RC is really dragging me back. Need advice!

Cookie Moon

My LR and LG are improving but NOT RC. I get under 5 LR questions wrong and under 3 LG questions wrong each section. But RC is averaging 15+ wrong questions, which is very discouraging. One reason is the vocabularies in RC. When I read a word that I am not familiar with, I tend to get stuck there and try to figure out the meaning of the words. How do you usually study the new words in passages? Also, I found that I always stuck with two answer choices that are very similar, especially on inference questions.

What can I do before October and November test? Any advice is appreciated!

Defender

Hey! Remember to keep your eyes on the author. This is the key to RC---the author strategically places information for you and uses certain language to clue you in on what is important to the her/him. In the questions, you will find that the author's voice is your guide. Feel free to reach out if you have more questions about this!

elena-lev

I would suggest that if you don't know a word — move on! Read through it because there may be context clues that pop up after that word that help you figure out what the word means. For most sentences, you won't need to know what every single word means. You just need to understand the main points the author is trying to get across.

When you get stuck with two answer choices that are pretty similar, try to look at exactly what the difference is. Does one of the answer choices use a modifier like "some" or "all?" Does one of the answer choices exaggerate or try to get you to fall for something that's a little different than what is stated in the passage? Finding the difference between the two answer choices will help you find what it is that makes the correct answer stand out!

alexissydney

Download the "Spreeder" app! This has helped me significantly (-12 to -14 to -6/7).
I find myself reading a bit faster and comprehending more.

lsat12345

@alexissydney said:
Download the "Spreeder" app! This has helped me significantly (-12 to -14 to -6/7).
I find myself reading a bit faster and comprehending more.

That sounds great! Did you purchase the lessons or just use the free version?

alexissydney

@lsat12345 said:

@alexissydney said:
Download the "Spreeder" app! This has helped me significantly (-12 to -14 to -6/7).
I find myself reading a bit faster and comprehending more.

That sounds great! Did you purchase the lessons or just use the free version?

I just use the free version!

carlos.raiz23

You know what worked for me is to write out the RC in my own words when I did BR, it is hella time consuming, but every RC section after I started doing that I went from -16 to -5 or -4 in the span of 5 PT's. I also write out the LR section in my own words and I went from -15 to -7 or -8 in around 6 PT's as well. This transformation made me realize that I CAN answer these questions, I just didnt know wtf I was reading cause I would get confused by the complex language some questions have. This time consuming strategy is clicking for me so I am going to keep pushing.

KellersPhoenix

I highly recommend against trying to learn to speed read. Trying to improve speed and comprehension could end up hurting you. Work on improving your comprehension by focusing on grammatical constructions and words that confuse you for lower hanging fruit. Try what carlos.raiz23 said.

VerdantZephyr

In theory, you do not need to know any specialized or difficult words in RC. That isn't actually 100% true, sometimes there are words that your average high school or college grad might not know, but generally when they do occur they are either explained afterwards or you do not need to know them to answer the test. If you are not sure, move on. If it isn't explained it probably is not that important to your overall understanding. If it is, come back to that question later, other questions might help you to understand it from their context clues.

who-chin

Hi there! If you run into a word that you don't know, don't panic and focus too much on it because you'll end up wasting quite a lot of time and still can't figure out the meaning of it. If it's a noun, most likely the passage will explain it afterwards; if it's an adjective, try ignoring it and moving on, see if the attitude of the author on this specific subject in this sentence can be determined in a following sentence; if it's a verb, just replace it with "do/did this", but remember to go back if there is a specific question on that. I'm not a native English speaker and I run into this situation a lot, this usually works for me as far as helping me get through the passage. Hope it helps!