How to Tackle RC

joecarterruskey

I've been stuck in the 166-171 range for 8 months or so now, and do retakes in the 174-176 range.

I typically miss 2-4 in LR, and 0-3 in games.

However, my RC is all over the place. There have been times where I've gone -0, and others (like most recently) where I've missed as many as 8 or 9.

I started doing the Puzzle Theory (piecing all of the answers together), and writing a brief statement summarizing each paragraph. These helped initially, but not as much anymore.

I also understand that all of the answers are in the passage, but I'm finding the answer choices so convoluted that I can't find them. With that said, I typically finish RC with a few minutes of extra time.

How do I properly review RC? What can I do to get better?

danielznelson

As probably everyone finds, I see RC as the most abstract of the LSAT sections and therefore the most difficult to practice for. However, I also believe that RC provides the best opportunity for steady increases as well as for avoiding major lapses in progress. This is probably at least in part due to the fact that RC doesn't have a lot of room for technical methods of reasoning such as with SA, NA, Parallel Method of Reasoning, et cetera, in LR or with Logic Games in general. With these other sections, fundamentals are key and will destroy you if you forget any one of them.

I've noticed a big part of RC conversation is centered around the passages, as it should be. But I do think there are some strategies capable of helping with the questions themselves. I'll list some of the tips I've taught myself, all of which have helped me significantly.

- Do not accept an answer choice unless it is 100% correct. This is beyond obvious on paper, but in reality, I used to constantly select answers that I felt were "75%," maybe even "95%" correct, only to miss the respective question because of the inclusion of one, out-of-scope word or term. I've noticed this is especially tempting with inference, principle, and most likely to agree questions. Be prepared to not only look for an answer choice 100%, dead-on and especially within scope, but to also eliminate answer choices that are "95%" correct and "5%" incorrect.

- When in doubt with questions on a particular word (e.g. "Which one of the following most accurately expresses the meaning of the word _____") look to immediately preceding sentences to help gather some context. Relevant sentences can comprise an entire paragraph or perhaps a line or two. Sometimes, the word asked about may be a part of a conclusion, with its "premises" coming before the use of the word. In some other instances, the word may be a part of an example of what is discussed just prior.

This technique has also helped me with questions asking for the primary purpose of a particular mention (e.g. "The author of the passage mentions ____ and ___ primarily in order to), which may include a person or a comparison between persons, among other things. Looking to context before and sometimes ahead of the words or phrase asked about is especially helpful in avoiding trap answer choices.

- For primary function/primary purpose passages, scrutinize attractive answer choices that do not properly convey what the author is actually doing. For example, if a passage is used to defend a viewpoint against criticism, an answer choice claiming that the author's primary purpose is to "explain" the topic defended is probably not going to be the correct answer. Nor would be an answer choice using a phrase like "argue for" when the author isn't taking a stance on the topic discussed.

- Author's attitude questions generally, if not always, are asking about the author's general attitude in the passage. Finding an AC that may explain his or her attitude on a very particular part of the passage has not been the correct answer, in my experience, and looking at least primarily for the word or phrase that most generally describes the author's attitude should give you a better chance of finding the correct AC. Though this tip has helped me, and in my experience has never failed, I would be especially interested in hearing others' perspective on this tip.

- Do not allow yourself to be baited by words you may not know in term/attitude questions (e.g. "With regard to their respective attitudes toward ____, passage A differs from passage B in that passage A is more..." or "Which one of the following pairs of terms would most likely be used by the authors of passage A and passage B, respectively, to describe ____?").

Occasionally, these questions will have among the ACs words to which I simply cannot assign definitions. In the past, I've fixated on those words with the concern that the correct AC is the one I don't understand. Yet more often than not (if only due to the fact that this type of AC is one of five total), the correct AC is a different one. But with an obsessive focus on the elusively worded incorrect AC, I miss the much easier and correct AC staring right at me. While the correct AC may use terms you are not familiar with, carefully eliminate the others first before selecting the one you cannot be sure about. Ignore what you cannot determine is wrong or right until after you've eliminated every other AC.

- With some of the trickiest RC questions, answers are often not found explicitly, even if its a question other than an Inference Question. I ran across a question just recently where the answer was found in two different paragraphs - a type of something was discussed and a characteristic of that something was referenced much later. This particular question was asking for the characteristic of that something. Since I didn't catch that the two were linked, I missed the question.

It was expected that you essentially connect the dots. If you cannot find an answer where you think it should be, nor in the immediate surrounding context, it may be in a different part(s) of the passage altogether, though a clear understanding of what the passage is addressing will illuminate this more clearly. In other words, if you track referential phrasing and follow the ins and outs of the passage, two sentences not adjacent to one another (and possibly even in different paragraphs) will be very relevant to one another.

joecarterruskey

danielznelson, you are a boss! That advice is incredible!

I notice that I typically get inference and author's attitude/most likely to agree with questions incorrect. Also, that if I can't identify the main point of the passage correctly, I get a ton of questions wrong (seems obvious haha).

Something else I've noticed is that the next day when BRing the test, I make the questions I missed correct without even reading the passage again. What gives?

MrSamIam

RC is by far my weakest section. Here is what I've done to improve my score (or, at least attempt to):
1) Stay engaged with the passage. Yes, medieval art is probably the most dull topic on this planet, but "pretend" to be interested in it.
2) Never go into auto-pilot! This is why point 1 is important. Auto-pilot is when you start off fine, but all of a sudden realize that you are paragraph 4, with no idea of what you read in paragraphs 2 and 3. Again, stay engaged.
3) Piece the paragraphs together. Paragraph 1 will somehow be linked to 2, 3, 4, etc. 2 will be linked to 1, 3, 4, etc. And so on. Find that link, and keep track of it.
4) Focus on the author! The LSAT tries to trip you up with this. The author will discuss something that someone else said. The LSAT writers will hope that you'll confuse the authors point of view with that of the individual that he or she is discussing.
5) Keep track of time, but don't let it throw you off. This is probably why you are able to come back to the passage hours later, and correctly answer a question that prior, you were unable to answer. Don't freak out about time...but, don't waste time on trivial things (for example, what complex but irrelevant words mean).

danielznelson

For trickier main point/main conclusion questions, I skip them after giving a quick pass over the ACs and move on to the other questions without rereading the passage, only if I am confident in my knowledge of the passage. Some of the hardest main conclusion/point questions are just straight up difficult irrespective of one's understanding of the passage, in my opinion. Skipping these questions and moving on the others has helped me gain a better perspective on what the MC or MP actually is. Of course, it is possible that implementing this strategy could lead one astray, though I've never had this happen to me, and I'm always sure to keep that possibility in mind.

Success with inference questions comes with time. While you are by definition forced to infer, the passage is generally nice to you in what it implies. Inference questions are more reachable than the question stem implies. Improvement in Strengthening and Weakening LR Questions has actually helped me improve with these RC questions, it seems.

Haha, your woes with BR is likely common. I experience that phenomenon myself. Pressure under restrictive time conditions will do that to you. The fact that you're catching them so quickly probably means you'll actually be selecting those correct answers under timed conditions.

Addistotle

My biggest challenge is over-annotating and in turn missing some of the details because I've made too many things seems important. I too would like to push myself out of the 165-169 range and clearly my RC is what needs to be brought up from a -7 to a -1-2

danielznelson

Using the 7Sage Memory Method helped me improve and get back on track for RC, but given the time it takes, I eventually moved on with an improved memory - an outcome the Memory Method counts on. Not sure where you are in comprehending and remembering the passage, but it could be time to move on as well.

Cant Get Right

@joecarterruskey said:
Something else I've noticed is that the next day when BRing the test, I make the questions I missed correct without even reading the passage again. What gives?

Yeah, I do this too, and you can totally use this during the test. I think reading just needs a little time to stew. I typically finish with about 5 minutes to spare and do kind of a quick review. Without glancing back at the passages, I review all my circled questions and often find the correct answers to be quite obvious in that stage. It’s weird, but for whatever reason, that little bit of time and distance from the passage somehow allows things to come together.

BruiserWoods

@"Cant Get Right" said:
I typically finish with about 5 minutes to spare

hahahahahahah *cries* i wish

joecarterruskey

@"Cant Get Right" said:
Yeah, I do this too, and you can totally use this during the test. I think reading just needs a little time to stew. I typically finish with about 5 minutes to spare and do kind of a quick review. Without glancing back at the passages, I review all my circled questions and often find the correct answers to be quite obvious in that stage. It’s weird, but for whatever reason, that little bit of time and distance from the passage somehow allows things to come together.

Bam; awesome advice. I'll see how this works out tomorrow. That makes sense, as I save a lot of my tough questions for the end, and I typically get those right.

joecarterruskey

@danielznelson said:
Using the 7Sage Memory Method helped me improve and get back on track for RC, but given the time it takes, I eventually moved on with an improved memory - an outcome the Memory Method counts on. Not sure where you are in comprehending and remembering the passage, but it could be time to move on as well.

I just looked that up, and that seems crazy arduous haha. I read quickly and am pretty good at retaining already. I think what I need to is be able to use the passage as a tool to make better inferences, as I have hard time proving my answers are 100% correct.

joecarterruskey

@danielznelson said:
For trickier main point/main conclusion questions, I skip them after giving a quick pass over the ACs and move on to the other questions without rereading the passage, only if I am confident in my knowledge of the passage. Some of the hardest main conclusion/point questions are just straight up difficult irrespective of one's understanding of the passage, in my opinion. Skipping these questions and moving on the others has helped me gain a better perspective on what the MC or MP actually is.

That's awesome advice. I've done that a few times in the past, and will go back to it.

joecarterruskey

@MrSamIam said:
but, don't waste time on trivial things (for example, what complex but irrelevant words mean).

I keep reading that; I've definitely missed questions because of a fixation on words I don't know.

Cant Get Right

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

joecarterruskey

Took the June 2015 test yesterday: missed 2 LR, 0 AR, and 8 on RC! That's a 170, but I could be crushing it if I could figure out how to improve that RC score!

Cant Get Right

Woah, that’s an incredible score! You’re right though, imagine what you’d be doing if RC were up to speed with the rest! I know you may have already addressed this at some point, but is your main issue with time?

joecarterruskey

@"Cant Get Right" said:
I know you may have already addressed this at some point, but is your main issue with time?

No....I always have 5 extra minutes. The kind of questions I got wrong on the last test were use of a phrase (2), primary purpose of a paragraph, author would consider which of the following, the passage suggests (2)

joecarterruskey

Another cause of concern is that I often feel confident in my answer selections; I thought I had killed this last RC section.

ajcrowel

I haven't read others comments so please forgive if I repeat others.

My biggest criticism of the "puzzle" method is that there's no way to guarantee your original approach to the passage is the correct one. Put more simply, you can make wrong answers fit uniformly too and often the test writers will afford you the opportunity to do that. I think what danielznelson said is your best bet.

(a) read for structure not for detail.
(b) spend time and due your due diligence with the wording in the answer choices. More often than not the writers will sneak related but unmentioned ideas into the passage.
(c) annotate for thought transitions and viewpoints. The first part of this is already done for you as thought transitions in RC tend to correspond very closely with paragraph structure. When I test if I find something that's not already blocked for by paragraph structure I'll circle the referent (whether name, or idea, or opinion) by the first word of the thought.
(d) don't spend too much time on any single question. "But just another 30 seconds and I'll get it!" For a lot of people that 30 seconds turns into two minutes+ and with a possible missed question. Move on and come back to it at the end of the section. You'll be surprised at how much you can remember in section 2 even after reading sections 3 & 4. Don't believe me give yourself 2-3 to read each passage and 30 seconds to think about each one. Then Attempt to answer each set of passage questions by skimming (<15 seconds) I bet you'll do just about as well as you usually would.

ajcrowel

Also, never compare answer choices to find the "best one" there is only one and you'll find it by comparing it with the specific written words in the passage.

Sheri123

@ajcrowel can you please explain what this puzzle method is that you mentioned. I don't think I've ever heard of it.

hlsat180

@danielznelson said:
- Author's attitude questions generally, if not always, are asking about the author's general attitude in the passage. Finding an AC that may explain his or her attitude on a very particular part of the passage has not been the correct answer, in my experience, and looking at least primarily for the word or phrase that most generally describes the author's attitude should give you a better chance of finding the correct AC. Though this tip has helped me, and in my experience has never failed, I would be especially interested in hearing others' perspective on this tip.

@danielznelson @joecarterruskey Approach this like a LG acceptable situation question. Each answer choice usually consists of an adjective-noun combination (e.g., cautious optimism). Use POE to eliminate the obviously wrong nouns, which typically leaves two answer choices with similar nouns but different adjectives. Now go back to the passage and identify which nuance is most consistent with the author's word choices and positions.

If in doubt, the more extreme or less professional answer is usually incorrect (which makes sense, since extreme answers would also be easier to spot). Hope this helps.

hlsat180

@Sheri123 said:
@ajcrowel can you please explain what this puzzle method is that you mentioned. I don't think I've ever heard of it.

@Sheri123 I believe @ajcrowel is referring to a technique where you use "known" answers (for which you have a high degree of confidence) to help answer uncertain ones. For example, you are unsure about a main point (MP) question but you confidently answer an inference (Inf) question. You go back to the unsure MP question and examine which answers are most compatible with your sure Inf answer.

I recommend using the passage to confirm/deny answers and (if at all) using this "puzzle method" to double-check answers. Hope this helps.

ajcrowel

@hlsat180 said:
referring to a technique where you use "known" answers (for which you have a high degree of confidence) to help answer uncertain ones.

@Sheri123 @hlsat180 caputred what I meant. I'm fairly certain powerscore mentions the method and I'm less certain that pithypike or Voyager did also almost a decade back.
The idea is this: use what you do know to find out what you don't. I think the method was more helpful prior to about prep test 57 after which (I believe and other's opinions also seem to support) that the quality of wrong answer choices markedly improved in reading comprehension. My biggest beef with the method is that it if you're original inclination is wrong it can set you down the wrong path for the rest of the passage. For example, if you miss a main point question or an X agrees with which one of the following questions it can predispose you to pick wrong "puzzle matching" answers. I feel the best method for reading comp is to use paragraph structure to help guide your thoughts. If you come to an answer that you're unsure of compare it against the passage, not against other answer choices IMHOP.

joecarterruskey

Okay, I'm going to sum up the helpful advice everyone has contributed! Please let me know if I've missed anything

1. Slow down when reading the passages! Like in logic games, the setup is the most important part and can reveal many answers.
2. When annotating, focus on structure and thought transitions, as well as author's attitude.
3. Compare answer choices to the passage, not to each other. Correct answers will match text and task.

I guess my major issue is that I feel like I already implement these strategies, yet something is clearly still missing. Since I'm finishing with a decent amount of extra time the only thing I think I can really do differently is read more slowly.

Something else interesting I noted is that at the beginning of my studies I was substantially better at RC, and have gotten increasingly worse.

And what makes this especially difficult to improve upon is that the errors I'm making are broad.

danielznelson

@hlsat180 draws a great parallel with LG acceptable situation questions. Nice!