Approaching the Questions- Reading Comprehension Help using PT 58

FindingSage

Happy New Years to everyone! I realize that I haven't created a discussion post for awhile and rather than hold a webinar ( as I know alot of people are very busy with the holidays just winding up) I decided to create a Reading Comprehension post focusing on one aspect of Reading Comp, which people can use at their own pace/time.

My LSAT journey has been a long one but I have found that my biggest improvement in RC came as a result of three major things:

• Changing how I read the passages/Approach to the section

• Changing how I reviewed, I found reviewing consistently with a small group to be most beneficial for me, as well as establishing a wrong answer journal and a better BR template

• And finally, the topic of this discussion post, which is changing how I approach the questions.

Rather than just provide you blanket advice, I took a RC section (PT 58) and wrote out a Google Doc which, while it does provide you general tips, shows you how to confidently and efficiently tackle each question and tries to put you in the mindset of what a high scorer is thinking as they approach the questions rather than just tell you why answer choice B is right and answer choice E is wrong.

For maximum benefit I recommend taking PT 58 as a prep test first, or at least the RC section. After you have completed the section BR your usual way. Then, take a look at the Google Doc to compare your approach. For reference, on this particular RC section I scored -1 timed and -0 on BR. This is my "average" RC score ( which can range from -0 to -4) depending on how the section balances out in difficulty in comparison to the other sections.

Here is a link to the Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E0LP49UXvYYm-nPNx8x9qk0KxdQ-9pCp1kfSshB8RBM/edit?usp=sharing

MKrishna

I did preptest 58 and scored 19

dwgw11

Great write-up! Any specific tips for working with inference/MSS? I always feel like I have a grasp of the MP and the structure but lose points on open ended questions. I find myself going back and forth between passage and answers because the point is usually small

FindingSage

@mehtakrishna7979, what was the difference in your score in timed to BR? Have you gone through the write up and seen how I approached questions and compared it with you approached the same question? There certainly isn't only one approach that works, but changing how I approached the questions rather than just trying to use process of elimination worked really well for me.

@dwgw11- When I read the passage initially I highlight around the argument's structure and also around conditional words. I was surprised at how many conditional words like required, necessary, if this then .... were hiding in plain sight in RC. Once I started really noticing that I found that alot of the inference questions are built around these conditionals and contrapositives. Combined with my " road map" that I make while I highlight around the structure I have a much easier time finding and understanding these detail and inference questions. I was just doing an RC review session yesterday for a different PT and as an example of this one of the questions asked something like: The passage suggests that the author would most likely agree with which of the following statements about the critics mentioned in line so and so. Before I even go look at that line I know that the author thought they were wrong. So I could eliminate two answer choices which began with " they were partially correct..." right off the bat without even reading them. That left 3 answer choices, one of which I knew had nothing to do with that paragraph. So this leaves two answer choices. Usually I have hunch that I read something about one of them and so then I hunt for a line to support my inference and when I find it I feel 99% sure of my answer choice and secondly I don't have to go hunting trying to prove 5 answer choices right or wrong. This is working very well for me. I am starting to score fairly consistently at -0 to -2 and the questions I get wrong are typically ones I misread, or something silly like that.

dwgw11

Good tip, thanks!

FindingSage

@dwgw11- Your welcome! It has really helped me remove the ambiguity and RC and become fairly confident that I can say I know I have the right answer. Part of why people love LG ( once they get the hang of it) is they feel like they can test the answer choice and know that they got it right. But with RC it has felt subjective- like maybe this was a -2 section or maybe this is a -6. And that is frustrating, not only when taking PTs but also when you take the actual test it is hard to get a real gauge on how you did. I believe in using some of these approaches because you can pick a author tone question in about 30 seconds ( not obviously every one of them) that you can bank away a little bit of time to double check what you think is the correct answer on questions like inference/detail. I used to really push the clock and barley finish in RC now I am through the first round in roughly 25-30 minutes and know that I have just a few questions left to possibly double check. RC went from being the thorn in my side to being a strong section.

chaplin___

Thanks for sharing this! My RC can vary from -3 to -11, and for PT58, it was -7 under timed and -2 on BR. Any advice on scoring more consistently? I find myself either running out of time at the end (but feeling confident with two of the passages, and not as confident for the other two) or having a minute or two left but feeling generally rushed throughout the set and generally not too confident for all four passages.

On BR, I write down low res/high res, MP, viewpoints, tone, organization, cookie cutter. I've started to be more attentive to conditionality in RC but I think I need a more systematic way to apply it to the questions. I still write out structural low res summaries under timed as well as some high res detail because it forces me to gather my thoughts (I don't do any highlighting/underlining). My initial reads are usually 3.5 min, sometimes 4/4.5 min, and my strategy is to frontload to save time going through the questions, but I'm always confronted with a question or two per passage that's inferential or when I'm down to two and both ACs look appealing. I'd flag them but never have enough time for a round 2.

After PTing, I'd gauge my confidence level and it's usually reflective of my projected score, so for PT58, I predicted my scores to be -6 timed and -2/-3 BR, which seems to tell me that the questions I'm missing aren't due to overconfidence or underconfidence errors and more so because I didn't fully grasp or misunderstood a certain part of the passage.

RC usually makes or breaks my score. On a good day, I can hit a 174, but then it can also drop to a 163. Any advice is appreciated!

FindingSage

RC kept me out of the 170's for a long time. And I also had a similar experience where I would do a little better on RC and hit the 170's for a Prep test or two and then back to the 160's. I don't write anything down under time. I tried that approach and found it too slow and clunky for me. I have worked with a lot of other students with RC and I only met a single person where writing something down was more efficient than highlighting a few things. In his case he had taken some courses in short hand notation so he was incredibly fast at notation. When I was really struggling with consistency in RC I watched some of the videos that JY posts where you can see him doing RC under time. While he uses paper and pencil ( so he can underline, circle easily) I noticed that while he occasionally underlines or circles a word ( much like I use the highlighter in the digital format) he does not write any low or high resolution summaries down. He instead does those summaries in his head. Writing them down while studying RC or while doing BR is a valuable tool but under time it is slow.
The next thing I do differently is have a clear strategy for the section as a whole as well as question type. Before I go into the questions I have clearly articulated the main point, tone and purpose in my mind so those are generally quicker questions and I can use the time banked for other questions. I also skip line cite questions and answer them after answering others in the passage because these tend to be the most time consuming. Most importantly though, I make some sort of prediction for each question I am able to. This allows you to be a lot less tempted by trap answer choices. Now, I typically have a couple of questions for the entire section where there a couple of answer choices I am debating. I used to have that many per passage. The biggest differences between solid 170's scores and 160's isn't so much knowledge as it is strategy.