Reading Passages

joy.pyles

I'm just getting started with this and I would like to know what is the difference between the Law, Humanities, Social Science and Natural Science passages, especially if the sole purpose ti for structure and reasoning. Is it important to make a distinction between them, if so why? Is there a difference between the types of questions asked, if so why? Is there a difference in the type of reading or style per passage. The test is not suppose to favor any particular major, however, the jargon and background knowledge makes it difficult and seems to favor or reward those in certain fields of study. For example, I would expect a criminal justice major to do well on the law passage, a biology major to breeze through the science passage, and an english major to thoroughly enjoy the literature humanities passage. Please comment. I need all the help and the advice I can get. Thank you

nordeend

@joy.pyles said:
Is it important to make a distinction between them, if so why?

Yes. Mainly because you want to familiarize yourself with the subject and the way they are written.

@joy.pyles said:
Is there a difference between the types of questions asked, if so why?

I don't think so. You will get main point, inference, reference, agree/disagree, etc. questions from all types.

@joy.pyles said:
Is there a difference in the type of reading or style per passage.

The grammar will be similar but the science passages may be less abstract than the law passages. You can also run into history type passages that trace a timeline of events. The structure will also change as to where the main points/premises/contexts are.

@joy.pyles said:
the jargon and background knowledge makes it difficult and seems to favor or reward those in certain fields of study

This is why it is important to read outside of the LSAT.

nicole.hopkins

@joy.pyles said:
Is it important to make a distinction between them, if so why?

No

@joy.pyles said:
I need all the help and the advice I can get.

Then you're in the right place!

@nordeend said:
This is why it is important to read outside of the LSAT.

I actually recommend (and I tutor about 90% RC-only clients) that people just read RC passages to improve on RC. It's much more worthwhile to learn the cookie cutter shapes in which many (most?) RC passages come than it is to just read a bunch of stuff that's not adapted for RC.