What do you highlight in RC? (digital LSAT)

DINOSAUR

Hi everyone! As I'm now transitioning to digital LSAT, I found that highlighting is difficult and inefficient to do on the screen. Maybe that's because I'm not used to it yet. I used to put some symbols beside the texts that I think is important. But I can't do it now. I think I really need to cut down a significant amount of highlighting in RC. Which is painful since I'm so used to drawing anything I want on the paper. Can anyone share what you usually highlight in RC? Is not highlighting anything a better strategy? Thanks!

ahnendc-1

Hey @DINOSAUR! I'm still figuring it out as well but here is what I'm doing: I try to highlight the notable first word of the phrase that I want to highlight, although sometimes I do try to go ahead and highlight the whole sentence.

I also built out a 'key' for myself that I am currently toying around with:
- Orange --- general 'important'
- Pink -- alternative viewpoint (e.g. critics)
- Yellow - alternative viewpoint 2 (e.g. a critique of the critics)
- Underline - words that evince the authors attitude

I'll be the first to admit that it's somewhat unwieldy. But I think this is a good ideal to strive for. I think during game day and PTs I'll probably just use orange and one other marker if I think it really justifies it.

Legally Dark Blonde

Hello,

I have struggled with RC until I found a method that works for me. I have found this to be the most time efficient strategy in regards to utilizing the highlighters:

Instead of using all the highlighters and underlining tools, I stick with two colors. I use the yellow highlighter to highlight all the nouns (person, place, thing) that appear important to distinguish. Then I use the second color to highlight the verbs/adjectives/descriptive words/phrases. This simple strategy creates a "skeleton" that overlays the passage, making it easy to view the structure quickly. It also saves time when referring back to the passage. For example, per your highlights, you might see "person" as the noun, "chastised" as the verb, and then another "person". This method allows you to quickly put the pieces together of the main points and helps to sort through the clutter. This is not meant to be used to skim-read or ignore other parts of the passage; it is to help provide direct structure of the main points.

I hope this helps!

Nicole

danielbrowning208

I would recommend refraining from highlighting in RC. The tool is clunky, and, personally, trying to figure out what I should/should not highlight takes away from my ability to focus on the structure of the passage. I make a very short structural summary of the passage on my scratch paper. That way, not only are you not wasting time trying to get the highlight tool to work, but you also come away with a helpful structural guide to the passage.

That said, RC is all about finding what works best for you. So experiment with different strategies. Just be aware that anything extra you do in RC (or in any section for that matter) must be purchased with time. You need to think hard about if the time-cost for any additional notation is worth it.

DINOSAUR

@ahnendc-1 @"Legally Dark Blonde" @danielbrowning208 Thank you guys so much! Your advice are all very useful! I'll try out different approaches to figure out which way works the best for me.