How have "content" of RC passages changed over time?

LSATaker

In terms of difficulty and subject matter, how has it changed over time?
Does modern RC have more difficult passages and more noticeable characteristics?
I know people say questions become more subtle and longer, but wonder whether content changed.

DEC_LSAT

content hasn't changed much @LSATaker

Not Ralph Nader

It really have not changed much as I have taken a lot of early PTs as well as 70s and to be honest sometimes even the topic sounds familiar to me.

Alex

Obviously there are comparative passages now that account for a big change. Overall though I think the questions are what has changed the most. I find them almost more like LR questions rather than just being able to answer by searching for context/phrases in the passage.

LSATaker

@"Not Ralph Nader"
What kind of topic? Can you give us an example?

@"Alex Divine"

@"Alex Divine" said:
I find them more like LR questions rather than just being able to answer by searching for context/phrases in the passage.

Can you elaborate this? How do they look like LR questions? I did see a couple of weaken, strengthen questions though...

danielznelson

I don't think the RC passages themselves are significantly harder, but I think the questions are trickier. And not the questions themselves per se (save "Analogy" questions which are comparable to Sub/Equivalence Questions in LG) but the answer choices.

You may, for example, be required to piece together two bits of information, each which are at opposite ends of the passage, in order to arrive at the correct AC. That isn't too terribly common, but it does seem to happen more often. But to an even greater extent that than in the older RC, the correct ACs are frustratingly vague and confusing. More specifically, they may even seem incorrect at first, and this is usually do to awkward, referential phrasing. Yet an incorrect AC will be much bolder, much plainer, and more apparently relevant to the passage, save one add-on or one word that just isn't supported AT ALL. I, along with all of those I've helped in RC, obsess over what's very correct in that incorrect AC, while hopelessly trying to justify what is clearly wrong. You just have to kiss the attractive, yet incorrect AC goodbye and recognize that the correct AC often requires you to work; that is, it will force you to get practical with the wording, to treat the referential phrasing as you would in LR, by finding what it could be referring to in the passage.

So, to answer your question, no, I don't think the content has changed. This is just me of course, but I think the newer passages are generally easier to swallow. Again, the ACs are to me the main culprit in bringing down RC averages.

Alex

@LSATaker said:

Can you elaborate this? How do they look like LR questions? I did see a couple of weaken, strengthen questions though...


Well, just to be clear, I'm not saying they look like LR questions; just that they seemlike LR questions. I think @danielznelson alluded to some of the things above: First, LR questions now seem trickier. His example is spot on in that some of the newer questions ask you to piece seemingly disparate bits of information. Another is just that the answer choices themselves seem to contain more trap answer choices.

On the new(er) RC, I sometimes find myself having to really think about what the question is asking of me, be more mindful of vocab and inferences, etc. Whereas on the older tests, I found I was usually just quickly searching the passage or my memory for information to answer the questions. Now, even after I have the information needed to answer the question, it can still seem hard to find the answer. I find pre-phrasing as always helps, but on the newer RC it takes some practice.

LSATaker

@danielznelson @"Alex Divine"
Thank you!!

@danielznelson

@danielznelson said:
I think the newer passages are generally easier to swallow.

So do you mean they are easier to understand?
But the mirror passage and Cameron passage I did recently were kind of hard...I heard the tablet RC in PT78 is hard too.
Would this level of passage appear more in modern PTs?

@"Alex Divine"
When do you think the trend started? (the trickier answer choices)

What kind of practice can we do?

@"Alex Divine" said:
I find pre-phrasing as always helps, but on the newer RC it takes some practice.

So simple pre-phrasing would not be helpful I guess?

danielznelson

There will definitely always be hard passages, but I don't think the newer ones are notably harder than the older ones. If anything, I personally find the older ones to be a bit harder, though I'm am being graced with a much larger sample size to come to that conclusion.

Off of what @"Alex Divine" wrote, vocab is key, though the LSAT is generally fair with this. In other words, they don't force you to understand a certain word many might not know. Almost every time, you are able to arrive at the correct answer or eliminate incorrect answer choices without knowing exactly that word.

However, vocab is especially important with eliminating trap ACs. For those that sound almost perfect, save one small part, try attaching synonyms to that unsupported word or phrase and match it up with what you think it may be referring to in the passage. You may benefit from doing this with correct ACs as well, especially since they're loaded with confusing and unconvincing referential phrasing.