Please help me with the reading comp

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  princessney777 Core Member

  October 23 16 karma

  I too want to know how to improve on the RC section.. can you share how you were able to improve on LR? struggling a bit with that too
• briceschrumpf Core Member

  5:59PM 13 karma

  @princessney777 I can try giving you some pointers that are installed into my brain but they may or may not come out the way I intend them to. First, be able to understand which questions are hard and which questions are easy. Usually, reading the stimulus and the question number itself (ex: 1-13), I can usually assume it will be a relatively quick question. So during these, I read the stimulus and understand the task that I must complete. Then I go to the questions and answer quickly, not giving much time at all to answer choices (instead of trying to reason with each answer choice, I quickly eliminate each choice that isnt 100% correct). Building a habit is what enables this for me, through a series of practice, I can understand read the stimulus and know what the answer should sound like about 90% of the time, at least on the easy questions. Then on the harder questions (15-20), I usually take a little bit more time, I understand the patterns and by the time I go into the questions, once again through repetitive practice and habit I will be able to have an idea of the correct answer, but usually these harder questions have two answer choices that work with what I built. From there, I decide which answer is most strict to the stimulus, not which answer overall has the most profound and "reasonable in the real world" answer, but which answer applies MOST to the stimulus. Then for the hardest questions (20-27), I know that these are created to be hard, so the answer choices that answer it as if they are the questions within 1-13, I usually assume are wrong because it is meant to blind others from further thought and reasoning with other questions. I can usually scratch out 2 answers like this and also scratch out 1 answer choice that is meant to sound overly "smart" (such as a choice with profound wording and definitions that are within our syllabus, like "the justification of the commerce trader is appealing to a kind, that unlike the kind within the stimulus, is unreasonable with further efforts", basically just a string of random and confusing texts.) Remaining with two answers, I would usually pick the answer choice that I believe COULD work, however, after further practice I now understand that these answer choices are also usually meant to make us over assume, which leads to an incorrect answer. So I have begun choosing the 1 of the 2 answer choices, that although don't sound AS reasonable as the latter, need less assumptions/ or no assumptions at all to take place in order for that answer to be correct against the stimulus, even if this answer choice isn't as strong as the other would be, it is still stronger in face value because it does not need extra assumptions to take place. Once again, I don't know if this information is accurately written down as it is in my head but the main tip I am getting at is that you must practice and get used to the question types that will be persistently used AND remember that this is a test made by a human, so this human will try to use certain techniques to make you miss questions, try to combat these techniques, that are primarily used in the hardest questions, by remembering past techniques used.
• the magician Core Member

  7:13PM edited 7:27PM 88 karma

  I had to really shift the way I read. In the core curriculum, and most all LSAT courses, they tell you to focus on structure and purpose but that just doesn't come natural to me - I get focused on the details even if I know I shouldn't be. Two things have been helping me:
  1. Force myself to forget about the details (reading faster helps with this)
  2. Work toward getting that gut feeling of understanding

  There is a gut feeling you have when you really get something you're reading, when you kinda get it, or when you are lost. I know what that feels like for me, so I make that the goal that I work toward in every passage. These are the prompts that I use to practice:
  1. First Paragraph
  - What is the thesis? (If none, then you're reading background - keep looking)
  - Where is this going?
  2. Each subsequent paragraph
  - What is the point of this?/Why is the author talking about this?
  3. After Final Paragraph
  - ID the passage: Is it a Phenomenon-Hypothesis, Profile, Clash of viewpoints Problem, or are they just telling you about something?
  - Quickly review the structure - what is each paragraph doing?

  If I know these things I find that I'm better set up for the questions - even though if feels wrong/scary not having a grasp on the details. I find that most of the time the questions are asking about these things anyways. If there is a question about details then I can go find it. Also, knowing these things helps you eliminate 4 wrong answer choices just as often as it makes the correct answer choice stand out.