Reviewing RC Questions

pseudonymous

Hi folks!

We all know the importance of taking and reviewing PTs. For me, I absolutely dread RC review. It sucks! I found myself needing an utterly systematic approach just to make sure I stay on track for this section. Most of you probably already do this and/or there's been a similar post in the past, but if not, I find the following process quite helpful. I'll share it here (and also ask for feedback re: other strategies you've found effective):

1) I blind review as normal, referring back to the passage occasionally -- of course, this method is always great, but I find it inadequate on its own (mostly because I am a smug, overconfident flake and I don't often end up revising anything when I really, really should). Hence:

2) I watch the passage analysis. To get to this video without seeing the answers, I insert the site URL directly.* http://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-[PT#]-section-[#]-passage-[#]-passage/
The answers are at the bottom of the video, so don't scroll down! 7Sage, among other things, has been great for my self-discipline :-D

3) Depending on my comfort level with the passage, I listen to J.Y. at up to 1.4X speed. I make notes to keep focused, either for reinforcement or revision, but usually I find he's compelling enough that I don't get as bored as I was when first reading. And usually (okay, fine, all the time) I've found I missed something, big or small (hopefully small), in my own analysis.

4) Armed with this passage review, I tackle the questions again. Second (third?) time through is definitely smoother and much faster. Then, finally, I scroll down and check my answers. If, after all of this, I still got questions wrong, I crawl into a corner and cry I rehash the question and watch the explanation.

5) Rinse and repeat!


There. That's what I do. Not sure how much of it will be helpful, but I certainly hope it is! If I can trouble you for your own RC review strategies, tips & hints, perhaps we can find the ultimate way to destroy this section in 2 months' (!!!) time.

Happy Easter weekend!


*for peeps enrolled in the course only
could also bookmark the relevant links before PT-taking

emli1000

HEY! No cheating! Lol

blah170blah

Hey, I wrote this in a different thread but here's my strategy:

During
(1) My approach to RC that has been helpful is I'll read the passage as fast but detailed as I can to get the gist of everything. If I get caught stuck trying to understand a sentence, I won't really try to understand the details as much as assess it's structure (real time thought process: "omg I don't know what this author is trying to say but I can tell he's trying to prove this point he made earlier in the paragraph... if there's a detail specific question on this, then I'll come back to this but moving on). I've tried the extensive up-front notation strategy but I still spend time on the questions so I've decided to minimize the amount of pre-question notations I make.

(2) After I finish reading the passage, I'll take 30 seconds to 1 minute MAX and write down in my own words:
- MP/Author's opinion (which is really just a sum of the things I highlight -- I make sure to only highlight AO/MP)
- AA (for author attitude, I'll always write two words: the second word could be something as simple as "bad, good, or neutral" and the first one is "qualified/whole." I've noticed that a lot of the times, the opinion is "qualified approval," which is why I started formulating AA answers ahead of time in my own words to refer back to.

(3) Then, when I approach the questions, I start with the Main Point, Author's attitude, author's opinion questions first. I know that if I mess up on these questions, I'm in a sticky situation. However, if I get these questions right and feel confident about them, I use my understanding of the MP to answer inference questions (which are the ones I always miss but used to miss a lot more of).

Review
(4) After I finish and RC section and decide to review it, I make sure to analyze the structure of the passage, making up my own terminology. I find that a lot of the RC resources out there focus on the content of RC passages (science, humanities, law) instead of the structural elements that make up these passages. For someone like me who can miss questions in any one of those given domains, I've had a hard time trying to figure out what passage structures mess me up. I've come to realize through the review process that I tend to miss questions that are what I call "detail-oriented," meaning the passage is dedicated to explaining a particular set of facts without necessarily having an opinion (typically science but occasionally others). I'm trying to get to a point where I can immediately identify passage structures because it will tell me how much upfront work I need to do and how closely I need to pay attention. After I identify the passage structure, I'll breakdown the RC questions in the same way I would any LR question.

TL;DR: I forced myself to do really detailed passage reviews for RC and got my RC score down from -6/-8 (diagnostic) to -2 (best). Trying to go for the donut.
--------------------
The final review product for one passage analysis and one question breakdown looks like this:

Passage 1 Discussion: Langston Hughes (PT2)

Paragraph Summaries
1: Background + claim + evidence
2: Additional example + claim

Passage Analysis
MP: Hughes’s writing broke from the traditional African American literary tradition and created works that resisted Europeanization (54-58)

AO: (35-36) “Hughes’s expression of the vibrant folk culture of Black people established his writing as a landmark in the history of African American literature.”

(54-58) “(these) aspects of Hughes’s writing helped to modify the previous restrictions on the techniques and subject matter of Black writers and consequently to broaden the linguistic and thematic range of African American literature”

AA: praise at Hughes’s mastery of the language and craftful composition to broaden the scope of African American literary tradition

SS: Thesis passage (one main point + multiple examples)

1.1 Detail
Strategy: references beginning of P2 (39-42)
(A) “ambiguous and deceptive meanings” – misinterpretation/mischaracterization of
“hyperbole and understatement” (line 40-1)
(B) “composing poems” – outside scope (addresses line 46 and cites an example of a
characteristic of Hughes’s poetry)
(C) “naming and enumeration” – line 40
(D) “first-person narrative” – outside scope of passage
(E) “strong religious beliefs” – outside scope of passage

pseudonymous

@emli1000 haha I promise videos only come after BR! You know I squeeze every last drop out of my PTs. :-P Won't get to do that as much in the next while, because OMG-2-months, but hopefully I'll be okay...

@blah170blah That's fantastic, thanks! Definitely see the merit of reading for structure, though I find I generally don't note the structure terminology, etc. I usually draw a "turn" bracket arrow thingy when the writer switches from context to argument, or side A to side B. And this was brought up by someone at last last weekend's group BR, but it is supremely helpful to follow the passage with the pencil tip. I skim all the time for some of my class readings (terrible, I know) so that method for sure cures my wandering eye. ;-)

Cheers for your detailed and helpful post!

shine.on.me

Thanks for this. I am struggling with RC review as well. This will help me stay on track. Thanks.

nicole.hopkins

You guys are bosses. Bookmarked, will print.

emli1000

@pseudonymous lol ok just making sure

@blah170blah Thank you for that!

Alan Cheuk-2

@pseudonymous said: The answers are at the bottom of the video, so don't scroll down! 7Sage, among other things, has been great for my self-discipline :-D

Thanks for pointing out that answers were being shown on passage videos. In retrospect, it doesn't make sense to show that information on passage videos, since questions aren't referenced. We removed the answers from passage videos a few minutes ago. NO SELF DISCIPLINE FOR YOU!

pseudonymous

Ha, indirectly and inadvertently changing the face of 7Sage. Love it.

Thank you for this! I never minded it too terribly before, tbh... if I can handle the waits between BBC Sherlock seasons, I can handle anything. Not sure if that's self-discipline, though, or just a high anxiety-threshold.

blah170blah

@"Al [^-^d]" Here you go!

emli1000

@amanda_kw ^^ read the above, i actually printed it out lol