POE for RC?

mannemckk

My score in RC very much fluctuates. While I'm still practicing to read actively and note the overall structure/main point/view points/tone etc. before heading into the questions, I often find myself getting tripped up in the answer choices. It's where I spend the most time.

I was wondering if anyone can share their POE strategies for RC? I've seen multiple people say POE is a lifesaver; sometimes they can eliminate answer choices by a specific clause/word. Any insight appreciated - thanks!

BigJay20

-Beware of extremes. Difficult vs. Impossible; many vs. most; erroneous vs flawd; flawled vs useless.

-WHen down two, compare the answers and see if the difference is supported by the passage.

-When you find yourself lost, ask: what the heck is this passage about?

-Don't eliminate an answer choice because you don't know what it's talking about. Eliminate because you can contradict it with information from the passage.

-Often a question will ask about the opinion of the scientist, school of thought or philosopher being discussed. Remember, it may not always be the same point of view of the author. Making that distinction will greatly reward you.

-Be able to differentiate between an author directly describing a study and the author describing how a group of people/person approached a study

-Never answer (going straight to the answer choices) passage organization and analogy questions without prefacing. You'll almost always get it wrong. They're designed that way.

-When down to two similar analogy answer choices, compare how each concludes.

-Strengthen vs Weaken: know what you're strengthening and know what you're weakening before going to the answer choices. You'll end up spending time on the answers anyway so might as well know what you're doing upfront.

ninamatryoshka

I like to read the passage twice (the second read takes much less time) to really "internalize" what it says. Those extra 2 min spent re-reading help a lot when it comes to the questions as I'm much clearer on what the passage actually says. Also the first read can be spent trying to figure out what each individual sentence and paragraph is saying, and in doing so it's easy to get bogged up in the process of deciphering what's going on and forget what the actual info is (and then not be able to answer questions). So that second read helps get over this as well.
Note that when I read twice I generally don't take any notes and make minimal use of the highlighting/underlining features to give myself enough time for a second read. When I'm reviewing I'll take more detailed notes however just to get familiar with the structures of paragraphs and common elements.

BigJay20

@ninamatryoshka said:
I like to read the passage twice (the second read takes much less time) to really "internalize" what it says. Those extra 2 min spent re-reading help a lot when it comes to the questions as I'm much clearer on what the passage actually says. Also the first read can be spent trying to figure out what each individual sentence and paragraph is saying, and in doing so it's easy to get bogged up in the process of deciphering what's going on and forget what the actual info is (and then not be able to answer questions). So that second read helps get over this as well.
Note that when I read twice I generally don't take any notes and make minimal use of the highlighting/underlining features to give myself enough time for a second read. When I'm reviewing I'll take more detailed notes however just to get familiar with the structures of paragraphs and common elements.

read twice on timed?

ninamatryoshka

@BigJay20 said:

@ninamatryoshka said:
I like to read the passage twice (the second read takes much less time) to really "internalize" what it says. Those extra 2 min spent re-reading help a lot when it comes to the questions as I'm much clearer on what the passage actually says. Also the first read can be spent trying to figure out what each individual sentence and paragraph is saying, and in doing so it's easy to get bogged up in the process of deciphering what's going on and forget what the actual info is (and then not be able to answer questions). So that second read helps get over this as well.
Note that when I read twice I generally don't take any notes and make minimal use of the highlighting/underlining features to give myself enough time for a second read. When I'm reviewing I'll take more detailed notes however just to get familiar with the structures of paragraphs and common elements.

read twice on timed?

Yep lol, it works and i finish the section on time. But i don't highlight or notate, just read twice and mentally make note of what each pragraph is saying, will highlight the main conclusion if i see it, mentally take note of any common structures like a causal relationship, a phenomenon hypothesis, an alternate opinion/ hypothesis, critics, author's response to critics etc.
Second read takes very little time and makes the questions fly by as i find it super easy to eliminate all the irrelevant/ incorrect answer choices.
I got the idea to try reading twice from this post https://lsathacks.com/guide/faq/how-to-go-faster-reading-comprehension/ (i hope it's not innapropriate to post about other prep companies on here)

yang9999

@mannemckk said:
My score in RC very much fluctuates. While I'm still practicing to read actively and note the overall structure/main point/view points/tone etc. before heading into the questions, I often find myself getting tripped up in the answer choices. It's where I spend the most time.

I was wondering if anyone can share their POE strategies for RC? I've seen multiple people say POE is a lifesaver; sometimes they can eliminate answer choices by a specific clause/word. Any insight appreciated - thanks!

POE is a lifesaver on the tougher passages -- especially in the double passages! Some of the double passage questions for example ask you "what do both authors agree with" or "what is one thing that only B would support", and wrong answers fail to describe either one or the other or both passages! Sometimes there are very specific words that turn an answer choice into a wrong one -- but you have to be very good at spotting them and at understanding the overall passage's structural elements, otherwise you'll tend to get trapped more often than not (the test writers have gotten really wily lately, especially starting in the PT70s and 80s lol).