RC Questions - Issues with Main Point/Inference/Application (June LSAT)

ireland.lesley5ireland.lesley5 Alum Member
in Reading Comprehension 54 karma

Hello!

I am terrible at distinguishing the author's tone, or opinion, or really make any inference in terms of the RC passages. Also application questions I tend to also miss. It's severely bringing down my score. If anyone has any tips on how best to tackle these questions, let me know!

Trying to debate whether to take the June test or move my test to August so time is kinda short. Thank you!

Comments

  • Bagelinthemorning-2-1-1Bagelinthemorning-2-1-1 Core Member
    476 karma

    Hey!

    I'm working on the author's tone and opinion as well since that's where my weaknesses are. But I can help with inference questions. For these questions, it's important to choose answers that are provable. I know for LR, we usually have to connect premises in order to draw an inference. But for RC, it helps to only pick answers that are completely supported by the passage. This helps to eliminate any personal bias (if you have background information about the topic) and assumptions we make while reading. If you give yourself this task of only picking answers that you can absolutely connect back to the passage, it gets easier to do inference type questions.

  • ireland.lesley5ireland.lesley5 Alum Member
    54 karma

    That makes sense, thank you! I think sometimes I definitely get caught up with opinions or knowledge outside a passage and it can definitely trip me up. @Bagelinthemorning

  • jenny515jenny515 Member
    48 karma

    When I do RC I try and look at it from 3 angles: the author's, the author's critics, and my own as an LSAT taker looking for weakness, etc. This helps really categorize different attitudes later on in questions. With writer attitude questions, usually start with positive vs negative view and then highlight key adjectives or verbs they use which indicate the strength of their support/criticism. Also good to remember that not every RC passage is opinionated (although most are) and some are very much more explanatory.
    I struggle with inference too but I think the thing I read that was most helpful is that the answer is always in the passage and you can't stray too far or make too many assumptions since every test taker can get to the same answer.

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