RC Trouble Forum

[should-i-do-it]

RC screwed me the last time I took this test (2 years ago) I missed 6 or 7 on the other 3 sections combined, 12 on RC. I've read through Manhattan RC as well as the RC sections in LSAT trainer and done a bunch of sections on the PT's but am not really seeing any improvement in my scores. There isn't really a pattern on what types of questions I'm missing either. Any advise?

[Calbears123]

RC sucks, unlike LG and LR there really isn't a magic bullet. My advice, just try to take an extra minute reading and read the whole passage like a very long "which one of the following choices is most strongly supported" LR question. I've noticed that the current RC passages are easier to read but have much more tricky answer choices. You just have to really think through the answer choices a lot harder then you do LR questions which most can guess the right answer before going through A-E. Long story short RC blows

[Clyde Frog]

The best thing you can do is have a plan of attack for every passage. This means before starting a passage your goal is to find the main point of the passage, author's tone, author's purpose, argument structure (how paragraphs relate to each other),and evidence for and against the main point. If you go into every passage looking for these things then you will be able to absorb much more and will actually trick yourself into being interested in the passage.

You need to go into EVERY passage like this. I noticed when I first started RC that I would forgot to do these things and it would end in disaster every time.

[Legal2148]

RC screwed me the last time I took this test (2 years ago) I missed 6 or 7 on the other 3 sections combined, 12 on RC. I've read through Manhattan RC as well as the RC sections in LSAT trainer and done a bunch of sections on the PT's but am not really seeing any improvement in my scores. There isn't really a pattern on what types of questions I'm missing either. Any advise?

I struggled with RC for a while until my coworker who had taken the LSAT, done quite well and went to a top law school gave me some coaching. She encouraged me to always ask "why?". Why is the author telling me this? What are they expecting me to deduce from this piece of information. This often helped me make inferences that I would not have otherwise realized. Then when I got to the questions I had already kind of answered some of them just from making deductions or inferences while reading, or at least I was on the right track and it was easier to pick out the correct answer. Hope that helps and good luck!

[BPlaura]

The key to doing well on RC is to focus on the structure of the passage, rather than trying to absorb all of the details - focusing on the structure really helps your overall understanding of the passage, and you'll know where in the passage to look for most detail-oriented questions (e.g. if a question asks for a specific detail about the "scientists' viewpoint," you'll know where in the passage to find that and will be able to locate the answer quickly).

One thing that works well is to stop after each paragraph while reading the passage and ask yourself, "what is the role of this paragraph?" (You're trying to define the role in as few words as possible - background information, traditional viewpoint, critics' viewpoint, function of drilling muds, and so on and so forth.) Doing so really helps your understanding of the structure, which in turn will help your overall understanding.