Stuck at 163..Tips on RC?

Comments

• 1 Like

  cjones76 Alum Member

  December 2015 318 karma

  Story of my life. I'm in the exact. same. boat.
• 1 Like

  Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 8021 karma

  Go check out @nicole.hopkins' webinar on RC.
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 7965 karma

  @lx621146 said:
  I've heard that RC is quite fixed.
  

  Who the heck told you that!
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 8021 karma

  @nicole.hopkins said:
  Who the heck told you that!
  

  TLS told me that.
• 1 Like

  StopLawying Alum Member

  December 2015 821 karma

  People think that RC scores are "fixed" but this isn't true at all. Don't start timing yourself on RC until you consistently get 0-2 on BR. There's really no way you should be getting more than 2 wrong on BR. Once you start hitting -0,-1 on BR, you'll see your timed scores improve. Dissect every single paragraph and every single incorrect answer choice. Although tedious, you'll definitely see your timed scores go up.
• nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 7965 karma

  @Pacifico said:
  TLS told me that.
  

  Silly TLS.
• 1 Like

  nicole.hopkins Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 7965 karma

  @StopLawying said:
  Don't start timing yourself on RC until you consistently get 0-2 on BR.
  

  Well ... See ... I have no idea why you would ever do sections untimed ... The test is timed ... Why would you ever want to train in a situation that is literally the opposite of what you will face on test day ... You feel me? This kinda sounds a bit silver bullet-ish and I think it's going to tend to build bad habits.
• 4 Likes

  Quick Silver Alum Inactive Sage

  December 2015 1049 karma

  Join my webinar on Saturday at 12 noon EST on RC Question types - Knowing Q types makes a significant difference!
• 1 Like

  lsatings Alum Member

  December 2015 349 karma

  Don't focus too heavily on the content that you're reading! Try to focus on strategy / general outline for the content over any of the details. I used to struggle and zone out during any STEM passages, but once I started to focus less on the actual content and ignore a lot of unnecessary details, i got better at 1 getting through the passage and 2 comprehension 3 finishing 4 sections on time.
  
  But, it takes time and practice. I would suggest doing maybe 1-2 timed reading comprehension passages before bed every night when you have no distractions/pending errands or projects that you are thinking about and have a clear mind, and then blind review to understand what you did wrong. I found that strategy helped me best.
• 4 Likes

  Q.E.D Alum Member

  December 2015 edited December 2015 556 karma

  Just eating dinner and poking around the forum. 'Guess I'll run my digital mouth. Why not?
  
  I've been reading dense material for my whole adult life (age 30), so RC is one of my strengths. Absorbing linguistic meaning off the page is rapid and instinctive for me. Not bragging by any means. LG destroyed me on my diagnostic. Still, it may help for me to share some thoughts and observations.
  
  1. LSAC deliberately hits you with badly written horse****. I even have trouble with pieces from the humanities, which are poorly organized and excessively loose with metaphor and diction. What is the concrete meaning of "the theoretical underpinnings of her respect"? (In case you noticed my punctuation, I take issue with the received practice of quoting punctuation that isn't part of the language targeted by the quotation.) The answer is that it means nothing. That's not your fault.
  
  2. I think LSAC chooses passages with needlessly confusing conjunctions. I'll clarify with a contrived example.
  
  "Their insistence on clarity was tantamount to an ultimatum, but they were too uncompromising to admit the most apposite metaphor."
  
  The 'but' above functions logically as 'and', but it also indicates some opposition between the two sentences. There is no opposition, no coherent reason to say 'but' instead of 'and'. It just confuses the reader by signaling some extra layer of meaning that isn't there. When you see a bunch of confusing connectives that work logically as 'and', 'or', or 'if, then', just ignore the incoherent layer and look at the logic. Others include 'because', 'nevertheless', 'moreover' etc.
  
  3. The last two were observations but this bullet is prescriptive: be logical. The root of logic is truth and so-called truth conditions. The linguistic meaning (as in "what does he mean?") of a sentence is just that state of affairs that would make the sentence true; so, if you know what would make a sentence true, you know the meaning of that sentence. Whenever you're unsure about the meaning of a sentence, just ask yourself what makes the sentence true or false.
  
  Perhaps you noticed my impatience for ambiguity. Every author is on thin ice with me. I read every line asking "What does this bullsh** even mean? Was that word necessary?" I think that attitude makes me analyze each passage more carefully than others would. Maybe try that hat on and see what it does for ya.
  
  Best of luck!
  MT
• sarahfatima28 Alum Member

  December 2015 320 karma

  @mtilton05 3rd point is pretty interesting. *tags it in her head* Keep reading about how treating an argument (or a passage as you just said) like it's been said by a very questionable source helps in dissecting it better. Will definitely try it.
• 1 Like

  Elle2015 Alum Member

  December 2015 198 karma

  @mtilton05 said:
  I think that attitude helps me in the RC section. Every author is on thin ice with me. I read every line asking "What does this bullsh** even mean? Was that word necessary? How does this rise above the level of pure gibberish?" I think that adversarial attitude makes me analyze each passage more carefully than others would. Maybe try that hat on and see what it does for ya.
  
  

  I strongly agree with this.
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 8021 karma

  Got a regular Bill Shakespeare over here.
• 1 Like

  Q.E.D Alum Member

  December 2015 556 karma

  @Pacifico I think I come off pretentious. It's a character flaw. I'm working on it.
  
  Like I keep saying, 7sage is wonderful and I'm so thankful for the good advice available for free in this community.
• DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 7468 karma

  @Pacifico said:
  Got a regular Bill Shakespeare over here.
  

  I think he’s more of a Paradise Lost fan.
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 8021 karma

  Ha! He got you Dave! It's mtilton not Milton... Attention to detail my good spaceman!
• DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 7468 karma

  Aw, he did. He really did. Serves me. T is my least favorite letter.
• Pacifico Alum Inactive ⭐

  December 2015 8021 karma

  But without it you would just be a dumb Hollywood acor!
• lx621146 Core Member

  December 2015 edited December 2015 130 karma

  Thanks!