Recommendations for good Publications/Magazines to read for RC practice

cmguerra

Reading Comprehension is my lowest scoring section. Does anyone have any good tips for improving this area? I know a few people who find RC the easiest read magazines such as the Economist and WSJ. I used to read WSJ when I had the student discount, but only because it didn't cost a lot and their topics actually interested me. Most RC passages aren't as interesting for me. For those of you who have seen improvement and/or do well on RC, do you have any Publications/Magazines that you recommend reading for practice? How often do you read them and what is your strategy for reading them (do you read all the way through, or mark conclusions/premises/etc.)?

Alex

I'm actually really skeptical of the efficacy of reading publications like Economist or WSJ for the sole purposes of RC improvement. The only time I would really recommend it for this purpose is if someone literally did every RC section. Even then, I'd probably still opt to re-do real passages. I've long read those publications before my prep began, and I continue to read them weekly. I think all reading is essentially going to be somewhat helpful and while some publications might be more helpful than others, I just don't think anything is as effective as practicing with real LSAT RC passages. It sort of like the people who do Sudoku for the purposes of improving on logic games. While I'm sure it helps, I just don't think it comes close to practicing with actual games.

Also, there are very specific things with the way RC passages are designed that I don't think I ever really experience while reading WSJ or The Eco. One of those things you actually alluded to which is the fact that you find LSAT passages very uninteresting. They are uninteresting by design and I find that part of successful RC prep is to practice forcing yourself to stay engaged even on the most dull passages. As you'll notice, no RC passages really talk about modern events. The WSJ and The Eco basically only talk about modern events. We are just predisposed to care more about what's going on right now and it makes it a lot easier to care about what you're reading.

Furthermore, practicing answering the questions and finding the info in the passage is a skill you should be working on just as much as the reading itself. Not to mention there are more than enough RC passages to practice with so you don't have to worry about running out of material. Just start with 1-35 and drill those. That's 140 passages right there!

If you want to do some outside reading to take a break from LSAT passages, then I actually think this idea is really great! But don't do it for the sole purpose of your prep if you still have RC passages you can learn from.

That's my take on it anyway!

10000019

100% agree with Alex.

TheMikey

I like the economist. I don't read it much but when I do, I feel like most of the articles' structure is very similar to RC passages' structures. Some of the topics are quite interest as well!

tringo335

The Economist! The New Yorker is good as well but like @TheMikey said The Economist articles are very very similar to RC passages. And yes the topics are really interesting.

Sami

I actually love the Scientific American. I have been using the science articles to write parallel arguments and I do think it has helped my RC score improve tremendously because now when I read I am looking for argument structure.