Reading Comp Advice Forum

[dsb83]

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[kazu]

Is there a pattern in which ones you get wrong? Like, on passages in a specific field, or are they general Qs or local ones? Or do they happen for the later passages? What about time?

-2~3 is a strong score overall, so at this point instead of changing your whole RC strategy I think you just need some fine-tuning.

[dsb83]

..

[s0ph1e2007]

slow down

read reading comp passages slower then you'll have to return to the pasage to answer questions for maybe only one of the questions; that's how I do it, and I always get -0

I do have to warn you though. You seem to be setting yourself up for disappointment. If you're consistently getting around 4 wrong, I wouldn't expect a 178-180. Before I took the feb LSAT I was scoring exclusively 180s and 179s with either 0 or 1 wrong, and I got significantly lower on the real deal.

So my advice: slow down and lower your expectations a little bit. Even if you do awesome (which you definitely could!) then you'll just be happy, and not super depressed if you do worse than your average.

[dsb83]

I disagree about setting myself up for disappointment, but thank you for the rest of the advice.

[gdane]

This is a stupid question. Your score is amazing at this point. There is not much difference between a 178 and a 180 when it comes to admissions. At that point, its pretty much all equal. Stick with what youre doing now and you'll be fine. Dont try to change the way you go about this because you might end up hurting yourself.

Good luck!

[dsb83]

Thanks Gdane...part of it is the quest for perfection has caught me...the other reason is I feel like I need to strive for 180, so I have a little room for concentration slips or what not. RC just seems so basic, it's frustrating that it's what's keeping my score from perfect.

[gdane]

Thanks Gdane...part of it is the quest for perfection has caught me...the other reason is I feel like I need to strive for 180, so I have a little room for concentration slips or what not. RC just seems so basic, it's frustrating that it's what's keeping my score from perfect.

Eh, perfection on the LSAT means nothing. Its a great accomplishment, but when you go to law school and subsequently into the legal field, LSAT score means nothing. Everyone starts off on the same slate and you having a 180 doesnt necessarily mean that youre going to be the best in your class.

In any case, just relax. You really are at a good place right now. This is kind of like saying "I have $98 million, but I want $100 million". Youre very close and there really isnt much of a difference. You'll do great.

Good luck!

[Hedwig]

slow down

read reading comp passages slower then you'll have to return to the pasage to answer questions for maybe only one of the questions; that's how I do it, and I always get -0

I do have to warn you though. You seem to be setting yourself up for disappointment. If you're consistently getting around 4 wrong, I wouldn't expect a 178-180. Before I took the feb LSAT I was scoring exclusively 180s and 179s with either 0 or 1 wrong, and I got significantly lower on the real deal.

So my advice: slow down and lower your expectations a little bit. Even if you do awesome (which you definitely could!) then you'll just be happy, and not super depressed if you do worse than your average.

Ouch, you scare me with your talk of scoring 179s and 180s and scoring lower. Lower, like, 170 lower? Or lower, like, 160's lower?

I have to say that you really just have to discover what works for you. For example, I read the passage ... slowishquickly (as in, I read really fast and thus have to slow myself down with underlining while I read, but it's still probably pretty fast in comparison). However, I check back to the passage all the goddamn time. I find I score the worst when I'm too lazy to consistently review to the passage. I do have to watch this to make sure I'm not wasting my time, and sometimes I think I need to just circle questions, put down an answer, and move on, and come back to questions.

So, Sophie might get to a -0 by only reading the passage once and rarely referring, whereas my -0's usually come from referencing the passage repeatedly. Your -0 might be a combination of strategies. You just gotta test it out.

[Blumpbeef]

Is there value in practicing old RCs?

I just feel like the new ones are so much more difficult that practicing with old passages will only have a marginal benefit. I never gave RC much thought before, but I think I will be spending all this week trying to overcome this last hurdle.

[3|ink]

Is there value in practicing old RCs?

I just feel like the new ones are so much more difficult that practicing with old passages will only have a marginal benefit. I never gave RC much thought before, but I think I will be spending all this week trying to overcome this last hurdle.

I feared this too, but practicing old RCs does help. I've been drilling the RC's from the green book of '10 LSATs' (with tests 7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18) and I think this has helped me quite a bit. I hope to do the remaining RCs in this book before test day. I think I only have 2 left.

[Blumpbeef]

Do you do timed or untimed?

Time is usually a factor for me, but I think It is not too difficult to build up a good pacing. What I don't know how to approach is a way to be able to answer the ridiculously vague questions.

I feel like if I don't get RC figured out, I might need to just quickly narrow down the vague questions to two choices and then guess. This will stop me from wasting time on them and so hopefully I can turn my -7s and -9s down to -3s and -4s, but thats still not nearly where I want to be scoring.

[3|ink]

Do you do timed or untimed?

Time is usually a factor for me, but I think It is not too difficult to build up a good pacing. What I don't know how to approach is a way to be able to answer the ridiculously vague questions.

I feel like if I don't get RC figured out, I might need to just quickly narrow down the vague questions to two choices and then guess. This will stop me from wasting time on them and so hopefully I can turn my -7s and -9s down to -3s and -4s, but thats still not nearly where I want to be scoring.

That depends. I'd say that if you're rushing yourself through the passages, you should try taking timed sections but slow down while reading the passages. In my experience, taking an extra minute to read the passage can save you 1-2 minutes on the questions. However, if you're struggling to read the passage in less than 5 minutes, I suggest taking untimed sections until you build up your reading pace. I read a few books on the side to build up my reading speed.

[Sandro]

Is there value in practicing old RCs?

I just feel like the new ones are so much more difficult that practicing with old passages will only have a marginal benefit. I never gave RC much thought before, but I think I will be spending all this week trying to overcome this last hurdle.

I feared this too, but practicing old RCs does help. I've been drilling the RC's from the green book of '10 LSATs' (with tests 7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,18) and I think this has helped me quite a bit. I hope to do the remaining RCs in this book before test day. I think I only have 2 left.

Practicing old RC might "help" me in the sense its just more practice, but they are so easy its not even funny. I actually finished the RC in PT14 i just took with EXTRA time and missed only 3, mostly due to mis reading the answer stem. It seems like new RC says "Oh here's some slightly more difficult passages, and hey we are going to ask you some LR type questions about them, oh and hey not as many cake questions and more intricate ones"