Suggestions Please

joy.pyles

I need a word of encouragement and/or advice. This is embarrassing to me. I passed reading comprehension in elementary school and I took a course in Humanities at both the high school and college levels whereby I passed both classes with ease. However, for both Humanities classes high school and college, reading comprehension was not tested like test questions on the LSAT. I talked to a librarian who informed me that reading comprehension is can be highly opinionated. Furthermore, for inference questions, the answer is usually something that I would have never thought of - way out there in left field. I've tried GRE reading comprehension study guides and have been able to go through the questions with ease all answers correct. However, on a different day in a different mood, I've tried other non-LSAT practice test from other sources whose name I will not mention by means of embarrassment and was not able to get a single answer right. What's happening and what needs to change besides my attitude toward LSAT reading comprehension. I feel totally embarrassed by this, but I am encouraged to know that in reading the discussions that I am not the only person totally upset, frustrated and having problems or issues with reading comprehension. Please help. In my opinion, the basic concept or idea of RC comes from the basic elementary school theory of RC, how well did you understand the material of what you read, "Reading for understanding". For a person who has been speaking and reading the English language for quite some time, several, many years; elementary, high school and college and has passed elementary school, high school and college; how can this be; difficult with wrong answers...??? !!! Again PLEASE HELP or explain.

nye8870

@joy.pyles Check in with @nicole.hopkins . She loves the LSAT and reading comp. Also, picking up a copy of "The LSAT Trainer" could help improve your approach.

GSU Hopeful

The Trainer would be well worth the time and $$.

joy.pyles

Thanks...., very much....!!!! This test is no joke. Bless you

diana1493

Yes +1 to the aforementioned resources and I want to add that
you shouldn't feel discouraged because you arent doing well in RC based on the experiences you mentioned. I felt the same way as you when I first realized how bad I was bombing RC. Like many of us, you did really well in the style of reading comp that things like English classes and the SAT test us on, even the GRE. But the difference is the LSAT is much less testing on those things, and more so on the argument and reasoning structure. Thats why there is usually an adjustment in approach that has to be made. Once that clicks in your head, and both Nicole's strategy and the Trainer will solidify this approach, I promise you will see improvement!

nicole.hopkins

@joy.pyles said:
In my opinion, the basic concept or idea of RC comes from the basic elementary school theory of RC, how well did you understand the material of what you read, "Reading for understanding".

Reading Comprehension is not testing your ability to read for understanding. It's testing your ability to make inferences exclusively based on what is it in the passage. You'd be served well by forgetting everything your think you know about RC, whether it's from elementary school or GRE books.

Get The Trainer; learn to read for reasoning structure. Limit yourself to what can be inferred based on the passage. And then use the passage to eliminate 4 wrong answer choices for each question.