RC Inference Questions Forum
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ThisWillDo23
- Posts: 41
- Joined: Fri May 23, 2014 11:52 pm
RC Inference Questions
Hello all, so I've been scoring -2/-3 consistently on the RC sections of the LSAT and never thought much of it while I devoted most of my study time to the other two sections. The other day out of curiosity/perfectionism I decided to see if there was a theme with my wrong RC questions, and sure enough they are consistently inference questions. These questions don't give me as much trouble in LR, but for some reason I can't even begin to glean the right answers for these RC questions. I was an English major so the RC section never gave me much trouble, but it seems like there's some major element I'm missing here. Any tips?
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Christine (MLSAT)
- Posts: 357
- Joined: Fri Nov 22, 2013 3:41 pm
Re: RC Inference Questions
It depends a bit on why you are missing these questions. I typically see a few patterns when my students miss RC inference a lot:
1) Answering from memory, not checking the passage. The reality is that the wrong answer choices are designed to sound tempting with only a superficial memory of the passage itself. If you think you remember the data from the passage well enough to answer an inference question cold, then it shouldn't take you more than a few seconds to relocate the information in the passage. There's often a specific sentence, or even phrase that you can point to to support the correct answer choice. Line references or it didn't happen, that's my RC motto.
2) Mental Spackle We fill in the blanks as we take in information. It's something we've been strongly socialized to do so that information is palatable and more easily storable. If we're filling in slight cracks and missing bits, we're making up things that the author didn't actually say, and we might think an answer choice has support that we just created in our mind.
3) The next chapter of the book We've also been trained to start thinking of the NEXT point that might be relevant to the issue. To some degree this anticipation is helpful, as it can keep you actively engaged with the text as you are reading. The danger, though, is that when the 'next idea' is never introduced, but we walk away still feeling like it might have been the next page, or next chapter. We're inclined to think this idea was actually discussed, because it seems so reasonable that it would be the next talking point.
4) Partial reading of the answer choice There's generally a specific bit that makes an Inference answer incorrect, and if you're entirely focused on the portion of the answer that matches well, you'll never notice it. You want to be actively hunting for problems in any answer choice that seems like it might be The One.
Have you done any self-reflection on what your thought process generally is on these RC Inference questions, or why specifically you are missing them?
Curious to hear your thoughts!
1) Answering from memory, not checking the passage. The reality is that the wrong answer choices are designed to sound tempting with only a superficial memory of the passage itself. If you think you remember the data from the passage well enough to answer an inference question cold, then it shouldn't take you more than a few seconds to relocate the information in the passage. There's often a specific sentence, or even phrase that you can point to to support the correct answer choice. Line references or it didn't happen, that's my RC motto.
2) Mental Spackle We fill in the blanks as we take in information. It's something we've been strongly socialized to do so that information is palatable and more easily storable. If we're filling in slight cracks and missing bits, we're making up things that the author didn't actually say, and we might think an answer choice has support that we just created in our mind.
3) The next chapter of the book We've also been trained to start thinking of the NEXT point that might be relevant to the issue. To some degree this anticipation is helpful, as it can keep you actively engaged with the text as you are reading. The danger, though, is that when the 'next idea' is never introduced, but we walk away still feeling like it might have been the next page, or next chapter. We're inclined to think this idea was actually discussed, because it seems so reasonable that it would be the next talking point.
4) Partial reading of the answer choice There's generally a specific bit that makes an Inference answer incorrect, and if you're entirely focused on the portion of the answer that matches well, you'll never notice it. You want to be actively hunting for problems in any answer choice that seems like it might be The One.
Have you done any self-reflection on what your thought process generally is on these RC Inference questions, or why specifically you are missing them?
Curious to hear your thoughts!
