Hello there,
I'm looking for an advice on how to speed up in RC/LG.
I began studying for the LSATs in mid-January with ManhattanPrep Interact: Complete.
I took two PrepTests so far: one was diagnostic before I started studying (score: 152) and the other was a month ago (score: 155).
I just finished Session 6 on the Interact and the homeworks that follow.
In the diagnostc PrepTest I had to miss out the last 6-8 questions on all sections LR/LG/RC. But in the second Preptest I could get through almost all questions for LR. But I didn't see much improvement on timing for LG and RC. Respectively I was left with only 5 mins for the last set of reading/questions.
To add a little bit more about my situation, for RC, I noticed I spend roughly 5 mins to read the passage. I tend to re-read sentences that are difficult to understand and take pretty long in markings things that are important (after reading each paragraph), doing the "passage map," and looking for the scale. I then take 4 mins and a half in answering the questions. I have read it somewhere (I think it was the strategy guide) that its ideal to read for 3 mins and answer questions in 5 mins. But I have no clue how I should study to speed up reading the passages.
On LG, I may take a bit of time for the "big pause" but I think its rather that I spend pretty long to get through particular questions... i don't know how the time flies so quickly.
I'm a little bit anxious as I don't see myself improving on this issue for two months already. And I plan to take the upcoming June LSAT. Help!
Thanks in advance!
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Re: Lack of time for LG/RC
You'll definitely get faster over time with Games; it just requires lots of repetitive practice. Two months isn't that much. At this point, you're still taking the "initial tour" of what types of games are out there. So when you go to practice one of these new game types, you're naturally going to still be a little faltering and unclear.
Games eventually progresses to the point where much of what we do feels like muscle memory, and only some of it feels like active thinking.
But you'll need to do at least 80 games (two or three times each) before you'll start to feel any of that kick in.
If you haven't already started a habit of redoing games a 2nd and 3rd time, that's huge.
If you really struggled with the game, your 2nd time could be 2-3 days later. Otherwise, probably 5-7 days later.
Your 3rd time could be a week after that.
In order to stay organized about which games you're "due to redo" on any given day, you need to start a REDO CALENDAR, in which you schedule appointments to redo things.
If you just tried PT60, game 1 and know that you need to be able to do it either smoother or faster, then you would just write "PT60,G1" on your calendar for a date a few days later and another time for a date like 10 days later.
June is still pretty far ahead, so for the rest of March, you can definitely still focus on doing things the right way / understanding all the steps necessary to make sure you're getting the correct answer. Speed will come over time, but it's more important to learn a correct approach first.
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For RC, you will definitely need to trim down that reading time in order to have any chance at finishing all four passages.
Keep a few things in mind:
1. You don't needto annotate anything at all. It can be a good tool early on for you to practice Pausing / Consolidating / Prioritizing what you just read. But at a certain point, you should be remembering to do that all on your own.
When I read, I stop and consider what I would be writing down if I were trying to quickly summarize what I had read, but I don't bother actually writing it down. The point of this stage is merely for us to pause, process the info, and say it back to ourselves in much simpler, more compact wording.
2. You will have to come back to the passage for Details no matter what. So if you're re-reading a Detail sentence over and over on a first read, let it go.
I definitely need to understand all the ideas in the 1st Paragraph well, so I will be very willing to re-read sentences multiple times. But if I'm in a body paragraph, especially one where I already understand its overall purpose, then I'll let confusing sentences go and just remind myself about what the overall purpose of that paragraph is.
======
The best way to speed up on RC is to time yourself on each part of the process, with a "Make it work!" mentality.
If you say, "If have 3 minutes to get to the end of this passage, period", then you'll make it work. You won't be able to read it as lovingly as you'd like to, but that's part of the game. You'll have to allocate your 3 minutes in smarter ways (spending more time on the 1st paragraph and on topic sentences for body paragraphs ... spending less time on the details within the body paragraphs). And you'll probably have to experiment with writing fewer/no annotations.
Then if you say, "I have 5.5 mins to get answers to all the questions on this passage, period", then you'll make it work. You won't be able to fully decide on all your answers. You'll have to consider living with a quick, possibly shady, guess on one or two of the harder questions just to make sure that they don't suck you in too much.
It will be a series of frustrating compromises, because you don't have enough time to adequately analyze the material.
But that's the reality of the time limit. It was made intentionally short so that only people with very efficient reading ability can get through it in time (just like law school). And since we don't have enough time to completely analyze the material, we have to go with our best quickfire judgments (which is also a potential legal skill).
Focus on accuracy mainly during March. Get to where you feel like you COULD get (almost) all the answers correct if you had enough time. Then force yourself to accelerate during April and May by timing things and living with the imperfect process/consequences that result.
Hope this helps.
Games eventually progresses to the point where much of what we do feels like muscle memory, and only some of it feels like active thinking.
But you'll need to do at least 80 games (two or three times each) before you'll start to feel any of that kick in.
If you haven't already started a habit of redoing games a 2nd and 3rd time, that's huge.
If you really struggled with the game, your 2nd time could be 2-3 days later. Otherwise, probably 5-7 days later.
Your 3rd time could be a week after that.
In order to stay organized about which games you're "due to redo" on any given day, you need to start a REDO CALENDAR, in which you schedule appointments to redo things.
If you just tried PT60, game 1 and know that you need to be able to do it either smoother or faster, then you would just write "PT60,G1" on your calendar for a date a few days later and another time for a date like 10 days later.
June is still pretty far ahead, so for the rest of March, you can definitely still focus on doing things the right way / understanding all the steps necessary to make sure you're getting the correct answer. Speed will come over time, but it's more important to learn a correct approach first.
===============
For RC, you will definitely need to trim down that reading time in order to have any chance at finishing all four passages.
Keep a few things in mind:
1. You don't needto annotate anything at all. It can be a good tool early on for you to practice Pausing / Consolidating / Prioritizing what you just read. But at a certain point, you should be remembering to do that all on your own.
When I read, I stop and consider what I would be writing down if I were trying to quickly summarize what I had read, but I don't bother actually writing it down. The point of this stage is merely for us to pause, process the info, and say it back to ourselves in much simpler, more compact wording.
2. You will have to come back to the passage for Details no matter what. So if you're re-reading a Detail sentence over and over on a first read, let it go.
I definitely need to understand all the ideas in the 1st Paragraph well, so I will be very willing to re-read sentences multiple times. But if I'm in a body paragraph, especially one where I already understand its overall purpose, then I'll let confusing sentences go and just remind myself about what the overall purpose of that paragraph is.
======
The best way to speed up on RC is to time yourself on each part of the process, with a "Make it work!" mentality.
If you say, "If have 3 minutes to get to the end of this passage, period", then you'll make it work. You won't be able to read it as lovingly as you'd like to, but that's part of the game. You'll have to allocate your 3 minutes in smarter ways (spending more time on the 1st paragraph and on topic sentences for body paragraphs ... spending less time on the details within the body paragraphs). And you'll probably have to experiment with writing fewer/no annotations.
Then if you say, "I have 5.5 mins to get answers to all the questions on this passage, period", then you'll make it work. You won't be able to fully decide on all your answers. You'll have to consider living with a quick, possibly shady, guess on one or two of the harder questions just to make sure that they don't suck you in too much.
It will be a series of frustrating compromises, because you don't have enough time to adequately analyze the material.
But that's the reality of the time limit. It was made intentionally short so that only people with very efficient reading ability can get through it in time (just like law school). And since we don't have enough time to completely analyze the material, we have to go with our best quickfire judgments (which is also a potential legal skill).
Focus on accuracy mainly during March. Get to where you feel like you COULD get (almost) all the answers correct if you had enough time. Then force yourself to accelerate during April and May by timing things and living with the imperfect process/consequences that result.
Hope this helps.
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