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Comments
I recommend that you try doing mindfulness meditation. It can be difficult for people with ADHD but in my experience it helps you focus on the present moment. When you're reading a stimulus, often the biggest problem is that your brain might wander to an unimportant issue and you lose the context of what you're reading. Mindfulness meditation has helped me with this problem and I rarely have problems staying focused on the text now.
Another strategy that is great for active reading is using your pencil when going through a stimulus. Underline important words, or circle words like "but" "however" and "yet". There's no right or wrong system for doing this, just find something that you can consistently rely on when going through a stimulus.
As far as speed goes, I recommend that you spend more time reading. This is definitely the most challenging piece of advice to stick with. Reading dense, scientific or argumentative literature is mentally exhausting. When you read, do it aloud. Using your voice engages your brain in a more active way than just reading quietly. I promise that after an hour of doing this you will feel worn out but it will probably increase your comprehension and speed if done consistently over several months.
I look for modifiers as "clues" to discover the mystery of the passage. i know this sounds silly, but I have a tough time also. So as I am reading, I see, how many people thought this? Ohhh, some people thought this. How often did they see the results? Oh rarely. It keeps me involved in what is being said.
So this helps me, and as the previous commentator, I'll make side notes like, "how, The right answer, wrong view" that sort of stuff so it keeps it focused on what's going on where in the passage.
I'm not great at RC, but it's helped seeing the pattern of the passages also. For example, Phenomenon expressed. Opinion expressed. Another opinion in opposition. Author agrees with X. Support for X. How this ties into the original phenomenon. Final Author conclusion or consequence of supporting X. The LSAT bible does a good job of showing the different formats. Recognizing those helps answer a lot of the questions. 7sage does the same thing, but The LSAT Bible really put it into a clear format for me to see it.
Good luck, I know I need it with RC!!!
I would review the RC portion of the CC and develop a strategy that allows you to analyze passages with clarity and speed (maybe develop your own notation language). You may want to time yourself on individual RC passages to see how long it takes you to read a given passage to full understanding. Once you have a baseline time, even if you spent entirely too long on a passage, focus on shaving off a few minutes as you continue to drill while maintaining accuracy. Besides that I would read difficult / uninteresting articles on a daily basis to train maintaining focus when bored.
I use my pencil or finger to follow along the words as I read. I do this on every section.
Having something for your eyes to follow along with while you read can help you read a bit faster. I underline/circle any keywords as I read (logical indicators, quantifiers, important details) and that helps me to make sure I'm not missing anything. I bracket in every conclusion and put a "P" next to the premises for longer questions as well. This just helps me to make sure I'm approaching each LR question methodically by finding the argument core first.
Don't worry too much about trying to read quickly. If you look at some of my old posts re: RC, I used to think reading super fast was the key to doing well. Now that I've actually improved, I think I read more slowly and carefully than ever.
Currently struggling with the same thing. I took a 5 section PT yesterday and didn’t get to 35 questions! 6 questions per section for 4 of them and one of the RC sections I only finished 2 of the passages. I’m requesting accommodations because of my ADHD but I would really like to increase my reading speed. Unfortunately the faster I try and read the less I actually focus on what I’m reading. The only way I can get myself to focus is by relaxing and trying to engage with the passage/stimulus. I just purchased the LSAT Trainer so I can start learning how to read for structure. Although I can already see this an issue for me because you’re supposed to question why is the author telling you something while reading and you’re supposed to be able to anticipate what is next. This will take my focus off the passage and, even though I’ve seen the advice given over and over that you don’t need to understand the passage, I feel like I have to because my ability to focus and comprehend what I’m reading without understanding is very minimal. Maybe this is an ADHD issue but hopefully the trainer will help some. If you find something that works for you let me know
I had issues with this as well especially with RC. What helped me was to focus on main ideas/subjects of sentences. For example each passage is broken down into separate paragraphs and those paragraphs each convey an idea (main point). Then each paragraph is broken down into sentences and each of those sentences relates to a subject. For example sentences 1,2,3 may relate to X and 4,5,6 relate to Y. I found it helps to mark these breaks (changes from one subject to the next within a paragraph). You might circle subject X and then lightly underline important words that relate to X and then circle Y and underline important words that relate to Y. So at then end of each paragraph you will see the progression of ideas (circled subjects) and hopefully the underlined words will give you some indication of how they piece together. It also helps with active reading because you are constantly asking yourself what is this sentence referring to.
Why would asking why the author was telling you something and what a logical next point was take your attention off the passage? To me it literaly sounds like how one would think and engage with the passage.
Reading speed could be part of your problem, but it is probably not the main part. I could be wrong here since I don't have any first hand experience with ADHD or a slow reading speed. However, most of the time when people do poorly on reading comp or struggle to finish, it isn't because they have an insurmountably slow reading speed. It is because after reading the passage they still can't answer the questions effectively. That's why actively engaging with the text, asking why each sentence is there, and memorizing the structure of the logical passage can often save time. Sure it will take you longer to get through the passages, but you will be prepared to answer the questions without referring back to the passage or knowing exactly where in the passage to look.
If reading 8 pages in 25 minutes or so is difficult for you it's going to be hard to finish the section without improving your reading speed which is mainly done through a ton of reading at as young an age as possible. If you can get through the readings in about that much time, reading speed isn't the issue for you it is reading comprehension and question answering both of which are masively improved by engaging with the text.
That's a good question but kind of hard for me to explain because trust me I ask myself a lot of similar questions on why certain things are so difficult for me. I was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and my Dr. has explained certain simple things that are easy for people without ADHD are harder for me. I will clarify though, they are harder but still doable. I will try and do my best to explain. The reason I say asking why the author is telling you something takes me out of focus is because I have to keep my focus on the reading as much as I can. The moment I start thinking about anything besides the words that I am reading is when it is harder to retain and remember what I just read. It's hard enough for me to be able to read without constantly thinking that I am going too slow. In the OP she talks about skipping words when she is reading. This happens to me as well because I am so focused on reading faster that I will literally end up reading a whole paragraph and not know what I just read. Meaning none of it was retained. It's kind of like reading out loud. Many people are so worried about sounding out words correctly or not sounding dumb that they read the words but they cannot tell you what they just read.
I am not saying I wont be able to do reading for structure, that is why I purchased the book because I want to practice, but i do think it will be very hard and will take time. I actually enjoy reading and I am not a super slow reader. But these passages are dense text on subjects that I may not always be interested in. I do notice the ones that I am interested in I can get through much faster and get more questions correct. Right now my average per passage is about 5-5:30 min per passage. Everywhere I've read and what JY has said is that you need to be at 3:30-4 min. I think if I can shorten my time reading the passages and learn how to read for structure I will be in much better shape so that's why I'm hoping the Trainer will help. I've read great things on here about it.