Reading efficiently on reading comp

missmada

I know we always say practice practice practice and it will get easier, but I really struggle with reading efficiently on reading comp despite the practice. I am not a fast reader and it takes me a second longer to truly understand a sentence. If I do an untimed reading comp passage, I almost always get every answer correct..... but it will take me like 15-20 minutes. Then, when I do timed, I get almost 50% wrong. Help!! How do I read more efficiently on reading comp?

tbynum30

I've struggled with this as well. Something that has helped me has been focusing heavily on low-res summary work. When you are truly working to understand the key points, functions, etc. it helps so much. I found that you can also spot the "fluff" that LSAC throws into some of the passages. As you start to see that, I've found that sometimes you just have to skim certain parts. As long as you know the structure, where things are located, Author's perspective, etc. you'll do well and will have time to go back to the passage because you're going to be acing the questions.

Darrin.lovard.allen

Keep up the good work!

natemanwell1

well that problem is not an issue with "efficiency." that word means work/time, so the same amount of work in less time is more efficient. but if you got the same amount of work done in less time, you would still be getting 50% wrong, so that wouldn't be any improvement al all. second problem is you say "you're not a fast reader." the lsat is a reading test, so you need to be a fast and effective reader to do well. you should post the specific problems you have-but I'm guessing that the "role" questions are what are holding you back.

Cant Get Right

I’m not a fast reader either, and I do just fine. Even spiked the elusive -0 RC on test day. (This was back in the day when they actually told us all that.) Speed is easily the most overrated strategic component on the LSAT. Normally, it is actively harmful. So do not think speed needs to be a part of the solution.

@natemanwell1 is right about the efficiency point in that you do not want to be attempting more work in the same amount of time. That just amounts to speed. Rather, the solution will be to identify the work that is most and least productive. Instead of trying to do it all, simply don’t do the least productive work. For 95% of us, that’s going to mean investing more time in your passage read and then being more aggressive in the questions and answers.

For some idea of what that looks like, I spend an average of about 4 minutes reading each passage. That’s 16 out of my 35 minutes. That leaves 19 minutes for 27 questions which is about 42 seconds per question. So I need to attack the questions with a level of aggression that produces that average. That means I don’t get to return to the passage a lot. That means I don’t get to confirm an answer I’m 80% confident about. Learn to take some calculated risk. If you invest in strong comprehension of the read, you should perform well on a test of how well you comprehended the read.