Reading Comprehension section on the LSAT

Comments

• WhatIsLife Member

  October 2022 810 karma

  I'm sorry I was going through a moment of weakness after tanking an RC section when making this post.

  Any tips on how I can make atleast a little bit of improvement in the next two weeks before the November LSAT would be greatly appreciated. I'm doing great on both LG and LR, but I just can't seem to get better than -7 to -10 on RC. Sometimes I get lucky and get like 4-6 wrong but that's far and few in-between. Is it possible to get below -5 consistently before the November LSAT?
• 1 Like

  blanklaw Member

  October 2022 490 karma

  I don't know where the exact problem lies, but for me I just figured out today that my main issue is that I don't have enough momentum and focus on the first two passages. I just made up a tactic that forced me to focus and it's really working for me: I read the passage one time around in about 1.5 minutes to try to understand/see the path of the passage but also to pique interest and see how things connect to each other the second time around-- that second time, I spend 2.5/3.5 minutes reading-- understanding the specific relationships and complicated parts, etc. while at the same time having a notion of how the idea progresses/relevant later on (because of my first read)

  This tactic really helped me improve comprehension which helps me go super fast in the AC because of that solid understanding; typically I'll spend between 3.5-5 minutes in the AC (i.e. there are questions I will answer in less than 20 sec.-- yes, it's definitely possible!)

  The weird thing for me that I've realized happened (which led me to devise this method) is that 99.999% of the time I would have such intense focus on the last passage because of my instinctual panic for time and I would somehow grasp everything the first time I read it-- no matter how hard the passage was. In other words, I was getting all of the 5-star passages right in under 9 minutes. At the same time though, I noticed myself getting huge chunks of questions wrong in the first 2 passages-- often associated with "I have no idea what's going on" after I read the passages-- even when the structure was super simple. I realized it was more of a focus issue leading to non-comprehension and lots of time wasted in the AC. Hence leading me to my solution

  Main point is, of course, to really identify your issue and come up with a good process/strategy.

  Hope this helps! Also taking the November LSATs and feeling that panic with you!!!

  Good luck in your studies!
• Cant Get Right Yearly + Live Member Sage ⭐ 🍌 7Sage Tutor

  October 2022 27901 karma

  @"NowOrNever-1-1-1-1-1-1" said:
  I'm sorry I was going through a moment of weakness after tanking an RC section when making this post.

  Any tips on how I can make atleast a little bit of improvement in the next two weeks before the November LSAT would be greatly appreciated. I'm doing great on both LG and LR, but I just can't seem to get better than -7 to -10 on RC. Sometimes I get lucky and get like 4-6 wrong but that's far and few in-between. Is it possible to get below -5 consistently before the November LSAT?

  Hard to say without knowing what you're doing, but one problem I see a lot with RC is that students struggle to distinguish exercises and learning strategies from what they should actually be doing to execute in a live section. A lot of things that are really effective for learning the fundamentals are highly ineffective as actual testing strategies. If you're doing a lot reading-for-structure and that kinda thing, try seeing what happens if you let go of all that and just read. It's not quite that simple, of course, but a lot of times students will do better by over-simplifying than by over-complicating. It's worth experimenting with at least, so try out a section or two, cut out all the "LSAT stuff," and just see what happens. If you improve, great! Stick with it. If not, it was worth a shot and no harm done.
• dag_6610 Core Member

  October 2022 63 karma

  @blanklaw said:
  I don't know where the exact problem lies, but for me I just figured out today that my main issue is that I don't have enough momentum and focus on the first two passages. I just made up a tactic that forced me to focus and it's really working for me: I read the passage one time around in about 1.5 minutes to try to understand/see the path of the passage but also to pique interest and see how things connect to each other the second time around-- that second time, I spend 2.5/3.5 minutes reading-- understanding the specific relationships and complicated parts, etc. while at the same time having a notion of how the idea progresses/relevant later on (because of my first read)

  This tactic really helped me improve comprehension which helps me go super fast in the AC because of that solid understanding; typically I'll spend between 3.5-5 minutes in the AC (i.e. there are questions I will answer in less than 20 sec.-- yes, it's definitely possible!)

  The weird thing for me that I've realized happened (which led me to devise this method) is that 99.999% of the time I would have such intense focus on the last passage because of my instinctual panic for time and I would somehow grasp everything the first time I read it-- no matter how hard the passage was. In other words, I was getting all of the 5-star passages right in under 9 minutes. At the same time though, I noticed myself getting huge chunks of questions wrong in the first 2 passages-- often associated with "I have no idea what's going on" after I read the passages-- even when the structure was super simple. I realized it was more of a focus issue leading to non-comprehension and lots of time wasted in the AC. Hence leading me to my solution

  Main point is, of course, to really identify your issue and come up with a good process/strategy.

  Hope this helps! Also taking the November LSATs and feeling that panic with you!!!

  Good luck in your studies!

  I have the same issue. Usually the first two sections will take me a pretty long time, and then once I realize I'm pressed for time during the last two, I really dial in my focus and do a better job on the last two. Most if not all people here are great readers. It oftentimes just comes down to focus.