Tips on remaining focused on boring reading comps

Comments

• 11 Likes

  mrlsat180 Alum Member

  January 2014 118 karma

  I literally just pretend that I'm fascinated with the topic and really fake enthusiasm about what the author has to say. It actually works and after like a minute you start to believe your own lie.
• 6 Likes

  LSATisland Free Trial Inactive Sage

  January 2014 1878 karma

  Develop a genuine interest in knowledge. Dwell on the fact that while sinking time into LSAT prep, you are simultaneously learning about a variety of topics, and generally from experts in the field. Enjoy learning and growing.
  
  Tell over passages to someone, if they're willing to listen.
• 1 Like

  zhenders Free Trial Member

  January 2014 228 karma

  Both of these answers, totally.
  
  Fake it til you make it.
  
  Personally, I think hacking your own brain is THE key to RC success.
• 1 Like

  jsumlin23 Alum Member

  January 2014 66 karma

  Thank you all a lot. I've been drilling reading comp for the past two days and before I read each passage I say to myself ( let's learn something fun and new) it helps a lot tricking my mind
• 1 Like

  zhenders Free Trial Member

  January 2014 228 karma

  Hell yeah :-) awesome jsumlin. And for serious -- even if they aren't interesting to read, the information they present are often super interesting to know :-)
• 1 Like

  superfuntimes Alum Member

  January 2014 edited January 2014 20 karma

  I agree with everything said above, and I'll add that I started using a highlighter for the RC section only and my score dramatically increased (from 14 missed w/o highlighter to only 6 missed with highlighter).
  I had previously been using underlining and bracketing techniques for everything. I think highlighting does something for the longer passages that grabs my attention more. There are lots of tips about speed reading online, and using a highlighter to pull out the major terms and phrases mimics a lot of those tips.
  Just a suggestion, it may not work for everyone, but try it on your next PT.
• 1 Like

  zhenders Free Trial Member

  January 2014 228 karma

  I have nothing further to comment, except to note my excitement at there being another dinosaur comics fan here on 7sage.
• jsumlin23 Alum Member

  January 2014 66 karma

  My last test I only got two wrong on reading comp. thank you all. If I can continue to do that and stop picking extremely dumb answers on LR I'll be ok. I'm within 3 points of my 160 goal score
• zhenders Free Trial Member

  January 2014 228 karma

  Great work! RC is arguably the hardest section. If you are hitting -2's on reading comp, you could potentially hit way higher even than your goal, friend. Get those logic games on lockdown and use 7sage to figure out what question types you've gotta focus on!
  
  You're doing awesome.
• LSATisland Free Trial Inactive Sage

  January 2014 1878 karma

  -2 on RC is great, especially if we're talking about the recent PT60+ tests.
  
  Keep it up.
• rakinalikhan Alum Member

  May 2016 329 karma

  my advice is paraphrasing every individual paragraph. it sounds obvious but it is essentially a TL;DR summary and its less to read.
• 4 Likes

  Nicole Hopkins Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  May 2016 4344 karma

  @jsumlin23 said:
  Is their anything I can read to improve my humanities section. Seems like with humanities I seem to have to re-read sentences a lot.
  

  I completely ignore subject matter and am addicted to reading for reasoning structure. You gotta get in the zone and appreciate the art of argument for what it is: applicable to any topic or subject matter, and intrinsically interesting/value in its own right.
• 2 Likes

  Cayenne43 Alum Member

  May 2016 195 karma

  For RC once I started ignoring subject matter, my score in that section increased substantially (from averaging -8 to -5) because I realized that the subject matter is not important, I do not need to understand it. For example, I did not use to like science passages and would spend a bunch of time getting sucked into trying to understand concepts. Now I read it, I see they are talking about bacteria X, and how it use to do one thing and now they think it is doing another, and bacteria X could be the cure to cancer. I do not need understand what bacteria X is at all.
• 1 Like

  Cayenne43 Alum Member

  May 2016 195 karma

  Also having a notation process for RC really helps me stay focused. I highly recommend @"Nicole Hopkins"method! I believe she did a webinar on it.
• 2 Likes

  Nicole Hopkins Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  May 2016 4344 karma

  @DeeJayGee said:
  Now I read it, I see they are talking about bacteria X, and how it use to do one thing and now they think it is doing another, and bacteria X could be the cure to cancer. I do not need understand what bacteria X is at all.
  

  
• stepharizona Alum Member

  May 2016 3197 karma

  @superfuntimes said:
  I had previously been using underlining and bracketing techniques for everything. I think highlighting does something for the longer passages that grabs my attention more.
  

  Do you still highlight the same things, or did you change your method? I know someone else that switched to highlighting and thinks it helped, but they only highlight certain things... I think I would have to increase my speed a bit to be comfortable switching back and forth. But I'd love to hear you share more about how you are using this technique. @superfuntimes
• 2 Likes

  Nicole Hopkins Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  May 2016 4344 karma

  Lol this thread is so old—guaranteed these folks are all in law school now and definitely not reading the forums
• stepharizona Alum Member

  May 2016 3197 karma

  Oh ha I didnt even notice.
• Cayenne43 Alum Member

  May 2016 195 karma

  I didn't notice either!