Hoping for some advice...

margarita

Hello everyone!

I was hoping that someone could give me some advice on how to tackle the LSAT if you are a slow reader.
A little background: I wrote the LSAT this past september, scored 145, rewrote in December and scored 155. I am re-wrtiging again in two weeks, and I have been improving consistently. However, one thing I don't seem to improve on is my reading speed. I consistently don't get to answer the last 5 questions in arguments, and I always barely make it through 3 out of 4 passages. If I try to read faster, I start misunderstanding what I read and get lost. Overall this has been very frustrating. I would really appreciate if anyone could give me some points on how to fix this! I don't think I can handle writing this test more than 3 times

Seeking Perfection

I guess it probably depends on how slow a reader you actually are. If you literally cannot make it through the passages and questions then your reading speed needs to be boosted. However, it is very difficult to increase reading speed without losing some comprehension. Therefore, if there is any chance that you can just tackle the questions more efficiently you should do that instead. Hopefully someone else can discuss the low and high resolution summary strategy for reading comp(I never used it but many swear by it). The idea is you memorize what is in each part of the passage and how they are connected as you read it so if you get to the questions and need to look back at the passages you know exactly where to look. This saves time wasted thinking about the questions and rereading text you don't need to reread.

A good way to tell which of these problems you actually face might be to tape yourself doing the section. If you spend a lot of time doing the questions, staring at them thinking, or rereading large sections of the passage, then the low resolution summary strategy may be what you need. On the other hand if you are spending so much time just reading the passages that you can't get through all 4 then it is definitely a reading speed problem. To address reading speed you might need to get more comfortable with the referential phrasing used in the section or just get faster in general. Some people have tried to stop subvocalizing since that can slow reading speed, but trying to stop does sometimes interfere with comprehension.

Alex

@margarita said:
Hello everyone!

I was hoping that someone could give me some advice on how to tackle the LSAT if you are a slow reader.
A little background: I wrote the LSAT this past september, scored 145, rewrote in December and scored 155. I am re-wrtiging again in two weeks, and I have been improving consistently. However, one thing I don't seem to improve on is my reading speed. I consistently don't get to answer the last 5 questions in arguments, and I always barely make it through 3 out of 4 passages. If I try to read faster, I start misunderstanding what I read and get lost. Overall this has been very frustrating. I would really appreciate if anyone could give me some points on how to fix this! I don't think I can handle writing this test more than 3 times

Of the ~20 questions on logical reasoning that you attempt, how many do you usually get correct?

margarita

@"Alex Divine" Usually around 15-17, but if I try to read faster and do more questions it usually drops to around 13 on average

Alex

@margarita said:
@"Alex Divine" Usually around 15-17, but if I try to read faster and do more questions it usually drops to around 13 on average

So I think there are a couple options for someone in your shoes.

First, you can schedule your LSAT further out and take the necessary time to improve on RC, part of that being your reading speed. This could take many more months and for some people, their reading speed may never seem to increase. But I think if you're aiming for a mid 160s/170s score this is the best way forward.

Second, and and often debated strategy, is to only choose to do 3 of the 4 passages. Now I'm well aware that there are some great arguments against implementing such a strategy. The most strong argument being that each passages has both hard/easy questions, and even the hardest, more technical passages have easy questions that could net you some easy points. However, I think if reading speed is your biggest issue than it would be better to take your time reading 3 of the passages and try to get all of those questions correct. Now whether or not you'll want to implement this strategy will partly be determined by your RC blind review score. If you're nailing every question untimed, then it probably is mostly your reading speed holding you back and I think this strategy is at least worth trying. If, however, you are still missing more than 1-2 on your BR than it's likely your actual RC masterplan that need some work and this strategy may not the best solution.

If you're dead set on taking in February, I would suggest only doing 3 of the 4 passages. Unfortunately, having only a few weeks isn't a sufficient amount of time to improve that much on RC. It sucks, but that's just the truth.

Mindful Monkey

My 2 cents:
1. Read with your finger or pencil following the line you're on.
2. Download one of the various speed reading applications and use those until test day
3. You will have to cut down on time spent in other areas (answering questions, diagramming, etc.)

Lastly, what is your speed like when reading something you're really interested in? I find that on RC I read much faster and with more confidence on topics I'm interested in. Key point: Trick your mind to believing you're actually interested in all topics. Easier said than done, but if you can save even a couple seconds here and there by imagining you are an all-interested-knowledge-absorbing sponge..it can't hurt.

Broccoli

Like mindful monkey said, I don't diagram anymore.. helped me focus more on the passage too

Hamaseh_S

For a really quick fix I would do this for an 30 min - an hour a day until your test. https://www.spreeder.com/app.php

Copy and paste the text you want (it can be anything, I use news articles or even super simple articles from blogs), press the Spreed button, in the settings below the box, set for 300 wpm, 3 words per chunk. You can change the speed but I do 300.

I don't think it permanently increases reading speed like it claims it can but it will definitely get you accustomed to reading faster. When I do it consistently for a week or so my eyes just get used to reading without trying to sound out every word. Hope it helps a little!

Good luck