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8 Likes
RC Lessons Learned, please do share
Giant Panda
Alum Member
Dear all,
LSAT has become my new drug now. And what JY had said, RC has become especially addictive. As such, I am more desperate to score high on this section. So here are my learning lessons for the 2nd week of learning. And please feel free to share your opinions.
1) Concentration. You must concentrate when you are reading the passage. The number of questions that you answer correctly will be a direct reflection of your concentration. Likewise, this concentration extends all the way to answer questions.
2) Interest. I find that most of the times, you don't have to be interest in the topic but the way that the author is composing his/her point. I have found a way for myself to generate interest by playing what I call a "game of inspectors", meaning that I am always trying to find MP, connections, strong terms, reference, examples....And in general, I believe that every passage is a carefully designed maze and it is game that I have to get good at.
3) Structure. When reading, always ask the question, why the author puts this here and now. There is always a reason. And rarely I find them do it because they intended to be confusing.
4) Reading notes. Don't write like crazy next to the passage. A word or two. I find the fact that you are pushing the brain to process the information actually does a better job for later paragraph recall.
5) But do put in arrows or numbers (link to pt 4). Often times, there is some logical relationship, like the one that I just did, of something that relates with serotine and carb craving. That passage is crazy about A cause B cause C cause D that sort of stuff and when this happens, draw the arrow on the passage and not write a reading note.
6) Track referential phrasing. When the author uses "it", "that"...you have to be able to mark it and track it back. This a fraction of a second thing helps to do 2 things: 1) keeps the structure in constant check, 2) more recall and brain processing
7) Answering. If it is a easier question and you can smell it, just circle it. Or else, do process and elimination. And when it comes the time when you are 2/5 and tries to make a final decision, just believe your gut feeling.
8) Keep learning the passage in the answer choice. I find this especially helpful when doing harder passages. The answer choices do helps you make a double check on your understandings. So you can revise your initial map. So let's say you are doing question 4 and now you find the map is wrong and the question 1 answer needs to be revised, then do it. The questions are just another more targeted "tool" for you.
9) Enjoy the process. Feel the process and actually enjoy. Once you are able to break all the things down, then you are able to feel how sophisticated that the writer is. And often times, these writings are highly sophisticated. This attitude will snowball and get you to the next passage and the next and the next. And then you get addicted like me and just want to do another RC.
While I am only 2nd week into RC, I am constantly meditating on this as RC is not about reading.
Please share with me of your learnings. I be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Panda
LSAT has become my new drug now. And what JY had said, RC has become especially addictive. As such, I am more desperate to score high on this section. So here are my learning lessons for the 2nd week of learning. And please feel free to share your opinions.
1) Concentration. You must concentrate when you are reading the passage. The number of questions that you answer correctly will be a direct reflection of your concentration. Likewise, this concentration extends all the way to answer questions.
2) Interest. I find that most of the times, you don't have to be interest in the topic but the way that the author is composing his/her point. I have found a way for myself to generate interest by playing what I call a "game of inspectors", meaning that I am always trying to find MP, connections, strong terms, reference, examples....And in general, I believe that every passage is a carefully designed maze and it is game that I have to get good at.
3) Structure. When reading, always ask the question, why the author puts this here and now. There is always a reason. And rarely I find them do it because they intended to be confusing.
4) Reading notes. Don't write like crazy next to the passage. A word or two. I find the fact that you are pushing the brain to process the information actually does a better job for later paragraph recall.
5) But do put in arrows or numbers (link to pt 4). Often times, there is some logical relationship, like the one that I just did, of something that relates with serotine and carb craving. That passage is crazy about A cause B cause C cause D that sort of stuff and when this happens, draw the arrow on the passage and not write a reading note.
6) Track referential phrasing. When the author uses "it", "that"...you have to be able to mark it and track it back. This a fraction of a second thing helps to do 2 things: 1) keeps the structure in constant check, 2) more recall and brain processing
7) Answering. If it is a easier question and you can smell it, just circle it. Or else, do process and elimination. And when it comes the time when you are 2/5 and tries to make a final decision, just believe your gut feeling.
8) Keep learning the passage in the answer choice. I find this especially helpful when doing harder passages. The answer choices do helps you make a double check on your understandings. So you can revise your initial map. So let's say you are doing question 4 and now you find the map is wrong and the question 1 answer needs to be revised, then do it. The questions are just another more targeted "tool" for you.
9) Enjoy the process. Feel the process and actually enjoy. Once you are able to break all the things down, then you are able to feel how sophisticated that the writer is. And often times, these writings are highly sophisticated. This attitude will snowball and get you to the next passage and the next and the next. And then you get addicted like me and just want to do another RC.
While I am only 2nd week into RC, I am constantly meditating on this as RC is not about reading.
Please share with me of your learnings. I be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Panda
Comments
The LSAT is my drug now too... lol
Great tips too!
I just came across Nicole method today. I probably will watch it later.
Hi,
I wonder which question you usually skip?
As a humanities student I feel pretty comfortable with reading dense prose, but through my RC practise I have noticed that sometimes my comfort had the effect of making me borderline skim-read sentences. I then sometimes found these sentences had an unusual quirk, a key piece of information, a key insight into the author's view, or something else right at the end. This obviously caused problems.
So I guess my lesson learned is pay close attention to each sentence in its entirety, and don't get too complacent, no matter how comfortable you are.
Thanks! I'm weak at those inference question too...took a lot of time for me to find the right sentences to get to the right answer (especially when the info is from different parts of passage)
Maybe I should skip those questions too or just skip a whole passage and devote time to only 3...I dont know which is better.
@"Rigid Designator"
Do you have any tips for having interests to read those humanity passages?
Sometimes, archaeology, anthropology, philosophy...those make me feel asleep a lot and I have serious problem...
It might be good to notice that most of the passages are just three or four paragraphs. If you hate going through a whole passage look at it like 4 mini-challenges. What is this paragraph doing/saying? Repeat 3-4 times and you're through!
Interesting approach!
I'll try it
But I mean, good to know even humanities major students do not like some of the passages...feel a little relieved lol (I regret a lot that I did not read humanities articles a lot...)