passages? (like we do with LG)

Absolutely. I love redoing passages a few months after seeing them. On the second read, my understanding is obviously inflated, but this inflation allows me to better see the subtleties in the answer choices. RC is all about subtleties, and this is a great way to learn the section.

Until you can do well untimed, your focus should remain on learning how to understand the passage in the correct way. Once you've got that down, address strategy. To me, the foundation of RC strategy is time distribution. If you're going to spend 2 minutes reading the passage, your strategy will be very different than if you had spent 4 minutes reading the passage. Answers on issues like looking back to the passage to confirm answers and how heavily you should annotate will largely depend. When you are ready to start taking timed sections, I think time distribution is the best place to start. It will dictate your strategies.

shanedrider

@"Cant Get Right" is completely correct here. There are a few strategies for doing RC depending on whether you are a skimmer/fast reader or go more in-depth with the reading at first glance. Since all the QS can be answered from within the passage, some decide to get a brief overview of what the passage is about and refer back during each question, others dedicate more time to reading the Passage first so referring back is kept to a minimum.

It all depends on what you are comfortable with/what gives you the best results. I personally like reading the passage as a whole but the skimming strategy is just as effective, and I'd say skimming can actually help for passages that are incredibly difficult or deal with very mundane topics. Sometimes diving in too deep gets you bogged down and you won't see the Passage as a whole and can miss key details that having the questions themselves drive your understanding can do.