about reading comprehension Forum

[briefcandle]

hi, everyone.

I have been working on lsat for 2 months, and everything went pretty well. I can do most of them within the time frame, and insist a correctness rate of about 20/24 for each section.

However, i find troubles for the reading comprehension. I can finish them, but I don't understand what I was reading. It may sound weird, but that's what it is. I use the technique of reading passage for 4 minutes and later solving problems. But actually, I need more than 5 minutes to grasp the whole structure of it. Therefore, with the short of time, I make guessing for questions. It turns out to be pretty good guess, but I don't feel as sure as other sections.

Can anyone tell me whether it is normal or not?

p.s. English is not my native language, which may explain?

Thank you for your time

[rinkrat19]

From your writing, it is obvious that you aren't a native English-speaker. That probably explains your problems with RC. You certainly write in English far better than I can in any other language, but you need near-native fluency to catch the nuances that RC questions are asking about and your writing implies that you're still somewhat short of that.

I would recommend taking a year off and polishing your English reading and writing skills with a few more classes and a LOT of reading. Law school itself will require a level of fluency similar to what the LSAT requires.

[aliceydu]

From your writing, it is obvious that you aren't a native English-speaker. That probably explains your problems with RC. You certainly write in English far better than I can in any other language, but you need near-native fluency to catch the nuances that RC questions are asking about and your writing implies that you're still somewhat short of that.

I would recommend taking a year off and polishing your English reading and writing skills with a few more classes and a LOT of reading. Law school itself will require a level of fluency similar to what the LSAT requires.

I noticed that I often have trouble completely comprehending passages with topics that I'm not familiar with. For example, I just took Preptest 51 (June 2007), and the four topics are:
1. Poetry/narrative fiction
2. Human language/music
3. IP and the WWW
4. Pollen samples/record

I missed a ton of questions for #3 because it was just harder to wrap my head around it. If I completely understand what I read, then I usually don't make any mistakes. How should I go about improving myself? Just read more slowly/carefully?

Thanks

[briefcandle]

From your writing, it is obvious that you aren't a native English-speaker. That probably explains your problems with RC. You certainly write in English far better than I can in any other language, but you need near-native fluency to catch the nuances that RC questions are asking about and your writing implies that you're still somewhat short of that.

I would recommend taking a year off and polishing your English reading and writing skills with a few more classes and a LOT of reading. Law school itself will require a level of fluency similar to what the LSAT requires.

despite of my "not so fluent english", my lsat skill is far better. after doing couples more RC, I realized several of my shortcomings may contribute to my lack of fluency. For example, I may not be able to rephrase main point right after i finished reading; and unlike LR section, I cannot pomp up an immediate answer after I read the question stem.

ahh, taking a year off wouldn't be very helpful.

[TommyK]

Hell, I'm native English speaker and I can't make it through the passages in four minutes. I'm probably more of a 5:00 - 5:30 on section kind of guy. But I spend very little time re-reading and it worked out okay. I think I was -3 when I took mine.

Make sure you're spending your time grasping the main idea, scope shifts, author voice, etc as opposed to picking up on all the bullshit small details. This will make it much easier and quicker. After a while, you'll be able to zero in instinctively on the important parts and read the unimportant parts superficially.