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How do you visualize what you are reading?

nanabillannanabillan Member
in Reading Comprehension 347 karma

I feel absolutely sane asking this Q to other LSAT students, since a common theme is asking how to read and discovering that reading is a skill and one needs to be active in order to read with conviction.

I would like some insight as to how you imagine what you are reading on RC, or rather how you visualize the passage. I hear this strategy works wonders, and I can do it if I really take my time (going too slow that I can't finish under timed constraints), but I can't go insanely slow.

People say they imagine a speaker, a friend, someone they know who is always questioning things, etc. Do you have a specific face for a science passage, humanities, legal passage, etc? I end up wasting precious seconds debating who to put as the face to my passage and I don't think it is worth it.
At one point I was scoring -16 on RC and now I am around -8 so I think I am learning how to read with the an improved agenda. I want to close in on that gap and I feel that this idea of creating a visual can be valuable.

Making connections in the passage has been helpful but visualizing requires extra effort on my part and takes away from my time. Again, I understand the concept of putting up extra time on the passage and flying through the Qs but I am not talking about passage reading totaling 3 minutes, it could be 6-8 minutes depending on the passage.

Furthermore, I actually do enjoy the passages for the most part-and the ones that start out a bit slower, I engage and act excited and I think that helps!

So, fellow 7Sagers, how do you picture what you read?

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Comments

  • nanabillannanabillan Member
    347 karma

    bumping

  • mojozo3mojozo3 Core Member
    12 karma

    For some of the more science-based passages, I imagine my high school biology class diagrams and try to picture the thing that the passage discusses if it were illustrated and simplified for the non-science minded. And kind of the same for the law ones, except visualizing how the law would affect a court scene. Humanities depend, more of a struggle through than a grasp.

    In picturing the passage that way, I can kind of spin it in my head to see how all the parts are moving together. Need to get faster with it, but I'm still sitting in a solid single-digit range. The low-res reading method JY discusses is hard to reconcile with what I'm already doing, but it is helpful in terms of piecing together the author's attitude and method of reasoning.

  • nanabillannanabillan Member
    347 karma

    Thank you! @mojozo3

  • canihazJDcanihazJD Alum Member Sage ⭐
    8313 karma

    I think passages require varying approaches... some lend themselves to visualization. The one about subduction and earthquakes is a great example of this. Others do not... just the subject matter, or its too dense or too abstract. Sometimes you just have to find a way to engage on the fly. Feign interest. Personalize it. Employ analogies. Take a stance for or against what is being argued. Sometimes I'll even hear it in a famous voice... subject dependant I like to use Morgan Freeman, David Attenborough, Sean Connery (RIP), etc.. Sometimes I know I won't understand the details even if I give it another read, so I'll blaze through and focus on just reasoning structure. I think you have to be just as nimble as you are in LR/LG, but the passage format just kind of throws us off a bit sometimes.

  • nanabillannanabillan Member
    347 karma

    thank you @canihazJD I have noticed that when I can attribute a face or image to the passage, it helps tremendously.

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