Improving reading speed while maintaining accuracy on LSAT.

blackpearl

Hey Fellow 7-Sagers,
I'm a slow reader. I'm struggling with time-management on LR quiz practice questions. I'm unable to complete the quizzes within the allotted 15-minutes. I am,however, getting the questions I do answer correct. I've been reading magazines such as The Economist and The Atlantic, but I've yet to see any increases in my reading speed. When I purposely try to speed up, my accuracy suffers. Any tips on increasing reading speed while maintaining accuracy? I know this problem will be a factor on other sections, especially RC. Thank you.

emli1000

In the beginning give yourself a little more time, with time your speed will increase. Continue drilling and you'll notice that soon you'll be able to finish those questions within the time allotted.

hl2270dw

I think that leisure reading outside of the context of the LSAT is only marginally helpful. I mean, it's great to get the mind into text-processing mode, but the text on the exam is much more dense and so requires a great deal more effort.

As for getting faster, I think it comes down to getting better at being able to organize information in your head in terms of hierarchy. One sentence in a paragraph probably has the main idea, while the rest are more like supporting details. Getting faster requires being able to prioritize information efficiently. At least, that's how I see it.

brna0714

I agree with @hl2270dw It has helped me to focus on reading for structure and creating a "mental map" of the passage so I can refer back quickly for detail questions. I now read to determine the purpose of the text not necessarily every single detail and my RC scores have improved. You don't need to/can't retain every little detail about a passage in the allotted time so you determine what is important and be sure you can retrieve the rest quickly. I also think the Manhattan RC prep book serves as a good supplement to the 7Sage course.

nicole.hopkins

@blackpearl How long have you been studying? Speed comes with practice, proper habits, and time. The combination of these things should yield an incremental increase in overall speed. One way to measure this is to use a stopwatch (like on the iPhone) to time individual questions.

If the combination of these things does NOT yield quantifiable increases in speed, then that can indicate a shortfall in understanding, mental discipline, and/or bad habits (in plenty of cases it's all three). That's one of the benefits of quantifying time per question; then it's a matter of taking a hard look at your actual habits in real time (under time pressure), reviewing lessons, asking questions on the forums, and perhaps looking into attention/focus strategies.

I actually think Lumosity ($12 or so per month, totally worth it) helps honing these lattermost skills on a mechanical level.

blah170blah

Hi @blackpearl, I'm going to echo what @nicole.hopkins said (like usual LOL) and underscore the point of good practice and techniques. As you encounter more RC passages, you'll know when you need to focus on a particular point and what information is most relevant to remember when attacking the answer choices. To get to that point, you not only need to practice timing yourself with passages but also thoroughly review passages. This means breaking down the passage, the questions for each passage, the answer choices for each passage (why right, why wrong), and some tangible strategy that will help you in the future.

nicole.hopkins

I love you too, @blah170blah *sniff*

alexroark5

@blackpearl with regards to LR, reviewing JY's early course on grammar will help immensley. Approx 2/3 of all LR questions will be arguments. Every sentence in these questions will fall into one of three categories: background info, support for the main conclusion (premises/intermediate conclusions), and the main conclusion. The grammar lessons clue you in on certain key words that indicate when you are about to read a premise (since, because, given that, etc.) and when you are about to read a conclusion (therefore, thus, etc.). As you read these words you'll be able to predict what you are about to read (ok I just read the words "since" so I'm about to read a premise for whatever the conclusion is). This will save you time because you won't have to waste time thinking about how what you are about to read relates to the rest of the stimulus, you'll already know. This relates very closely to the point @hl2270dw brings up about being able to prioritize information efficiently.

Quick Silver

Use your Pencil to guide your reading - really helps!

JY does it for RC passages if you look at him doing LSAT 70.

But don't just do this for passages - do it for everything - games, LR, reading answer choices...

Helps with Speed AND Accuracy

VegMeg55

I agree with @"Quick Silver" I have to lightly underline absolutely everything on the LSAT but it keeps me focused and helps me read faster. It might work for you as well!

Quick Silver

Hey @VegMeg55 Thanks for the response - the only thing I'd say is no need to "lightly underline" - literally just run your pencil over without touching.

It's not necessarily bad to "lightly" underline, but not necessary and the added "drag" might add up in time. Watch JY do a passage in PT 70 to see what I mean.

nicole.hopkins

Agree heartily with @"Quick Silver" — @Jengibre actually introduced me to this idea I believe and I have been using it ever since. WOW. Absolutely stellar focusing technique. Was astonished by the difference it made.

VegMeg55

@"Quick Silver" Totally agreed, I'm just super weird. I mentioned in a past post that 99% of LSAT takers would think I'm insane for underlining but there's something tactile about touching the page that I need. Just going over the line without touching it doesn't help me stay on track as well, so I stick with what works for me. Thanks for catching me on not being clear. Underlining is totally unnecessary (unless that really helps you) and following along with your pencil w/o underlining might work wonders for anyone struggling with RC passages or any other LSAT section.

blah170blah

@VegMeg55 I'm exactly the same way. I don't really trust my underlining as "this is the MP" or "AO." That's where my highlighter comes in

VegMeg55

@blah170blah I haven't experimented with highlighting yet. I work more off of a crazy... and I mean crazy system of symbols, brackets, scribbles, and tick marks. It works amazingly well, I just look like a bit of a madman. Oh well, the LSAT is a bubble answer choice test so it's all good.

blah170blah

@VegMeg55 Ahhh we are 100% different RC test takers. I'm about minimal scribbling besides the underlining for focus and highlighting for MP. Just goes to show that there is no one size fits all strategy to the LSAT!

kraft.phillip

I'd encourage you to try an exercise: set a timer to count up, start it, turn it away from you so that you cannot see it, and read through every word of an LR section, including all answer choices, with the goal of comprehending everything. Don't choose an answer. Then stop the timer.

If it is really about pure reading speed, that time will be over 35 minutes. However, In my experience and with the three people I've had do this so far, the time was actually well below 35 minutes (I'd expect around 25-30 minutes for most people). These three that I was tutoring were also worried that they were simply too slow at reading, and that was the problem.

I suggest that often this is not a problem of slow reading, but of lacking an efficient process to deal with other time sucking activities. For example, picking between two answer choices, I found, was a really easy way for me to waste minutes on a single question. I'd go back and forth reading the two answer choices without having a clear path forward. I simply hoped that something would pop out at me from the answer choices.

It's easy to blame reading speed, but reading speed is something that is super hard to change. It can be done, but it is much easier to simply develop habits of checking answers against the stimulus instead of against one another and having an internal clock that tells you when it's time to move on from a question.

Last thing is that often people will inactively read the stimulus rather than specifically search for conclusion and support. This slows you down as well.

Good luck! I worry that the method of tracking your reading via your pencil might slow you down and prevent you from connecting aspects of the stimulus that are in physically separate locations. It will probably help you focus, but just be cognizant of missing the forest for the trees when doing this. I'd encourage you to try spreeder as well, if you are really worried that your reading speed is insufficient.

nicole.hopkins

Wow, fantastic advice from @kraft.phillip and a method I haven't thought of (and some of you know how I am with my timing methods). Will definitely start trying this for my timed LR sections.

emli1000

Great advise from @kraft.phillip

Also, speed comes from time. I've notice that the amount it takes me to read a Q stem & stimulus is a lot faster now compared to 7 months ago (when I first started studying).

nicole.hopkins

@emli1000 No question about it. One of the benefits of the "low and slow" (as we say in Texas, usually regarding brisket) approach to LSAT study is that you have the opportunity to build solid habits and see speed increase with practice—as opposed to juggling learning with AAAAAHHH THE CLOCK

emli1000

@nicole.hopkins YES! I read a question to my bro and then had him read it and realized he took forever to read this question and go through the answer choices LOL I was like wow I must've been just as slow as him when I first started studying lol

inactive

@nicole.hopkins Now I'm hungry...

Derek Kunhee Kim

@kraft.phillip I agree 100% with what you said about reading inactively as being a huge time-sucker. One of the goals I set for myself when reading is trying to discipline myself to reading the stimulus just once and simply referring to it after, if that need be.

I'm also pretty sure that the more you dwell on a question, the more likely you are to get in wrong.