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Related Discussions
9 Likes
Is doing a ton of RC passages the best way to improve
mattwhitworth56
Member
Hi everyone,
Since I started studying for RC my scores have gone up a little, but not significantly because I don't put much practice time into them. I've made sure I know what each question is asking, how to figure out the main point and the essentials like that. Is my best bet for improvement through just hammering RC passages, like doing all the old ones? Thank you!
- Matt
Comments
I've found that the RC section requires you learn certain skills in order to do well. The below basic skills have been very helpful for me. If I were you, I would do reading passages while keeping two or three of the below in mind.
7.. Have either very apparent or independent reasons to eliminate the answer choice.
If you haven't checked out the LSAT Lab RC videos, I highly recommend checking them out. They're available for free on Youtube and they totally changed my RC game.
On top of that, I totally agree with @Guy_Fawkes, especially with 5: Worry less about speed and more on comprehension. I improved my score a ton simply by slowing down and making sure that I understood what I was reading.
totally! my tutor has told me that the best practice for RC (once you have the basics down) is to just keep doing passages & practicing them. it's my weakest section so i would always avoid doing any RC passages but i promised myself to do one a day & ever since then i've improved in my score on them. i think this is because you become more accustomed to the repetitive patterns they throw at you & really find your own personal method of approaching the passages.
@"-LR Queen-" are you doing one single passage a day usually or did you mean a full section so 4 passages?
I would at least do 1-2 passages a day and BR them. After that you can do a focus day when you do a full RC section or just do a full section of RC when you take a PT.
Def. Doing more practice seems to be a pretty safe bet that you're going to improve.
yes
No! You should definitely be carefully reviewing what it is you're missing instead. Start with paraphrasing and making what you're reading into your own (part of this is years of study habits but it's never too late to start). Even as an English major, LSAT's RC can trip you up because there are certain words that you'll se are key, like concession points, conditional words, etc. Don't just blindly do a bunch of RCs. Start by doing what JY does in the RC videos.
RC is a monster. Sometimes I will do well on a section -5 (well for me) and sometimes I will do not so well, like -10. I think a big part of RC is just slowing down to try and understand what you are reading. Pay attention to the author's argument instead of just reading the passage to read it. Also, being abnormally fast on ACs, this is because if you are spending more time up front, which is good, you are also losing time on the questions. But, my best RC performance is when I am answering the questions extremely fast because I have good understanding of passage. If I don't have good understanding, then I just give it my best shot but keep moving with tight time constraint--I basically cut my loss on that passage and hope I can get a couple questions right. This way I can move on to the other passages with a better mindset.
In every RC section there is usually one passage that just gets the best of me in terms of understanding. I just don't know the subject matter and don't know what the hell the author is trying to say. On these, I just try to breathe and do best I can. You don't need a -0 in RC to do well on the test. -5 is a great day for me in RC.
@LSATWizard1996 I agree w that for sure
Yeah, RC is my most volatile section. Sometimes -5 sometimes -10 (timed, of course). But, trying to work on getting it down to -5 consistently at the moment.
@LSATWizard1996 same here man, and it’s so subject dependent. Like for a middle difficulty game I’ll get -5ish harder -7ish and easier -2 or 3. Same w logical reasoning. But for rc the passage, difficulty has much less of an impact on my scores, and it’s usually the ones that have 2 science passages that I struggle w the most
Hi @"Burden.of.Floof" -- I checked these out, can I ask what particularly in them changed your game?
I'm now at a point where I consistently am -0 to -2 on RC even on 'harder' sections and I truly think it's the one that is the most mentally demanding, even more than LG. RC is naturally intimidating because it requires a lot of focus and attention and often the language and subject matter is super arcane and, frankly, dull.
I don't think cramming is the answer for RC (or anything really), however working on good reading skills most definitely is.
(1) Take interest in the subject, as much as you can
(2) Move through the passage efficiently. Efficiently does not mean quickly. It is far better to take 5 minutes to read and understand everything than 1 minute rushing through, only to then have to re-read multiple times for the 'main point question' then multiple times more for the subsequent.
(3) Comprehension is everything -- clue is in the name, I guess! Seriously, though. Passages where I fully understand the point the author is making, their reasoning structure, and the counterarguments invariably make the questions seem not merely easy but often pretty damn impossible to get wrong. Passages where I don't get it are pure hell and luck. It's crazy.
How to avoid hell? If you need to, don't be afraid to re-read the passage. I run into this I would say about 1-2 times per test, where the passage just doesn't make sense to me the first time around. It's okay, just take a breath and read it again. It's so much more important to read it again and make sure you do understand than shake your head and half-ass. You should have time to re-read when necessary (so long as you move efficiently through the other passages which are easier and don't waste any time) and the couple of minutes it takes to re-read a passage are generally made up for by the added understanding.
@luckysat1 that's really good point about rereading, haven't tried that. Thanks!
@galactic sorry I never replied to your post! In case you're still curious, something about the concept of the passage only having 3 or 4 big ideas, and everything else being detail really stuck with me. I really liked their framework approach as well, although currently my approach which has gotten me into the -0 to -2 scoring range has thrown all methods out the window haha. I think @luckysat1 hit the nail on the head. For me, it's literally about comprehension and pretty much nothing else. I read at what I think is a glacial pace and it's actually not that slow. I think we do way more panic reading than we realize, so I really slow down and I almost always end up with extra time at the end of the section. I'll even go back and re-read a paragraph 3 or 4 times if it's really confusing me and I don't understand it. I realized that if you truly understand what the author is saying, the questions become pretty easy and straightforward.