How do you visualize what you are reading?

nanabillan

I feel absolutely sane asking this Q to other LSAT students, since a common theme is asking how to read and discovering that reading is a skill and one needs to be active in order to read with conviction.

I would like some insight as to how you imagine what you are reading on RC, or rather how you visualize the passage. I hear this strategy works wonders, and I can do it if I really take my time (going too slow that I can't finish under timed constraints), but I can't go insanely slow.

People say they imagine a speaker, a friend, someone they know who is always questioning things, etc. Do you have a specific face for a science passage, humanities, legal passage, etc? I end up wasting precious seconds debating who to put as the face to my passage and I don't think it is worth it.
At one point I was scoring -16 on RC and now I am around -8 so I think I am learning how to read with the an improved agenda. I want to close in on that gap and I feel that this idea of creating a visual can be valuable.

Making connections in the passage has been helpful but visualizing requires extra effort on my part and takes away from my time. Again, I understand the concept of putting up extra time on the passage and flying through the Qs but I am not talking about passage reading totaling 3 minutes, it could be 6-8 minutes depending on the passage.

Furthermore, I actually do enjoy the passages for the most part-and the ones that start out a bit slower, I engage and act excited and I think that helps!

So, fellow 7Sagers, how do you picture what you read?

nanabillan

bumping

mojozo3

For some of the more science-based passages, I imagine my high school biology class diagrams and try to picture the thing that the passage discusses if it were illustrated and simplified for the non-science minded. And kind of the same for the law ones, except visualizing how the law would affect a court scene. Humanities depend, more of a struggle through than a grasp.

In picturing the passage that way, I can kind of spin it in my head to see how all the parts are moving together. Need to get faster with it, but I'm still sitting in a solid single-digit range. The low-res reading method JY discusses is hard to reconcile with what I'm already doing, but it is helpful in terms of piecing together the author's attitude and method of reasoning.

nanabillan

Thank you! @mojozo3

canihazJD

I think passages require varying approaches... some lend themselves to visualization. The one about subduction and earthquakes is a great example of this. Others do not... just the subject matter, or its too dense or too abstract. Sometimes you just have to find a way to engage on the fly. Feign interest. Personalize it. Employ analogies. Take a stance for or against what is being argued. Sometimes I'll even hear it in a famous voice... subject dependant I like to use Morgan Freeman, David Attenborough, Sean Connery (RIP), etc.. Sometimes I know I won't understand the details even if I give it another read, so I'll blaze through and focus on just reasoning structure. I think you have to be just as nimble as you are in LR/LG, but the passage format just kind of throws us off a bit sometimes.

nanabillan

thank you @canihazJD I have noticed that when I can attribute a face or image to the passage, it helps tremendously.