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1 Like
Advice for increasing speed in RC
lsatstudier
Alum Member
What strategies work best for you? How many passages do you attempt in practice tests? What have you found helps in increasing your score?
Thank you so much in advance!
Comments
Heya, I read all four and am down to -2 to -0. I was stuck around -4 to -5 because I would run out of time and start guessing on the last passage w/o a thorough read. I finally stopped marking the passages, stopped reading too closely & saw the jump in my score. Mantras I return to include "finding textual evidence is all this is, like an Easter egg hunt," "the right answer is already here, I just have to select it," and "only one answer has textual evidence." You want to be able to put your pencil on the evidence and literally circle it (don't actually do this because it wastes time)--if you can't literally circle the textual evidence, you probably have the wrong answer. Hope any of that was helpful to you!
Honestly, JY's memory method has worked well for me. I've read Manhattan RC and The LSAT Trainer as well. I kind of took strategies from all three and sort of made a notation strategy that worked for me.
RC is the least formulaic section and thus one must sort of develop their own strategy.
Are you having timing issues or missing a certain question type?
One thing that I struggled with is trying to go too fast. Don't rush. Take time up-front on the passage like you would on LG.
I wish I could say "This is the RC strategy that got me -0!!" but unfortunately I'm still figuring that out.
I attempt all four passages, and I think that's what you should do.
I agree with this! We have to make inferences upfront like LG!
If you can, you should join this webinar (free tutoring) by @Sami:
https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/11117/free-rc-tutoring-science-passage-sunday-may-21-4-p-m-est
She has this strategy to make low-resolution/high-resolution summaries, which is basically what J.Y. does. She's great at explaining too
To improve on RC, I did a bunch of untimed passages and made certain that I had isolated and marked the source for every answer before checking answers/moving onto the next passage. I was -7 reliably but am now -1 to -3 reliably. This practice gave me a great understanding of what the test makers want the test takers to look for. The untimed work translated very naturally to timed work, too. I do a fair bit of notation when I read. I box in/bracket keywords and important concepts, ideas, dates, colons, semi-colons, question marks; notate examples, arguments, and shifts in perspective in the margins; and sometimes write a brief summary of a paragraph/paragraph segment if I think it will be the focus of one or more questions. Most times that I read a passage now, I won't need to look back at it more than 2 or 3 times when tackling the questions.
I totally agree with @jaefromcanada. I found that I actually saved time in RC by spending more time up front on the passage. By taking an extra 30 seconds to briefly summarize each paragraph and link them up with prior paragraphs, I would save about 2 minutes on the questions. More importantly, I would get more correct answers.
However, as @"Alex Divine" said, RC is kind a unique section in that everyone kind of needs to develop their own strategy and find out what works for them. I highly recommend trying out different strategies and seeing what works for you. Besides taking more time up front, I would try Nicole Hopkin's notation strategy, Sami's resolution strategy (join her awesome free webinars!), and of course JY's memory method.
I definitely believe that is possible to greatly improve on RC. When I started, I was getting about -9 wrong on a section. I got that down to an average of -2.5 on the new tests. Keep working on RC, try out different strategies, and crush it! Good luck.
Second. I'd also add that one common pitfall across all RC strategies is spending too much time confirming answers. It's a very tempting thing to do. Afterall, the answer is literally right in front of you. And sometimes, this will be the only way we can find the answer. But most of the time, we have to be confident in our initial impression. So if you find yourself looking back at the passage a lot, try being a little more aggressive and go with your answer without looking back whenever you have a decent idea of what the answer is.
I would also add that RC is probably, imo, the section above all others that you will get better at with more exposure. The reason that this is the case is that all RC passages are remarkably similar in terms of their reasoning structure. For example, a common science RC passage would look something like this:
Some people believe this.
Here is there evidence.
This is not the case.
Here is why.
This kind of why understanding reasoning structure is essential getting stronger and faster