Reading Comp! Forum

[smene007]

Hey! how's it going everyone?

I am currently struggling with reading comp and was wondering what advice anyone had in regards to getting better at the questions in general?

I know that with practice you can eventually predict the sort of questions you will get and that will help you with time - But i'm just wondering... did any of you improve your score by just continuing to do these problems over and over again?

thanks-

[sd1111]

I do not think that practice alone would benifit for our RC. Practice and review are essential and necessary, however, I do belive we need extra reading and skills like speed reading and short-term memory.

RC influeces not only the RC section but also the LR section. Overall, improve the RC could benefit the LR which enables us miss less than -4 in two lr sections, I suppose.

[ihenry]

we need extra reading and skills like speed reading and short-term memory.

This. Seems to me, RC = (reading speed + short term memory) * psychological factor.

[PrayFor170]

I just improved my RC from missing -11 per section to less than 5. I recommend the LSAT Trainer. Browse through all the chapters regarding RC.
For me, it is important to read for structure. Although all sorts of test prep materials told you so, they failed to explain what it means by "read for structure". While you are reading, at the same time you need to ask "why is the author writing this? What is she trying to tell me?" Pause for 5 seconds to summarize what the paragraph you've just read before moving on to the next.
That being said, reading speed and a sober mind is necessary for your success.

[omd3117]

This actually may seem like crazy advice, but it REALLY worked for me. I went from a -7 consistently to missing 0-2 questions after implementing this. Stop annotating the passage. Most readers do not comprehend quickly reading in this way. Instead, focus on understanding the passage and what it's main focus is. I came away from understanding about 60% of the passage and that is OKAY. I would read in about 2-3 minutes which is the natural time for most people to get through a passage if they aren't annotating. Every answer you need is in the passage--make sure to find the evidence for every question. Even if it seems like you know the answer without referring back to the passage that is a surefire way of missing trickier questions. Every answer is in the passage (even the ones that seem like they are not i.e. author's point) and just realize where they are. After implementing this strategy, I started doing much better.

[appind]

I just improved my RC from missing -11 per section to less than 5. I recommend the LSAT Trainer. Browse through all the chapters regarding RC.
For me, it is important to read for structure. Although all sorts of test prep materials told you so, they failed to explain what it means by "read for structure". While you are reading, at the same time you need to ask "why is the author writing this? What is she trying to tell me?" Pause for 5 seconds to summarize what the paragraph you've just read before moving on to the next.
That being said, reading speed and a sober mind is necessary for your success.

how much time do you take to read the passage? which PTs do these rc score refer to?

This actually may seem like crazy advice, but it REALLY worked for me. I went from a -7 consistently to missing 0-2 questions after implementing this. Stop annotating the passage. Most readers do not comprehend quickly reading in this way. Instead, focus on understanding the passage and what it's main focus is. I came away from understanding about 60% of the passage and that is OKAY. I would read in about 2-3 minutes which is the natural time for most people to get through a passage if they aren't annotating. Every answer you need is in the passage--make sure to find the evidence for every question. Even if it seems like you know the answer without referring back to the passage that is a surefire way of missing trickier questions. Every answer is in the passage (even the ones that seem like they are not i.e. author's point) and just realize where they are. After implementing this strategy, I started doing much better.

what PTs have you done for RC? Newer PTs are much more difficult to score well on than the older ones.

[PrayFor170]

On average 2-3 minutes. I refer to PTs after 50.
Recent RCs are more sneaky.

[omd3117]

The newer passages were difficult because of the comparative passages. I did zero annotating on the top passage, on the bottom, I underlined similar words I saw and circled the differences. (But my passages had very little markings.)

I would suggest doing a couple from the 50s untimed using this method. After noticing and trusting yourself to find the evidence, I would start drilling sections of RC timed--but make sure you take them when you are very focused. So many of the problems from RC answers stems from an inability to recognize nuances in the answer choices (just like LR) i.e. "most" vs " "some".

Once I had a good handle on what I was supposed to do, and got my method down untimed, don't change it. Not even if your scores fluctuate during the timed sections.

Again, everyone is different during the reading, and different methods will work, so commit to whatever you feel is comfortable.

Hope that helps!

edit* I used this method on every preptest. I was one of those insane people who prepped by looking at every single LSAT question ever.

how much time do you take to read the passage? which PTs do these rc score refer to?

This actually may seem like crazy advice, but it REALLY worked for me. I went from a -7 consistently to missing 0-2 questions after implementing this. Stop annotating the passage. Most readers do not comprehend quickly reading in this way. Instead, focus on understanding the passage and what it's main focus is. I came away from understanding about 60% of the passage and that is OKAY. I would read in about 2-3 minutes which is the natural time for most people to get through a passage if they aren't annotating. Every answer you need is in the passage--make sure to find the evidence for every question. Even if it seems like you know the answer without referring back to the passage that is a surefire way of missing trickier questions. Every answer is in the passage (even the ones that seem like they are not i.e. author's point) and just realize where they are. After implementing this strategy, I started doing much better.

what PTs have you done for RC? Newer PTs are much more difficult to score well on than the older ones.[/quote]

[appind]

The newer passages were difficult because of the comparative passages. I did zero annotating on the top passage, on the bottom, I underlined similar words I saw and circled the differences. (But my passages had very little markings.)

I would suggest doing a couple from the 50s untimed using this method. After noticing and trusting yourself to find the evidence, I would start drilling sections of RC timed--but make sure you take them when you are very focused. So many of the problems from RC answers stems from an inability to recognize nuances in the answer choices (just like LR) i.e. "most" vs " "some".

Once I had a good handle on what I was supposed to do, and got my method down untimed, don't change it. Not even if your scores fluctuate during the timed sections.

Again, everyone is different during the reading, and different methods will work, so commit to whatever you feel is comfortable.

Hope that helps!

edit* I used this method on every preptest. I was one of those insane people who prepped by looking at every single LSAT question ever.

how much time do you take to read the passage? which PTs do these rc score refer to?

This actually may seem like crazy advice, but it REALLY worked for me. I went from a -7 consistently to missing 0-2 questions after implementing this. Stop annotating the passage. Most readers do not comprehend quickly reading in this way. Instead, focus on understanding the passage and what it's main focus is. I came away from understanding about 60% of the passage and that is OKAY. I would read in about 2-3 minutes which is the natural time for most people to get through a passage if they aren't annotating. Every answer you need is in the passage--make sure to find the evidence for every question. Even if it seems like you know the answer without referring back to the passage that is a surefire way of missing trickier questions. Every answer is in the passage (even the ones that seem like they are not i.e. author's point) and just realize where they are. After implementing this strategy, I started doing much better.

i'll give this a try. the main issue in recent RC is timing.
have you taken the real lsat and if yes the rc score? how much time do you spend on questions of a passage and do you have spare time in the end?