Those of you who score great on RC... Forum

[fosterp]

I am wondering, how did your strategy on RC evolve as you studied and got better? Did you pick one method and stick with it through entire study period, or did a method slowly evolve over time until you became very good? Or were you doing really bad, decided to make a change, and all of a sudden started scoring better?

Also, how do you pace yourself in the reading? Do you generally read faster than normal on passages in order to give substantial time for each question and then constantly refer to the passage? Or read more slowly and try to retain as much information as possible, only referring back on occasion. I have a problem with reading sometimes where I have to reread a sentence more than once to understand what exactly is being said, and it probably slows down my reading speed considerably. Should I just cope and try to get faster at answering questions, or just accept only partially understanding the text and hope I can refer back if needed.

[Adjudicator]

Hi, my name is Adjudicator and I am awesome at RC.

I tried strategies where you underline, or note things as you read, and that didn't work for me. I pretty much just read it. I'd say I quickly read through the passage at first, looking for the overall idea and how it is structured, and then refer back to it for specific details as needed.

I always finish RC sections with like 8-10 minutes left, and my scores on RC range between -0 and -2.

[Hedwig]

Hi, my name is eit and I'm fairly decent at RC.

I say that because I can -0 a section or I can -4 once in awhile, soooo whether that's just due to natural variance or me not having a complete mastery, who can say.

My method slowly evolved. If you count evolving from not being a method at all to being a method.

I read the passage, slowishly. Underlining and circling key names. Then I read questions/refer back to the passage. I like gut answers - ones you instinctively like, especially on tone questions.

[Adjudicator]

I like gut answers - ones you instinctively like, especially on tone questions.

I like gut answers too... frequently when I do miss one, I go back and look and it was an answer I changed... my first choice usually turns out to be right.

[Sh@keNb@ke]

Hi, my name is eit and I'm fairly decent at RC.

I say that because I can -0 a section or I can -4 once in awhile, soooo whether that's just due to natural variance or me not having a complete mastery, who can say.

My method slowly evolved. If you count evolving from not being a method at all to being a method.

I read the passage, slowishly. Underlining and circling key names. Then I read questions/refer back to the passage. I like gut answers - ones you instinctively like, especially on tone questions.

Out of curiosity, when you say you read the passage slowishly how long do you mean? I'm currently reading the passage in about 3-3.5 mins, but I've felt that my comprehension is pretty horrible. I'm wondering if I'm going too fast or if 3-3.5 minutes is an average read. Thanks for the help in advance!

[kazu]

Hi, my name is eit and I'm fairly decent at RC.

I say that because I can -0 a section or I can -4 once in awhile, soooo whether that's just due to natural variance or me not having a complete mastery, who can say.

My method slowly evolved. If you count evolving from not being a method at all to being a method.

I read the passage, slowishly. Underlining and circling key names. Then I read questions/refer back to the passage. I like gut answers - ones you instinctively like, especially on tone questions.

Out of curiosity, when you say you read the passage slowishly how long do you mean? I'm currently reading the passage in about 3-3.5 mins, but I've felt that my comprehension is pretty horrible. I'm wondering if I'm going too fast or if 3-3.5 minutes is an average read. Thanks for the help in advance!

Dunno about eit but I think 3-3.5 is on the normal side. I think some people even take longer. My goal was always to be able to answer all questions (except the really local ones) without having to look back at the passage.

[Bumi]

RC is my best section. I usually get all the questions right, and missed 1 on the real LSAT in June.

I think it helps that my job involves critical reading, though, and I read a lot of nonfiction for pleasure.

Over time I noticed that the RC questions that I would miss the most would be the main-idea questions. I went back and looked at how I was missing them. I usually picked an answer that was too big. For example, if there was a question about the main idea in a passage about dark matter in the universe, and the right answer was "The author argues that current theories for the source of dark matter are incomplete," I would always choose something like "The author is advocating an entirely new way of understanding astrophysics" or something. Once I noticed this pattern, I adjusted when I saw those types of questions, and I became more accurate. If you're tracking the types of questions you miss, you can often make yourself better.

My methodology was to force myself to move forward steadily through the reading. Typically I will scan the whole passage, then refer back to it on each question. You have to do what is right for you, though.

[Hedwig]

Hi, my name is eit and I'm fairly decent at RC.

I say that because I can -0 a section or I can -4 once in awhile, soooo whether that's just due to natural variance or me not having a complete mastery, who can say.

My method slowly evolved. If you count evolving from not being a method at all to being a method.

I read the passage, slowishly. Underlining and circling key names. Then I read questions/refer back to the passage. I like gut answers - ones you instinctively like, especially on tone questions.

Out of curiosity, when you say you read the passage slowishly how long do you mean? I'm currently reading the passage in about 3-3.5 mins, but I've felt that my comprehension is pretty horrible. I'm wondering if I'm going too fast or if 3-3.5 minutes is an average read. Thanks for the help in advance!

I don't really time myself (while reading the passage at least) so I don't know how long it takes but maybe 2 minutes? I can read them in about a minute if I just read them so I slow myself down with underlining, let's assume underlining adds about a minute.

I finish with about 5-10 minutes to spare always... never hit the 5 minutes left on RC with questions left to do (sometimes with questions to review).

[amkid100]

I am wondering, how did your strategy on RC evolve as you studied and got better? Did you pick one method and stick with it through entire study period, or did a method slowly evolve over time until you became very good? Or were you doing really bad, decided to make a change, and all of a sudden started scoring better?

Also, how do you pace yourself in the reading? Do you generally read faster than normal on passages in order to give substantial time for each question and then constantly refer to the passage? Or read more slowly and try to retain as much information as possible, only referring back on occasion. I have a problem with reading sometimes where I have to reread a sentence more than once to understand what exactly is being said, and it probably slows down my reading speed considerably. Should I just cope and try to get faster at answering questions, or just accept only partially understanding the text and hope I can refer back if needed.

I always get -0 to -2 on RC. I underline/circle as I read and then jot down a phrase that describes the paragraph. For example, I just read one about Thurgood Marshall and I wrote down the names of the cases as my notes. This helps because when you go to answer the questions you know exactly where to look for the answer. I always look back to the passage for questions (except for 'main idea' and 'the author would most likely agree') because it ensures that I won't shift the scope of my answer. I guess my method would coincide with the first approach you mentioned, but I don't have to consciously read any faster than I normal do.