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Related Discussions
Let's talk about RC!!
njung007
Member
Hello~
RC is currently my biggest struggle and I want to incorporate possible non-LSAT related ways to improve my reading comprehension skills. Maybe some books or podcasts? I am open to all recommendations!
Also if anyone has any tips on how to improve RC, I would really appreciate your feedback! What I do currently is pause after every paragraph to summarize what I just read + pause at end of whole passage before questions to put together the structure of the passage. Hence, I do well on broad questions but I struggle with questions that require memory of detail.
Oh also (sorry it's getting a wee long) I used to get significantly more questions right when I solved the RC problem sets from the CC compared to when I take full practice tests. I am hoping it's because I am not familiar with the mental stamina required to take the full length tests. But if anyone has had a similar experience, please let me know what steps you took from that point!
Thank you in advance!!
Comments
If you are having issues tied to memorizing certain things then use the questions to prompt you to read the relevant parts of the passage. Your understanding of the structure of the passage should help you determine what is relevant.
Is there a particular RC subject matter that you tend to do worse on? I would say start with your worse subject.
For science I recommend Scientific American and this youtube channel:
For anthropology I really like the book Sapiens. https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316117/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=sapiens&qid=1576866635&s=books&sr=1-1
For art I recommend a book called A short story of Art.
https://www.amazon.com/Short-Story-Art-Movements-Techniques/dp/1780679688/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+short+story+of+art&qid=1576866707&s=books&sr=1-2
For law, I really like these two books from amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Law-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0198745621/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=a+very+short+introduction+law&qid=1576866574&s=books&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/American-Legal-History-Introduction-Introductions/dp/0199766002/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=a+very+short+introduction+law&qid=1576866591&s=books&sr=1-3
Instead of summarizing, try doing very concise and short point the paragraph was trying to make. A summary is not as useful as an evaluation and main point requires you to evaluate and organize what you have read and therefore gets you to think a bit deeper about how the information interacts with each other. I would also say you don't have to wait till the end of the passage to do structure, you can do them as you read. For example after paragraph 2, you can quickly think of how paragraph 2 connects with paragraph 1. And after paragraph 3, how paragraph 3 connects with 2 and then 1.
The probably has to do with not processing the details as your read. A lot of people just end up doing a GIST of the details, which ends up not being enough to get the detail oriented questions correct. You do have to make an effort to understand the detail and evaluate the details with respect to the point of the paragraph and it's purpose. For example, in a passage about a human behavior if a study is talked about in which they took10 rats, you want to think about how while it provides some supports it doesn't seem like a large sample and we may need the author to give more information about if this would hold true for humans.
If you think it's a mental stamina issue, you can take multiple older sections to build stamina and see if this solves the problem. If not, it's not a stamina issue.
If you want to practice LSAT reading skills with material that is much more difficult than what is on the LSAT I'd recommend reading "Explaining Postmodernism" by Stephan Hicks and "Fools, Frauds, and Firebrands" by Roger Scruton. Grab a notebook and map out the arguments and sub-arguments in those books; look for assumptions and flaws; and read for structure, i.e., try to notice how the passages fit into the arguments.
Both of those books contain lots of super dense prose and arguments from many big time intellectuals. If you can comprehend those arguments you will be ready for anything the LSAT throws at you.
@Sami Wow thank you so much for the detailed reply! I haven't found a pattern on the passages I struggle the most with. Sometimes I understand science passages really well but sometimes I won't. I'm hoping to have a difference answer once I get in the grind of taking more practice tests. I also took note of your book recommendations-- will check them out!
@simple_jack Thank you much for the recommendations and advice!!
@"Michael.Cinco" Thank you!!!
What's the name of the YouTube channel? I got a Video Unavailable message when I tried to go to the website. This is a great discussion, by the way. Appreciated.
I hear you. RC is my biggest struggle also and I also did not have a pattern on the passages I struggle the most. After a couple of weeks of intensive studying, I found the problem to be, simply, difficulty. The harder the passage gets, the more convoluted the language is and the more I struggle with it. So, the question is, really, what to do about it?
In one of the tutoring sessions we did with the one and only Sami, she told us to focus our effort on grammar. So, that's what I exactly did. When I read a sentence, I break it down to its essentials. What is the subject? What are we talking about? What are the referential phrases? What is "this" doing here? What does it refer to? When you teach yourself to read the passage like this you immediately notice that the issue is to understand the words written in the passage. If you already know how to do low-res summary, that is, if you already know how to solve the broad question types, then my recommendation would be that you focus on grammar, vocabulary and the mechanics of English. I also keep a vocabulary journal, perhaps that would also help.
And after that, honestly, keep practicing. I found that RC is extremely hard to study. It is incredibly boring, takes a lot of time and effort and the progress is slow. But if you keep practicing,you will improve.
Best.
The biggest principle that I think will help you is to read for understanding, not for detail. Essentially, it is not necessary (nor helpful) to read to memorize the details of a passage. Don't get lost in the details. Instead, try for read for understanding and then ask yourself critical questions. The best question, I found, is "so what?" When I ask this question, it allows me to let the details fade into white noise so I can get a better understanding of what the author is trying to show or demonstrate or prove in using this detail. Is it an example? Is it an example illustrating a previous premise? Is it a premise in support of a counter-argument? How does the counter-argument play into the author's overall argument? Are they trying to argue that this counter-argument is a better approach than the currently accepted view? Etc.
For example, if the author says "there are 40 billion neurons on the transcranial optic nerve of the fifth lobe of the amydala in the brain of an octopus" (total nonsense, I made this up), forget about it. You do not need to remember how many neurons are in X part of an octupi's brain. If you do need to remember, you can go back and refer back to the passage later. What's important is that you know that the author is discussing the brain of an octopus and why (i.e., what is it's purpose in the argument?).
Now that you know what the author is talking about, ask yourself, "so what?" So what there are 40 billion neurons in X part of an octupi's brain? Oh well, the author says that this is why/because/how blah blah blah. So what? This is not necessarily because you're trying to critique the author's argument, but rather, you're trying to understand where they're going with it.
In terms of reading materials, while books like Explaining Postmodernism are excellent in the sense that they force you to parse dense prose, I do think they will be "harder" to read because they're really fucking boring. I'd recommend reading difficult fiction instead. Lord of the Rings is a good place to start. Tolkein may be a genius but man his prose is thiiick. You could also try The Count of Monte-Cristo by Alexandré Dumas or even Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen if you're feeling frisky. Interspersing these books with articles from news sources or magazines like The Economist or The New York Times would be a good idea as well. No need to read each issue cover to cover, but try and read one or two articles a week. Not only will you gain more confidence in understanding convoluted passages, but you'll also stay informed about current events.
Keep in mind as well, it's not just about reading these books, it's about frequency of exposure. To get the most bang for your buck, you should be reading at least half a chapter per day, in order to allow your brain enough exposure to re-train itself. Remember: practice makes perfect. When I read Pride and Prejudice it took me about two weeks to finish, and the first week was rough. But the more often I read, the easier it became to understand and the faster I was able to get through it.
Here are some other tips that may help you:
1) If there is a sentence or idea that you don't understand, stop. Go back and read it again, starting from end of the last sentence/idea you did understand. Still confused? Think about what is being said. Picture it in your mind. Think about how this builds/adds to what the author was previously talking about. Repeat these steps until you feel like you understand (or at least, feel not confused).
2) Try and make use of little strategies that help you keep track of information. For example, when I read a passage that discusses multiple authors of something, I use the highlight tool to mark the name of each author the first time it is mentioned in the passage so that I can easily find it if I need to refer back to the passage. Maybe that tip is not for you, but experiment a little. See what helps you best.
3) Finally, regarding question types, keep in mind that for specific questions, it is okay to go back and refresh your memory by referring back to the passage. I definitely do and I think that as long as you are getting the questions right, there's no "wrong way" to go about answering them.
I hope this helps you! Good luck
@berathocam Thank you for the advice! I am definitely going to try your "breaking down" method. I really appreciate your encouragement and I wish you the best of luck as well~
@itsemmarobyn Thank you so much for taking the time to write this out for me! insert crying emoji I realized I wasn't trying to understand WHY the author tells us what she does. I think this will definitely help me-- I am feeling very hopeful! Also, thank you for your recommendations list. I actually have Pride and Prejudice so I am going to give that a re-read with an LSAT mindset!
Just wanted to share a weird method that I think has helped me to improve a lot in RC recently (went from between -6 and -10ish to between -0 and -4ish). In addition to blind reviewing after each test, I've started doing this around once a day, while timing myself as if it were a real section:
I know it sounds wonky, and it can feel absurd to be trying to come up with a corresponding question for something very passage-specific. But I find that this approach (1) allows me to be continually practicing with new material, (2) helps me increase my familiarity and comfort with question stems, since you really have to think about what different types are getting at when you force yourself to come up with a corresponding version of them, and (3) allows me to really work on and experiment with my reading pace.
I'm sure this wouldn't work for everyone, but I think it's helped me a lot so just wanted to put it out there!
TL;DR: "Doctors Don't Want You to Know About This Weird Weight Loss Tip!"