Marking Up Reading Comprehension Passages

QueenofKitsilano

Hi! I would love to hear how you "mark-up" your RC passages when doing timed tests (i.e. what you underline, put in brackets, highlight).

I am having difficulty with what to pick out when reading the passage under a time constraint. I find I am either marking up too much, or not enough to help with retention.

What key things do you highlight that you find useful? Or do you even mark it up at all?

The Great White Shark

I actually don’t highlight or underline anything! I probably would underline some details if I was taking the test on paper but I have found the features on the digital LSAT to be uncooperative. I ended up highlighting beyond what I was trying to highlight and it would take me time to erase it so I quickly gave up on that. It’s possible that LSAC has improved the feature since then though! Also, I never tried highlighting while using the stylus so maybe it works better with that.

But I would try to keep it to a minimum If you do highlight. Maybe just get some details that you think may be needed for the questions.

taschasp

When I was studying for the LSAT, the most impactful singular change that I made to my test-taking habits was ceasing to do any markups in RC. No highlighting, no notes, nothing. Just read and think.

At first, it sounded kind of crazy to me. I'm so used to taking notes and highlighting when I read, because I go back to those notes days later and want cues to remind me of what I read without having to re-read an entire book again. But the LSAT doesn't care if you remember the passage a week later. It cares if you remember the passage 3 minutes later.

For short term memory, I really find that marking and highlighting is an utter waste of time. Instead of highlighting a sentence you think is important, connect it to the rest of the passage in your head, ask yourself why its important, ask what the author thinks about it, ask what it reminds you of in your life... do something that can help you connect the sentence within a web of ideas in your mind and thus make you more likely to recall it later, rather than highlighting it. You'll save time and have better retention.

A small caveat -- I think taking notes via the memory method is useful as "training wheels" in studying, but you eventually want to throw those wheels out and just do the same thing in your head.