How many passages should I drill in a single study session?

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• 1 Like

  azizsardar Member

  February 2021 26 karma

  I was wondering the same thing. I thought maybe its best to drill 5 passages at a time so that we get used to the longer duration and a regular 4 passage feels easier? Not sure tho. RC is also my weakest, and I'm just trying to solidify the habit of low resolution summaries before my feb test date which is coming up.

  Let me know what works for you.
• 18 Likes

  Law and Yoda Alum Member ⭐

  February 2021 edited February 2021 4312 karma

  Less is more. You don't want to just drill passages and say "alright I read 4-6 passages today, I'm definitely getting a better grip on things." Personally I don't exceed 4 passages and it usually takes me a whole hour to thoroughly break down 1 passage with its questions. When I drill RC, I do the passage under timed conditions and then BR. The BR includes diving in deep to figure out what I could've missed reading it the first time through and what I should be doing next time to not miss it. My BR also includes taking apart the question stem and all the answer choices that go along with the question, trying to figure out what made a question difficult or easy. When reviewing the answer choices you should be figuring out what kind of language the LSAT likes to use, what patterns arise with typical wrong answers, etc. Its important to not rush through reading and blind reviewing, especially in RC. I use to think reading more passages in a day would help, but honestly it just makes you feel accomplished but you haven't really learned anything. Everyone learns differently so maybe it isn't the case that less is more and you find reading more passages in a day does help, but I think you might find it helpful to start off walking than sprinting. Best of luck!
• 1 Like

  teechj117 Alum Member

  February 2021 296 karma

  If this is any help also, I've found reading various news clippings and either summarizing them on my phone, on paper, or in my head to be read out later helps with retention. It's refreshing to apply skills from the test itself to something real.
• 2 Likes

  kkole444 Alum Member ⭐

  February 2021 1687 karma

  I completely agree with @"Law and Yoda" I use go -12/-15 on RC and I would just grind RC passage after RC passage, but to no avail. Then I slowed down and broke down the passage, high res, low res and the questions, plus which passage held the answer to which question. I defiantly agree less is more. I went from -12/-15 to -4/5 granted Its not perfect but it is the section I practice least often and i have a seen a consistent decrease in wrong answers using what @"Law and Yoda" said.
  Best of luck,
  Kole
• 2 Likes

  emmorens Core Member

  February 2021 edited February 2021 1470 karma

  I can attest to @"Law and Yoda" I am trying to re-approach my studying and am going back to basics.

  I am spending as much time I need right now to analyze MP, tone & structure in the passage, then move onto questions and practice prephrasing answers. After I'm done I write out alllll of my reasoning for each answer and listen to JY's explanation about the ones I was unsure about. I plan to do this until I feel confident trying it timed, even then I plan to apply this exact same system in BR. I think it's this sort of repetition that trains you to know how & what to read to be able to do it more quickly.

  Given that it can take me anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how thorough I am, I am doing this for 2 passages a day as I feel like that's even a lot of work on its own.

  I'm hoping this will payoff and I will end up achieving the gnat for how to read passages the right way, so far I've gone -0 on every passage I've done!
• yang9999 Core Member

  February 2021 419 karma

  @teechj117 said:
  If this is any help also, I've found reading various news clippings and either summarizing them on my phone, on paper, or in my head to be read out later helps with retention. It's refreshing to apply skills from the test itself to something real.

  I do that a lot to help me get a feel for the general structure of arguments used on the LSAT. It also gives me some familiarity with the level of passage difficulty I need to calibrate my understanding to. (finally, it's kinda funny but every once in a blue moon an article from The Economist will show up in RC)