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Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 8:28 pm
by hairy_p
I learned a lot from this forum and one thing I would like to sharemy RC improvement - Washington Post newspaper has dramatically improved my Reading comprehension. After practice with Washington Post I am doing around 8 questions correct out of 10.

All kinds of paragraphs:
-Politics
-Law
-Philosophy
-Science

Mostly global questions like (Attitude, main idea, tone, scope, vulnerable to criticism, comparative paragraphs) were my weakness but not anymore. I started with a local newspaper-Washington Examiner- and then started with Washington Post which proved to be very beneficial.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 3:51 am
by LateNight
Aren't newspapers written at a 7th grade reading level?

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:55 am
by theZeigs
Waiting for a loud, pushy New Yorker to assert that their newspaper or magazine is superior...

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:31 am
by yeff
There's so much that is odd about this, from the OP's screen name to their odd sentence construction.

In any case, it is all about your baseline. I definitely credit my habit of reading the newspaper just about cover-to-cover starting in elementary school with strong reading and writing abilities later in life. But it certainly is at a pretty basic level.

Most importantly, the Kaplan Test Prep Daily's editorial page features an incredibly extensive collection of hacks peddling what seems to be willfully misleading trash. Fred Hiatt FTL.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:33 am
by futurelawyer413
theZeigs wrote:Waiting for a loud, pushy New Yorker to assert that their newspaper or magazine is superior...
+1, or Boston or even LA lol

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:35 am
by SAE
futurelawyer413 wrote:
theZeigs wrote:Waiting for a loud, pushy New Yorker to assert that their newspaper or magazine is superior...
+1, or Boston or even LA lol
WSJ ftw!

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:39 am
by of Benito Cereno
.,.,.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:41 am
by quasi-stellar
theZeigs wrote:Waiting for a loud, pushy New Yorker to assert that their newspaper or magazine is superior...
Wall Street Journal, sson!!
Seriously though, that newspaper has some fairly complex articles on economics and finances.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 12:37 pm
by bp colin
I know this has been said a million times, but I think The Economist is one of the closest matches to RC. It's written at a college-level (not as thick as RC passages, but still a lot more sophisticated than most news sources), the standard articles aren't incredibly long, and they're generally opinionated. Very similar to RC passages. And there are articles about finance, science, art, literature, etc.

Although of course nothing beats actual RC passages for RC practice.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 12:46 pm
by Barolo
+1, The Economist.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 12:48 pm
by of Benito Cereno
.,.,.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 12:48 pm
by 09042014
There are a fuck load of RC passages. How about practicing with them?

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 1:52 pm
by quasi-stellar
Desert Fox wrote:There are a fuck load of RC passages. How about practicing with them?
Very true, practicing passages is essential. However, I personally like to keep myself sharp outside of LSAT realms. Reading other things is generally useful, even if it's only for the sake of sustaining adequate reading speed.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 2:10 pm
by JasonR
Desert Fox wrote:There are a fuck load of RC passages. How about practicing with them?
Seriously. I may be off by a few, but aren't there 252 released RC passage in existence? 252 of these fuckers is not enough?

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 3:22 pm
by of Benito Cereno
.,.,.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 3:24 pm
by 09042014
of Benito Cereno wrote:
JasonR wrote:
Desert Fox wrote:There are a fuck load of RC passages. How about practicing with them?
Seriously. I may be off by a few, but aren't there 252 released RC passage in existence? 252 of these fuckers is not enough?
you will have a very unpleasant time in law school if you have not accustomed yourself to reading material more difficult than harry potter or the sports section at this point.
Well the Washington Post isn't going to help. It's meant to be understood by everyone.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 3:36 pm
by of Benito Cereno
.,.,,

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 6:47 pm
by 06132010
ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 7:17 pm
by of Benito Cereno
ok.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:22 pm
by hairy_p
If you couldn't understand then may god bless you for your rest of life!

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 10:25 pm
by hairy_p
LateNight wrote:Aren't newspapers written at a 7th grade reading level?

Or may be you were reading some "special" newspapers sold at public places. Or you were not reading the editorials but reading the little advertisements of panty hose that's why you felt that thier english is of 7th grade.

It is almost unlikely that you find a person who say that editorial of Washington Post is of 7th grade English.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:39 pm
by LateNight
I can tell you right now that the Post does not write stories at a college level. Not that the editorial team couldn't write at that level, but the vast majority of Americans do not read at that level. When I was taking journalism classes we were taught to write at about an 8th to 10th grade level. We were not supposed to use complex sentence structre, and even compound sentences are generally avoided. To think that the Post, or any other newspaper, is written at a level even comparable to what you will find on the LSAT reading comprehension secion is laughable.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 11:45 pm
by eandy
Wow, are there people(applying to law school) who suck so much at reading that they actually improve their score by reading THE NEWSPAPER?

Thank God I was a nerdy child. I didn't have to worry about this stuff. RCPerfectScoreSECURE.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 11:13 am
by JasonR
eandy wrote:Wow, are there people(applying to law school) who suck so much at reading that they actually improve their score by reading THE NEWSPAPER?

Thank God I was a nerdy child. I didn't have to worry about this stuff. RCPerfectScoreSECURE.
That's nice.

First time I've come across someone with a -0 on RC and a -21 or -22 on the rest of the test.

Re: Reading Comprehension improvement through Washington Post

Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 11:17 am
by eandy
JasonR wrote: That's nice.

First time I've come across someone with a -0 on RC and a -21 or -22 on the rest of the test.
I have severe anxiety related to the LSAT; I still have nightmares about it. However, RC is incredibly soothing. I think that having to stop and read the passage calms my nerves significantly. The other sections do not have the mental break. hth

I honestly think that if you have not done a lot of reading in your life, you're not going to do well on RC. I don't think you can fix it in a few weeks, or even a few months, reading a newspaper.