Law passages Forum
-
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:34 pm
Law passages
Law passages in RC cause the most trouble. Any recommendation for how to strengthen comprehension of these passages besides persistent practice?
- dontsaywhatyoumean
- Posts: 265
- Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2015 9:35 pm
Re: Law passages
What about them do you find makes them more difficult?
-
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:34 pm
Re: Law passages
The struggle is in part psychological, since the test is the first step into the legal world and the passage topic is about legal material.dontsaywhatyoumean wrote:What about them do you find makes them more difficult?
There seem to be more relationships between concepts in law passages than for non-law passages.
The questions, rather than the passage, seem to be the source of the problem.
- dontsaywhatyoumean
- Posts: 265
- Joined: Tue Sep 08, 2015 9:35 pm
Re: Law passages
Hmm, that's still not specific enough for me, other than the psychological part.
I know personally that I used to HATE the arts passages. Not humanities like philosophy, etc, but arts as in having to do with sculptures, paintings, etc. Music was fine though, because I really like music, and spend some time examining it.
I've found that my largest improvement with RC was due to having a better understanding of the passage. Intimidation, or lack of interest with arts passages often caused me to score less there.
Maybe try thinking to yourself that the law passages are inherently interesting DUE to their relevance to what you want to do? Maybe you can learn something.
I know personally that I used to HATE the arts passages. Not humanities like philosophy, etc, but arts as in having to do with sculptures, paintings, etc. Music was fine though, because I really like music, and spend some time examining it.
I've found that my largest improvement with RC was due to having a better understanding of the passage. Intimidation, or lack of interest with arts passages often caused me to score less there.
Maybe try thinking to yourself that the law passages are inherently interesting DUE to their relevance to what you want to do? Maybe you can learn something.
- Christinabruin
- Posts: 315
- Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2016 10:20 pm
Re: Law passages
I agree and I had the biggest struggle with science/econ passages when I first started doing RC. To get over this struggle, I first mastered the RC subjects that were easier to me like humanities/law. I did this by stripping the passage down to its bare components and looking actively for the author's voice, different opinions, main point, passage structure, examples, etc. Then I applied this to the subjectively harder topics since they're just different in subject matter, not passage structure. Doing so made me focus almost exclusively on passage organization and different viewpoints, instead of getting boggled down by the subject matter itself. Also, I think reading science magazines/articles/books helped me get over that intimidation, and I would read them as I would any other RC passage (by looking for author's opinion, main point, ways to strengthen or weaken the author's claim). So maybe it could also help you if you read law magazines until it feels like second nature!WeightliftingThinker wrote:The struggle is in part psychological, since the test is the first step into the legal world and the passage topic is about legal material.dontsaywhatyoumean wrote:What about them do you find makes them more difficult?
There seem to be more relationships between concepts in law passages than for non-law passages.
The questions, rather than the passage, seem to be the source of the problem.
Want to continue reading?
Register now to search topics and post comments!
Absolutely FREE!
Already a member? Login
- freekick
- Posts: 322
- Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2015 11:11 am
Re: Law passages
I had a similar thing for Science passages. Practice showed me that the subject of a given passage is virtually irrelevant because what is being tested is a standard set of skills across all passages.WeightliftingThinker wrote:Law passages in RC cause the most trouble. Any recommendation for how to strengthen comprehension of these passages besides persistent practice?
You should practice and review passages to figure out the skills that get tested. Once you get a fair idea of the broad skills being tested, you would become neutral to the subject. And the knowledge that you have the skills being tested will make you test ready. Hth.
-
- Posts: 8046
- Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 5:24 pm
Re: Law passages
Hmm.. I get where you're coming for with some of the questions being hard in law passages, but I think the key is to just have a big interest in what you're reading. Like me, I love law passages, I think they're all really interesting, but I'll daze out on a passage about some historical event.
Do you annotate or just read?
Do you annotate or just read?
-
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:34 pm
Re: Law passages
I annotate, breaking down what each paragraph is mainly about, circling examples, and underlining main points.Mikey wrote:Hmm.. I get where you're coming for with some of the questions being hard in law passages, but I think the key is to just have a big interest in what you're reading. Like me, I love law passages, I think they're all really interesting, but I'll daze out on a passage about some historical event.
Do you annotate or just read?
-
- Posts: 8046
- Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 5:24 pm
Re: Law passages
I see. I think it's pretty normal for people on here to say that if you have a set system of annotating (e.g. voyager's method), then subject matter really shouldn't matter. I know how you feel with these passages though, but really all you can do is practice and try your best to either don't let the subject matter makes or break you, or make yourself be extremely interested in it.WeightliftingThinker wrote:I annotate, breaking down what each paragraph is mainly about, circling examples, and underlining main points.Mikey wrote:Hmm.. I get where you're coming for with some of the questions being hard in law passages, but I think the key is to just have a big interest in what you're reading. Like me, I love law passages, I think they're all really interesting, but I'll daze out on a passage about some historical event.
Do you annotate or just read?
-
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:34 pm
Re: Law passages
I agree. I find it interesting, I'm just inexperienced with it since undergraduate hardly touches on law. Any legal sources you suggest?Mikey wrote:I see. I think it's pretty normal for people on here to say that if you have a set system of annotating (e.g. voyager's method), then subject matter really shouldn't matter. I know how you feel with these passages though, but really all you can do is practice and try your best to either don't let the subject matter makes or break you, or make yourself be extremely interested in it.WeightliftingThinker wrote:I annotate, breaking down what each paragraph is mainly about, circling examples, and underlining main points.Mikey wrote:Hmm.. I get where you're coming for with some of the questions being hard in law passages, but I think the key is to just have a big interest in what you're reading. Like me, I love law passages, I think they're all really interesting, but I'll daze out on a passage about some historical event.
Do you annotate or just read?
-
- Posts: 8046
- Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 5:24 pm
Re: Law passages
no sources, sorry. just put together as many legal rc passages as you can (use 7sage's question bank) and practice them. that's gonna be your best bet at getting better at them since the lsat has a specific structure to its passages as opposed to some other reading source.WeightliftingThinker wrote:I agree. I find it interesting, I'm just inexperienced with it since undergraduate hardly touches on law. Any legal sources you suggest?Mikey wrote:I see. I think it's pretty normal for people on here to say that if you have a set system of annotating (e.g. voyager's method), then subject matter really shouldn't matter. I know how you feel with these passages though, but really all you can do is practice and try your best to either don't let the subject matter makes or break you, or make yourself be extremely interested in it.WeightliftingThinker wrote:I annotate, breaking down what each paragraph is mainly about, circling examples, and underlining main points.Mikey wrote:Hmm.. I get where you're coming for with some of the questions being hard in law passages, but I think the key is to just have a big interest in what you're reading. Like me, I love law passages, I think they're all really interesting, but I'll daze out on a passage about some historical event.
Do you annotate or just read?
-
- Posts: 121
- Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:34 pm
Re: Law passages
Thank you.Mikey wrote:no sources, sorry. just put together as many legal rc passages as you can (use 7sage's question bank) and practice them. that's gonna be your best bet at getting better at them since the lsat has a specific structure to its passages as opposed to some other reading source.WeightliftingThinker wrote:I agree. I find it interesting, I'm just inexperienced with it since undergraduate hardly touches on law. Any legal sources you suggest?Mikey wrote:I see. I think it's pretty normal for people on here to say that if you have a set system of annotating (e.g. voyager's method), then subject matter really shouldn't matter. I know how you feel with these passages though, but really all you can do is practice and try your best to either don't let the subject matter makes or break you, or make yourself be extremely interested in it.WeightliftingThinker wrote:I annotate, breaking down what each paragraph is mainly about, circling examples, and underlining main points.Mikey wrote:Hmm.. I get where you're coming for with some of the questions being hard in law passages, but I think the key is to just have a big interest in what you're reading. Like me, I love law passages, I think they're all really interesting, but I'll daze out on a passage about some historical event.
Do you annotate or just read?
- RamTitan
- Posts: 1091
- Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2015 7:45 pm
Re: Law passages
I'm not a big fan of annotating. It's a great learning tool on passage structure and seeing which parts are relevant towards answering the questions, but I advise weening yourself off of it. Lots of high scorers advocate for "mentally annotating" the passages.WeightliftingThinker wrote:I annotate, breaking down what each paragraph is mainly about, circling examples, and underlining main points.Mikey wrote:Hmm.. I get where you're coming for with some of the questions being hard in law passages, but I think the key is to just have a big interest in what you're reading. Like me, I love law passages, I think they're all really interesting, but I'll daze out on a passage about some historical event.
Do you annotate or just read?
Register now!
Resources to assist law school applicants, students & graduates.
It's still FREE!
Already a member? Login
- AvatarMeelo
- Posts: 515
- Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:58 pm
Re: Law passages
I indicate where the main point is/are, author opinion (b/c there are ALWAYS questions about this), and if there are any specific terms that aren't in quotes to differentiate them from the rest of the test. Otherwise, annotating takes up a lot of time.
-
- Posts: 109
- Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2016 8:04 pm
Re: Law passages
law passages, to me, are a lot like principle questions in lr. both doften eal with sets of rules and how/when to apply them.
-
- Posts: 8046
- Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 5:24 pm
Re: Law passages
that's exactly how I view both principle questions and law passages. I just think of principle questions as "applying a law to a scenario" type of thing, haha, makes it slightly more interesting.. I think..gwillygecko wrote:law passages, to me, are a lot like principle questions in lr. both doften eal with sets of rules and how/when to apply them.
Get unlimited access to all forums and topics
Register now!
I'm pretty sure I told you it's FREE...
Already a member? Login