Please help me with the reading comp

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• 4 Likes

  princessney777 Core Member

  October 23 37 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
• 6 Likes

  briceschrumpf Core Member

  October 25 48 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.
• 8 Likes

  the magician Core Member

  October 25 edited October 25 98 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.
• 1 Like

  Shinny0921 Live Member

  October 25 13 karma

  @briceschrumpf @themagician thank you guys so much for sharing tips. These are what I desperately needed for. I'll definitely use them for practicing.
• 1 Like

  capturingthemomentmedia Live Member

  October 29 192 karma

  @princessney777 said:
  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

  Search kevin lin on YouTube. those LR videos he has, and he has live class recordings on 7Sage in the Live Class library you can check out, are extremely helpful. You will start to get them right.
• tuffnoogeys Core Member

  October 31 11 karma

  Hi! Have you tried doing untimed sections? doing that allows you to slow down and understand the passages and question types. Good luck!
• 2 Likes

  marianaruizlua Core Member

  October 31 edited October 31 6 karma

  Hey! I was in a similar boat.

  The biggest thing that's helped me is really focus on what the passage is saying. Not what I assume it says, or what I think about the content, or anything extraneous. Instead, I really, really pay attention to what the passages are telling me. The more sections I've done, the more I realize ALL the answers are ALWAYS in the passages. Even for the inference type of questions, there will always be evidence to support that inference in the passages.

  Another thing is pay attention to everything, details included. A lot of times the general idea of the passage will get you to answer some questions right, but for ultimate accuracy, you need to pay attention to the details.

  With that in mind, I usually allow myself 3-4 minutes to really read and take in the passage. After that, the questions tend to feel much easier, even the knit picky ones. I also skip questions I'm unsure about, flag them, and answer them as best as I can before moving on to the next passage. Sometimes if I'm unsure about a question the other questions and answers for that passage help fill in some of the blanks I was previously unsure about.

  I highlight bits that jump out at me, but only BITS. Too much highlighting is distracting. And for the "Passage A" "Passage B" questions I highlight each passage a different colors.

  Finally, I've had to practice a lot with speed. I do one full reading comprehension section every day with timer to make sure I am staying up to speed. Take about 8 minutes per passage. A little more is fine, but don't get too hung up on a difficult passage and let that bite into your overall time. With test day so close I don't see that slowing down and doing untimed reading sections only for comprehension would help. On test day you need to perform with both speed and accuracy.

  I'm sure you've got this, I believe in you. Best of luck!
• 2 Likes

  Aks_ZenMaster Live Member

  November 1 66 karma

  Hello, might be repeating what a lot of people have already said, but spending time on the passages has helped me a lot! I spend about 4.5 minutes on the passages understanding and making sure in my mind I'm connecting all the sentences and saying "Okay, so first this happened then this, and now we're talking about this, etc".

  When I do this then I'm able to fly through a lot of the questions! Also, make sure in the answer choices NOT to make assumptions or think "this was kind of said in the passage, maybe it's right", DONT do that! All the answer choices will come from the passage, not from your assumptions. If between 2 answer choices sometimes I use the search feature for key words and if that doesn't work then I compare the 2 answer choices and look closely at wording.

  Hope this helps a bit!
• 1 Like

  Sabrina-1-1 Core Member

  November 1 3 karma

  Hi!! I am on the EXACT same page as you. I average 2-4 for LR, but 10-13 for RC. What has been helping me is to read it TWICE. I know there is very little time so this is how I do it: I read the first time normally, then I skim the second time looking for things I think they will ask me + main arguments of each paragraph. This has helped me understand the overall idea of the passage and has helped me get better at answering the questions. Good luck on the LSAT!!