Any advice on completing the last passage?

Comments

• tanes256 Alum Member

  June 2017 2573 karma

  @"Nabeha S" I would def guess on the first question because if you didn't finish the passage you probably won't be able to figure out the MP. I would see if there are questions that refer to certain lines in the passage or certain words or phrases. That may be 2-3 questions, but who knows??? I'm not sure of anything else you could do. You probably won't be able to answer author's tone or any inference questions. There isn't much time to try to adjust your RC approach but since you know you're not able to finish the last passage you have to be quick about the first 3. I wouldn't really move so fast that you jeopardize points but you've got to be mindful that you have a passage remaining.
• Zachary_P Member

  June 2017 659 karma

  Hi Nabeha. If you're scoring near the 170 range already, then it sounds like you have a pretty good grasp of the fundamentals, which is the best place to be. Though it's not always the case, 9/10 times the first passage or two are easier than the second half of the section, both in terms of the passage and the questions asked. It may benefit you to, while still taking the time you need to maintain a high degree of accuracy, try to take less time on these passages. Then, instead of rushing through the last passage, you'll hopefully have 8-10 minutes to approach it. Given that the last passage is often the most difficult, it becomes increasingly difficult to answer the questions without having fully comprehended the passage, as you suggested you might try.

  I think one last thing to keep in mind is the normal timing of a passage. Let's say you normally complete a passage in 8:30, and let's say you spend 3:30 reading the passage. That leaves you with 5 minutes to complete the questions.

  When you're on the fourth passage and you hear the 5 minute warning call halfway through the passage, you may have a minute or so of reading left before you approach the questions. But taking that time to fully comprehend what you are reading will pay off when you can fly through the questions. Even though you might only have 4 minutes to answer questions, at least you can be sure to give a fair shot to the questions you do attempt. I think this is a better approach than skimming and trying to piece together information as you go. Even if you still don't get to the last two questions or so, at least you can be assured that you knew the information to nail the earlier questions.
• 2 Likes

  Sami Live Member Sage ⭐ 7Sage Tutor

  June 2017 10774 karma

  @"Nabeha S" said:
  I will be taking the June LSAT and I find that I sometimes struggle to finish the entire RC section. I am consistently in the middle of the fourth passage when 5 minutes are called, of course, making me nervous and unsure of the most effective way to approach the question. Does anyone have advice on how to approach the last passage without much time? Yesterday I took a PT and tried to skim the passage before approaching the questions, that proved ineffective. I am striving to get a 170+ on the LSAT and so this is a section I truly feel I need to have a strategy when approaching. Any advice would be appreciated!

  So this can happen to anyone. If it happens consistently you want to watch your video recording of the test and see where you are spending your time on unnecessarily and you want to work on fixing it there.

  But lets say it happens to you once in a while and you were reading your fourth passage and 5 minutes were called. A reading of passage should take no more than 4 minutes. So if you are in the middle of the passage you should still have roughly two minutes worth of passage to read. You don't want to go fast here. Your speed and accuracy on questions depends on you understanding this passage well. So you still want to spend the normal amount of time reading the passage. If that took you two minutes now you have three minutes left. You should be spending no more than 40 seconds per question, so that gives you time for 4 questions minimum with 20 seconds to bubble in answer sheet as you go. You want to first answer all the questions that are big picture and don't require to go back. So main point, purpose (which should take less than 40 sec because you have read the passage) and two more inference questions. If the big picture question did not take that long you have now hopefully time to answer 1 more question, pick one that doesn't require you to go back to the passage again as those suck up time. With this strategy hopefully you were able to answer 4-5 questions out of the usual 5-7 questions.

  Although its not ideal to do a passage this way its damage control. But for the long run you really need to watch your RC video recording and figure out where you are going wrong with your time and correct it so you do have adequate time for each passage.

  I hope this helped.
• Alex Alum Member ⭐

  June 2017 23929 karma

  @Sami said:

  @"Nabeha S" said:
  I will be taking the June LSAT and I find that I sometimes struggle to finish the entire RC section. I am consistently in the middle of the fourth passage when 5 minutes are called, of course, making me nervous and unsure of the most effective way to approach the question. Does anyone have advice on how to approach the last passage without much time? Yesterday I took a PT and tried to skim the passage before approaching the questions, that proved ineffective. I am striving to get a 170+ on the LSAT and so this is a section I truly feel I need to have a strategy when approaching. Any advice would be appreciated!

  So this can happen to anyone. If it happens consistently you want to watch your video recording of the test and see where you are spending your time on unnecessarily and you want to work on fixing it there.

  But lets say it happens to you once in a while and you were reading your fourth passage and 5 minutes were called. A reading of passage should take no more than 4 minutes. So if you are in the middle of the passage you should still have roughly two minutes worth of passage to read. You don't want to go fast here. Your speed and accuracy on questions depends on you understanding this passage well. So you still want to spend the normal amount of time reading the passage. If that took you two minutes now you have three minutes left. You should be spending no more than 40 seconds per question, so that gives you time for 4 questions minimum with 20 seconds to bubble in answer sheet as you go. You want to first answer all the questions that are big picture and don't require to go back. So main point, purpose (which should take less than 40 sec because you have read the passage) and two more inference questions. If the big picture question did not take that long you have now hopefully time to answer 1 more question, pick one that doesn't require you to go back to the passage again as those suck up time. With this strategy hopefully you were able to answer 4-5 questions out of the usual 5-7 questions.

  Although its not ideal to do a passage this way its damage control. But for the long run you really need to watch your RC video recording and figure out where you are going wrong with your time and correct it so you do have adequate time for each passage.

  I hope this helped.

  I couldn't agree more than this, especially the part about recording and review. I'm still at -3/-4 but I fought like hell to get there, and Sami's advice helped a ton.