Need help on RC section

martinxi679

Hi all,

First of all, after about a month of studying and practicing for RC, I do see a clear improvement in RC, so thanks 7sage!

Here comes the problem which I could not really find an answer on the 7sage forum: when I do understand what a passage is saying (at least at a minimum level), I can manage to get -0 to -2 on this particular passage no matter what the difficulty level is; however, there are times which I read the passage and would have no clue what the passage is saying, and the result is very likely to be a complete bombing of this passage. Using PTs 73 and 74 as an example, I understood the first passage and the last passage of PT 73, but had no clue what the middle two passages were saying, in which I ended up with -9 just in the middle two passages; while for PT 74, I understood all four passages (again, at least at a minimum level), so I ended up with -2 for the entire section. Beside this specific example, I realize that most passages which I have no clue with are medium-level passages (really not sure why), and I can't find any subject similarities between these passages.

At first I was thinking that the only way to resolve this is to improve my ability to comprehend these passages, but then I realize that JY says he sometimes gets confused with passages and just has to deal with it when answering questions. So are there any good tips on tackling the questions when you are just not sure what the passage is talking about?

Lastly, this post is not saying that I don't want to improve my ability to comprehend. I would still try my best to practice with RC and enhance my reading ability, but as a non-native speaker, I suppose it would be difficult for me to actaully improve my vocublary and comprehension skill in a short period of time.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

RaphaelP

Hey! I definitely agree one part of the solution here is improving comprehension; ideally, you feel like you have a baseline level of understanding of any passage you confront, and never feel truly out of your element. Identifying what passage types worry you the most might help. For me, what was helpful there was reading Scientific American, since I most often felt lost with hard science, but if it's more of a dense writing/vocab issue, the Economist is great.
I'm not a non-native speaker, so I'm probably not going to give great advice for the vocab part (but major props to you), but one strategy might be making a list during PTs of words that are unfamiliar and keeping a running list to review on Quizlet, since the LSAT uses words repeatedly that aren't super common in regular conversation.
But, if you do find yourself with a hard passage you're still not getting, I would try to realize that you have a fighting chance on most questions nonetheless. RC questions test your ability to understand structure (main point/purpose of a paragraph/etc), your ability to recognize details (explicitly stated, meaning of phrase, etc), or ability to understand the argument and make inferences (author perspective, MSS, etc). The former two categories of questions can be done even if you don't understand the details - you just need to be able to understand the rough structure of the passage, and find stuff explicitly mentioned, respectively. For me, realizing that I wouldn't be sunk on the majority of questions even when I felt lost was helpful, and I prioritized, time-wise, getting those right on the hardest passages while cutting bait on the hard inference questions if it wasn't computing. Inference questions will be hard if you don't really get the argument, and my advice there would be to focus on eliminating wrong answers and ruling out choices that you know are a] Just not mentioned b] Flat out contradicted by the passage. That way, even if you don't at all know the affirmatively correct answer, your guessing odds aren't awful, and you can minimize damage by nailing the non-inference questions

martinxi679

@rjp12345 said:
Hey! I definitely agree one part of the solution here is improving comprehension; ideally, you feel like you have a baseline level of understanding of any passage you confront, and never feel truly out of your element. Identifying what passage types worry you the most might help. For me, what was helpful there was reading Scientific American, since I most often felt lost with hard science, but if it's more of a dense writing/vocab issue, the Economist is great.
I'm not a non-native speaker, so I'm probably not going to give great advice for the vocab part (but major props to you), but one strategy might be making a list during PTs of words that are unfamiliar and keeping a running list to review on Quizlet, since the LSAT uses words repeatedly that aren't super common in regular conversation.
But, if you do find yourself with a hard passage you're still not getting, I would try to realize that you have a fighting chance on most questions nonetheless. RC questions test your ability to understand structure (main point/purpose of a paragraph/etc), your ability to recognize details (explicitly stated, meaning of phrase, etc), or ability to understand the argument and make inferences (author perspective, MSS, etc). The former two categories of questions can be done even if you don't understand the details - you just need to be able to understand the rough structure of the passage, and find stuff explicitly mentioned, respectively. For me, realizing that I wouldn't be sunk on the majority of questions even when I felt lost was helpful, and I prioritized, time-wise, getting those right on the hardest passages while cutting bait on the hard inference questions if it wasn't computing. Inference questions will be hard if you don't really get the argument, and my advice there would be to focus on eliminating wrong answers and ruling out choices that you know are a] Just not mentioned b] Flat out contradicted by the passage. That way, even if you don't at all know the affirmatively correct answer, your guessing odds aren't awful, and you can minimize damage by nailing the non-inference questions

Thanks for the advice! Yes I am keeping track of vocab on every PT I do, and I think I should definitely follow your advice about the details and eliminating answers. Although I tend to choose the wrong answer once I get down to two choices haha.

I guess my main problem is that without a minimum level of understanding of the passage, I can't really figure out the big picture/completely misunderstand the author's argument. I remember I got the direct opposite of the author's view on the second passage of PT 73. I will try harder to get the big picture on further PTs.

RaphaelP

@martinxi679 Yeah I definitely feel that - RC is honestly really hard! One thing that might help - try to figure out the attitude of the author as you're reading (ideally in the first paragraph or second). As I practiced more and more with sections, I found myself subconsciously filtering info through the lens of what I thought the author thought at various points, which is very helpful for understanding the purpose of phrases/paragraphs (or the purpose of passage itself). Looking for individual words that convey attitude (the author labeling some other person's work "well-researched" "distinguished" "puzzling" "incomplete", etc.) helps. Also, a fairly cookie-cutter structure is the first paragraph outlining an argument that the author then disagrees with - you'll recognize this when the next paragraph starts with some transition word like "however" "but", etc (and those usually indicate a shift in perspective in RC passages, in general); another is the author introducing an idea they agree with, having paragraphs 2-3 be critics responding, and then the 4th paragraph serving as a defense of the initial idea. Those two structures tend to be quite common, and you can usually tell what's up early on