Taking December LSAT- I have one month to fix my RC problem Forum

[sjlawand88]

All,

I have nearly mastered LR-- I only miss 4 LR per section.
I have nearly mastered LG-- I only miss 3-4 LG per section.
I am taking the December LSAT. I am consistently missing 13-14 on RC. I only have time to read 3 of the passages. Thus, I manage to skip the most seemingly bland passage and guess on that. I am still missing numerous questions on the 3 passages I actually do.

I have not used an RC bible as I have heard many mixed views regarding that. I have been trying to read more dense material, such as economist and NY times.

What do you think I can do to fix this RC problem within the next 34 days or so?

Thanks in advance!

[SupraVln180]

you haven't nearly mastered anything, Games is a "gimme" 0/-1 everytime, practice til you get there and read the LGB. Logical Reasoning keep drilling, because I was at -2/3 per section and thought I had it and got killed by it on test day, hence a 163 and retake.

Now to answer your original question, the only way to get better at RC is to do passages, you will naturally develop your own system. I started at -14 and got -4 on test day, not great but a big jump. Here's a tip: stop underlining everything in the passage and just read it, circle names, key terms and transitional words. Also underline the author's opinion when it comes up. Those should honestly be your only marks on each passage. Start by doing that and you will probably develop your own system at RC, once you do that, you should be good money.

[minnbills]

I agree with the above poster on LR. I was averaging -2 to -4 on LR in PTs before Oct. I ended up scoring -3 and -8, respectively. Though I attribute the latter more to fatigue, the point still stands. You should push yourself to get -1 or -2.

For RC, there's really no easy answer. You need to read, read and read some more. When you read something, and it could be anything, stop after the paragraph ends and try to paraphrase what it was you just read. This is not something you're going to be able to perfect for Dec.

You see, we condition ourselves to derive a 'main point' from everything we read. We consume so much information that retaining the 'finer points' is both too cumbersome and unnecessary, since we can just return to the source for that information.

But I digress. With every passage, try and idenify the author's viewpoint. In addition, box/circle any names or dates for quick reference. One thing I do is go over the questions quickly and make a few notations to the right of the passage. For example, if a question says: "What did mike think of A" or whatever, I'lll jot down "Mike" to the right. Then, when I see "Mike" in the passage, I'll draw an arrow in the margin and continue on.


Don't take what I say as gospel. The point is, you should start to develop your own system based on your needs. If you're not a fast reader, which sounds like the case, you need to learn how to wade through the information quickly.

Also, what score are you hoping for? You might want to consider postponing to Feb, especially if you're not applying 'til next cycle.

Good luck.

[JurisDoctorate]

I am in a similar position, my scores are (not including my unusual October LSAT):

LR1 (-3)
LR2 (-3)
LG (-0)
RC (anywhere from -4 to -11)

I feel I will improve on LR, only to the point where I can all but guarantee the -6 (for me at least, the LR is too unpredictable to assume I will miss less than 3 a section). I agree with SupraVln180 about LR. I had never missed more than 10 on LR combined, yet I managed a -10 on one of the LR sections in October. I believe this was because I got cocky; I stopped practicing LR, in order to spend a ton of time on LG, and I lost my sense of LR. I won't make the same mistake again.

I will continue practicing LG to make sure I don't get out of LG shape. However, with RC, I really need to figure out how to miss no more than 1 question on each passage.

The only thing I am sure of is that I should be doing several passages a day to gain as much of a practice effect as I can.

[iamcutdacheck]

Any reviews on Powerscore's Reading Comprehension Bible? My score jumped big time, largely due to the LGB. Im taking again in December and would like to master the RC section as well.

[thegrayman]

I bought the RC bible, I don't believe it helped at all. The LG and LR bibles were both great, but RC is something you need to teach yourself more than learn some method unfortunately.

[sjlawand88]

I'm aiming for 165 or so.

I took the Oct LSAT and missed about 10 total for both sections of LR. My LR PT sections prior to Oct LSAT relative to today's LR PT sections have improved significantly.

On the Oct LSAT, I missed 13 on RC.

From now on, when doing RC, I will:
Underline author opinions
Bracket main points
Square off the transition words

What else do you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

[sjlawand88]

You guys are right regarding the mastery of LR. I should not be missing more than 2. I am currently missing about 4 a section due to unrealistic test conditions. On test day, as done in Oct, this number should be much lower.

[SupraVln180]

You guys are right regarding the mastery of LR. I should not be missing more than 2. I am currently missing about 4 a section due to unrealistic test conditions. On test day, as done in Oct, this number should be much lower.

No sir, if you miss 4 per section now, you will miss 7 per section on test day. You might be PTing in noisy environments or whatever, but test day YOU WILL BE NERVOUS, I will take noise over nerves any day.

[Nonok]

You guys are right regarding the mastery of LR. I should not be missing more than 2. I am currently missing about 4 a section due to unrealistic test conditions. On test day, as done in Oct, this number should be much lower.

No sir, if you miss 4 per section now, you will miss 7 per section on test day. You might be PTing in noisy environments or whatever, but test day YOU WILL BE NERVOUS, I will take noise over nerves any day.

I dunno man. If you can shake off nerves fast enough, anyone should be fine. I took 15 mins to shake off my nerves during the Oct LSAT and ended up missing 3 questions out of the first 10 though. It was LR too

[sjlawand88]

I tend to do better in the actual test. This is based on my Oct LSAT score.

[sjlawand88]

I started underlining the aforementioned RC criteria....

It actually slows me down because I have to take the time to choose which one of the criteria the sentence fits... Is this normal?