Building Confidence and Efficiency During RC

Ron Swanson

Hey everyone,

Want to get some thoughts on how to build up confidence and efficiency during RC. My recent PT scores are trending upwards from the low 160s to the 165/167 range. I think this spike is the result of embracing the skip on LR (the webinars have been enormously helpful). Recently, I've been averaging -2/-0 on LG, -6/-8 LR total but I'm stuck getting around -5/-8 on RC.

The best way I can describe how I feel during RC is anxious. Not sure how many football people are here, but think of it as a quarterback who feels under pressure in the pocket. Basically I try to put in a 3/3.5 minute read to get a good grasp on the passage, I can knock out the easy question fairly quickly, but panic on many of the more difficult ones. I basically read the ACs and have trouble eliminating noncontenders. I start to second guess myself and stumble through the passage, eventually just kind of guessing on an answer because I know that I need to avoid time sinks. I have tried implementing a new notation strategy, but I'm worried that it may cause me to drain more time on irrelevant steps.

June will be my second take. I have limited fresh material left, so should I just focus on drilling hard with old material to establish some better consistency? RC is the only section I feel like this during, so I'm fairly certain I lack confidence with it in particular. Really want that 170 in June, but I know I'll have to improve in RC to get there

stepharizona

I think one of the big things you can do, especially with new notation strategy is to drill old passages. Really become comfortable with the strategy and practice reading as much as possible.

Every time you ready, think about the typical questions that an RC passage will ask, ready everything with intention. It seems silly at first, but the more you practice it, the more natural it becomes to read in a very LSAT specific way. I have found when I do this consistently, my RC score improves.

Nicole Hopkins

Confidence: Accept that RC are all cookie cutters. Examine the cookies. Determine the shape of the cookie cutters. Soon all them will be very familiar, regardless of subject matter (meaning reasoning structure will be very apparent, all the time). Master arguments themselves. Always be asking what role a statement/sentence plays (or rather, the identification of statements as such will become second nature).

Efficiency: Stop spinning your wheels. Stop trying to make friends with answer choices. Just because an answer choice that you can't eliminate is not attractive does not mean you should not choose it (hint: if you have no grounds to eliminate an AC, it's probably the right one). If it looks like a timesink, feels like a timesink, quacks like a timesink ... It's a timesink!

Nicole Hopkins

@"Ron Swanson" said:
I have tried implementing a new notation strategy, but I'm worried that it may cause me to drain more time on irrelevant steps.

Then try mine

Unless that's the one you're referring to. In that case, if you're still thinking about it, you haven't practiced enough!