Thoughts on only going for 3/4 RC passages? Forum

[ltrutledge]

It's 2 weeks out and I need to do something drastic... I consistently miss 9-10 on RC. I just run out of time and panic. I know I can get them all right with enough time (obviously), so I'm thinking about just going for 3 of them with the most questions and guessing on the one with 5 questions that will hurt me less. At this point, I'd rather miss all 5 on one section than miss 10 sporadically on all of them... has this worked for anyone else?

[stintez]

It's 2 weeks out and I need to do something drastic... I consistently miss 9-10 on RC. I just run out of time and panic. I know I can get them all right with enough time (obviously), so I'm thinking about just going for 3 of them with the most questions and guessing on the one with 5 questions that will hurt me less. At this point, I'd rather miss all 5 on one section than miss 10 sporadically on all of them... has this worked for anyone else?

Your method is exactly right. do the passage with 8 questions first and so on and so forth.

[bceagles182]

Yes. When I tried to do all four, I consistently got more wrong on the RC section than I did on the other three sections combined because I didn't have time to go back to address specific (local) questions extensively. A few weeks before the exam, I started doing three passages and could do them almost perfectly and I did much better on test day than I had been before I swtched methods, although it was still my worst section. The RC section in general completely sucks imo.

[pjo]

Wow I posted basically this same scenario here yesterday lol. I'm having EXACTLY the same problem (can't seem to break -9 on RC). Needless to say, I'm fairly positive this is what I'll do. The key thing though is not to disregard the passage with 8 questions, which I'm sure you already firgured out.

[ltrutledge]

yup. i don't really miss more on any particular type of passage, so i'm going to start with the most questions and go down to the least. i feel good about this new strategy!!! even though it took me until 10 days before test day to figure it out...

[makingwaves]

For those who are planning on doing this -- if you find you have leftover time, do you start the fourth passage, or do you guess on all the remaining questions?

As i'm getting higher into the 50's im seeing my RC score trickle down to as much as -7. I may try this on my PT tomorrow and see if I do better.

[Ronaldo]

I took the LSAT last December, and I had the same problem.

I decided two weeks before the test to only do 3/4 passages. On test day, I had less than three minutes to finish the last passage. The last passage was a five question passage, and I mostly just guessed D on all of them, and got 2/5 or 3/5 right.

Just be sure to look at all the four passages before you begin and try to leave the passage with the fewest questions and if possible, the hardest to understand and dissect.

Good Luck!!

[stintez]

For those who are planning on doing this -- if you find you have leftover time, do you start the fourth passage, or do you guess on all the remaining questions?

As i'm getting higher into the 50's im seeing my RC score trickle down to as much as -7. I may try this on my PT tomorrow and see if I do better.

If you have about 430 to 5 min left over quickly glance over the passage and answer the main idea question. If you have only 2-4 then I usually just go to the question that say what does this word mean in this line and try to figure it out. Then whatever I have left I mark D for all the ones I am going to guess on.