How do I improve on the Reading Comprehension Section??? Forum

[Solerpower]

So i'm practically dripping with depression after literally destroying my score on every reading comprehension section of every practice test.

So far on my most recent PT, I scored 18/27 on the RC, but scored 21/24, 22/26, and 21/24 on the other sections.

Obviously, RC is destroying my tests. I would be hitting near 170 if I could score similar to other sections, but nope, 164 or 165 for me.

So how do I improve? I just started the RC bible, but I really haven't heard great things about it.

Do I just practice and do all the Kaplan Mastery sections or does anyone have any other great advice.

Thanks guys!

[tomwatts]

Well, what's going wrong? Are you have time problems or accuracy problems? (The latter is more likely, but the former is possible.) If so, are there any particular types of questions you consistently miss? Are some passages much better and some much worse, or is it about uniform? And so on.

The more information you can give, the better the advice you'll get.

[Solerpower]

I consistently finish with about two minutes left. However, the questions that i'm missing are varied, and by varied I mean all types. I'm assuming this is a big problem, and I've really attempted to pin point my problems on reading and not the questions. Is this more than likely my issue or is it something different?

[jpSartre]

Take time to read the passage careful, it's the best thing you can do for yourself. Make sure you understand it to the point where you only need to refer back once, twice tops, and only for questions that list lines without explanation or (maybe) for questions about the purpose of paragraphs.

[Cardboardbox]

I'm trying to remember some things that helped me but seeing as I took the LSAT well over half a year ago things may be rusty. Some things that I remember worked for me is in RC with opposing views making a quick "scale" and putting the proponents of one issue on one side and it's opponents on the other side. From what I recall, when it said "critics say..." you can bet there's gonna be a question about interpreting just what it was the critics were saying, so take a mental note. Some people debate whether making notes is useful or not. I tried both ways, it wasn't really useful for me and on the actual test I made no notes whatsoever (I only missed 1 on the RC on the actual test and it ended up being my best section) but again, this works differently for different people, so see which is best for you. For me personally, it wasted time on notes I didn't really need when it was simpler to do it mentally. Most importantly however, is to personalize the reading to an extent. Once you're done with one passage, move on to the next with a clear mind and focus on the passage at hand.

That's all I got, sorry if it's overly general/not to helpful, like I said, it's been a while lol