Skipping strategy for RC

mds19193

Hi!

Do any of you guys using a skipping strategy for RC or have you found that skipping questions and then coming back to them is too time consuming because it means you need to revisit the passage? Sometimes I feel like its good to get a break from a question and come back to it with a fresh mind but at the same time I also waste some time rereading stuff?

What are you overall RC strategies that you have found to be helpful?

ebalde1234

My rc strategy thus far is do 3/4 passages , try out diff approaches , timed/untimed until you get something that works for you

Lucas Carter

I totally see what you mean with skipping, coming back, and not having the passage as fresh in your mind. This is always a frustrating feeling for me. The hardest questions often are based on subtle one line details and when I come back to a skipped question like this, I feel out of touch. My strategy for combating this has been to be to learn to recognize these types of questions and if it does not click right away, to skip using as little time as possible. I treat them as luxuries and there are usually 2 or 3 of them per section.

The key is really to not let them bug you or drive you crazy for not being able to pick up on the subtleties and just be comfortable with conceding them and really engaging with the other questions in the section, without stress. Giving up the need to feel like I have to go -0 every section and conceding 2 or 3 questions to do better on the other questions, really helped me out. This enabled me to have a shot most of the time to dive into the really hard questions and give myself a chance, but I don't beat myself up if a few do not click. An example of a question like this would be a question asking what the author would most likely agree with and have it be based on 1 line of the passage that is used as context to present the main idea.

This is obviously anecdotal and assuming the questions you struggle with are the super detail oriented questions. However, in general I think skipping in some way is essential for most people to maximize their use of time. It really comes down to finding the best way for you. I really experimented with RC strategies for awhile before settling on one I felt comfortable with and even now I still make minor adjustments based on ideas I hear from other 7Sagers and watching JY's live takes.

samantha.ashley92

I know some people who do 3 passages, like @ebalde1234 does, but I read in a prep book that you shouldn't do that because it puts a lot of pressure on you to get those 3 right. It definitely works for some people, though. Anyway, with a skipping strategy, I would not plan on coming back to those questions (unless you have extra time and skipped in the last passage).

ebalde1234

@"samantha.ashley92" said:
I know some people who do 3 passages, like @ebalde1234 does, but I read in a prep book that you shouldn't do that because it puts a lot of pressure on you to get those 3 right. It definitely works for some people, though. Anyway, with a skipping strategy, I would not plan on coming back to those questions (unless you have extra time and skipped in the last passage).

Yeah doing it this way gives me more time to work on 3 well then 4 poorly - just my way of doing it , depends on your scoring as well

LivingThatLSATdream

3 instead of 4 is great for some people. Another “skipping strategy” is to skip a question within a section, which works as long as it isn’t the last question. I go back to a circled question while I’m still in the passage. Just make sure you aren’t wasting time for a question that you aren’t understanding. One thing to note is the level of confidence at which you skip or want to skip with RC. You may want to completely skip something you are like 0% confident In and have no clue and not go back to it. But maybe something you are like 60% confident in you can re-read Before going to the next passage. And the 80%+ just leave unless you have time at the end. Honestly the best thing to do is to keep practicing and try different strategies. You’ll find one that works for you and your goals. You’ll also recognize the questions that mess with your head. “The authors of A and B are likely to agree with all of the following expect...” “the author’s argument is analogous to which of the following...” ughhhh RC!

Good luck finding your center!

Bamboosprout

Hey, try recording yourself with something, and then compare your recording to JY's recordings. I did this, and this shaved off 4-5 minutes of my time. I found out I refer back to passage way too often when I had no reason to (well, there always reasons to refer back, but the cost benefit didn't balance out). Here's my golden rule, which helped me shave off the 5 minutes: only refer back to the passage if the question refers to a specific section, or if you eliminated the answers down to 2 choices and remember where one of the two choices are in the passage; otherwise, just circle it and skip. Statistically, unless you can easily finish the section with 10 minutes left over, if you refer to the passage outside of those two specific conditions, you are wasting more time than you have.