Wayyyy over time on RC. Help!

Determined_-1

Hi everyone! I just did PT 43's RC section and I got -3, but it took me 49 minutes. RC is not my strong suit and I am curious to know any tips you may have in how to review and revise my reading pattern so I can see improvement in my time! If anyone has any tips from personal experience, that would be much appreciated! Thanks!

CSieck3507

One of the big things that has helped me and that I am still working on is underconfidence. During practice sets I will read the passage and answer the questions with a level of confidence. If I am 80% on confidence I will select the answer and move on. Because we are so time constricted on RC, you dont have time to make sure the answer is correct. You have to be confident in the answer you choose. Often, you only have about 45 sec. to choose an AC. So, also work on getting really good at eliminating ACs. Being able to predict an answer on about 75% of the Q's will also help with elimination. Highlighting could also be a timing issue but that varies from student to student

u______u

There are so many things you can talk about regarding RC that it's a little difficult giving any tips without knowing what level you're at. Here are some general pointers that I think should be helpful for anybody.

If you're struggling to understand the passage, then, honestly, slowing down and forcing yourself to read until comprehension will only drag you down. If that's the case, then your best bet is to adopt practical reading strategies that allow you to focus on the main ideas of the passage and paying note to the high level organizational structure of the passage. You need to remember that you don't need 100% comprehension to answer the questions. It would also be prudent to learn how to read effectively. Reading is more than your eyes looking over word by word. Reading is actively interacting with the passage in an almost predictive fashion thinking about what just happened and what's likely to come after. Therefore, you should be fully capable of identifying when to skim vs. when to read. If you struggle with retention because the material doesn't interest you, then that's too bad. No amount of technique will save you there, as far as I know, unless you change your mentality to force yourself to be even remotely interested in the passage.

If the reading is fine (ideally not over 4:30 minutes. For reference, I usually finish RC with +5 minutes to spare and I spend between 3:30-4:00 min reading) and you feel like you have sufficient comprehension, then it's your test taking strategy you need to work on, specifically, elimination. You need to remember that you're not looking for the correct answer. Instead, you're looking for wrong answers. Since the LSAT is a standardized test, there should really only be one clear correct answer that should remain after you're finished with the elimination. The easiest way to go about eliminating is to critically examine each answer choice carefully-I'm talking about really considering each word-and referring back to the passage to determine if it is supported or not. The key point here is that you don't make assumptions to justify the answer; let the passage determine what the answer is. Another point is learning not to be afraid to skip questions. If you read the question, you should generally have a feel for what the answer should be. If you don't and after a cursory glance at the answer choices to see if you can eliminate your way through, don't bash your head against the wall and waste time on a question. You should try and limit your time per question to no more than 1:30 I'd say.