Best RC tips, especially for implied questions?

tlpalmer98

Taking the October LSAT here in a week. Nervous, like most, but I am confident in the time and work I have put in. Five of my six PTs are at or above my goal score so I'm just hoping for consistency.

I actually feel pretty comfortable with LR at this point. Not too surprising considering how great the new curriculum is and how long it spends going over every question type. RC is a totally different story. If they are easier passages I can score as well as a - 3, but more often than not I am struggling to finish all four passages and ending up anywhere from -7 to -12. I will try working on that this week by just drilling as much as I can.

According to analytics, a huge area of emphasis for me is implied questions. Maybe it's easily explainable due to me consistently not finishing passages, but any advice/tips are greatly appreciated considering how frequently these question types come up on the test.

P.S. If you are taking the October LSAT, good luck! Just apply what you have learned and see where it takes you. Don't let this test take control of you, even if you start off with a rocky section. You CAN bounce back.

ethanrtate

Older post so, OP, I hope you did well in October! Hopefully my advice will help others.

I came to the forum to seek answers to this specific question. I am overall quite strong at RC and get nearly every question correct if it is asking me to identify something explicitly written in the passage. However, I am struggling a ton with Implied and Author's Attitude questions. I have found the 7Sage curriculum is lacking in its teaching of how to tackle these specific question types.

Here is what I have found helpful so far:

• The author's attitude and, therefore, what their passage might imply is often VERY subtle. For instance, in one recent passage, the author's position on a topic came down to their use of the word "obviously." The author stated that the conclusions of some experts on a topic were "obviously" ignoring certain realities. It sounds like a strong statement out of context but within the wordy RC passage it's really easy to miss that one word and how it makes clear the author's stance. So I'm teaching myself to look for these subtle qualifying words. They are key.

• While drilling/practicing, read some RC passages as if every question will be about the author's attitude. Forget about main point and passage style for a bit. Just focus on figuring out how the author FEELS. After you do this for a bit you'll begin to internalize this style of comprehension and you'll be better equipped to extrapolate from the information in the passage.