RC dilemma

[ttunden]

Hello

I have been a long time reader Here and appreciate the advice that has already been given. I have a similar problem to what another user here posted in that I also have variances in my RC section and have not been able to attain the same progress of improvement that I have attained in LG and LR.

The type of questions I am predominately missing are must be true or aka inference questions. Sorry if some of my terminology is different I am using Powerscore and Manhattan as my prep along with Outside LSAT general guide for basic overview. I am missing these type of questions mostly due to the difficulty of me understanding some passages. These passages usually are law or humanity/philosophy type , whereas the business and literary passage I can understand easily due to my business background.

What I've come to ask is exactly how to improve in these types of passages I struggle to understand. Should I drill these problematic passages again and again leading up to the LSAT? I have tried the faking interest method but it is quite difficult under a time pressure. I am curious to see what other users have done to improve in RC when it comes to comprehension because that is usually why I miss the inference questions.

Thanks

[ohthatpatrick]

I have a few suggestions, probably none of which will seem revelatory to you.

1 - Stop "faking" interest, and take a real interest!
Easier said than done, but I honestly believe that this skill is incredibly important not only to LSAT reading comp, but also to all the reading you'll have to do in law school and to being a well-rounded adult.

This world is incalculably rich and complex, and our lifespan / brain capacity is such that we'll never have a chance to experience it all. When I read RC, I honestly embrace the opportunity to dive head first into a topic/specialty that I would typically never read about or know about.

You may have read that particularly boring comparative RC passage about drilling muds. You gotta have a sense of humor about how droll and obscure LSAT will get. Seriously, drilling muds?! I've never once contemplated what factors go into selecting a drilling mud, but now, thanks to this passage, I have some random glimpse into someone else's profession. (It's like the written version of watching "Ice-Road Truckers" or "Swamp Fishing")

By being a more receptive reader, you won't necessarily memorize all the nitty-gritty details. Some ideas will stick better than before. But mostly you'll have a better memory of where specific things were mentioned. When it comes time to researching Inference answer choices, knowing where in the passage a specific phrase was used is a big time saver. That way you can quickly check on the actual wording in the passage and compare it to the answer choice.

2 - Look out for extreme language. By far, my biggest crutch in RC is the fact that my brain immediately scans answer choices for the most dangerous wording. Extreme language and comparative language are SUCH frequent giveaways for wrong answers that they do wonders at trimming down a set of five answers into the 2 or 3 likely candidates that are worthy of closer investigation.

Some examples of potentially dangerous wording:
"most, primarily, usually, generally, tends to, often, requires, needs, necessitates, only, unless, all, none, never"

3 - Prove all your answers to yourself. Make RC right/wrong into something objective, not subjective. The best way to do this is to justify every correct answer with a line reference and to identify a specific word/phrase in each incorrect answer choice that breaks it.

Being this thorough for all 5 choices will initially seem like too time-consuming of a process, but this is the skill-set you want to develop. You'll get faster at scanning for your proof sentence and faster at identifying the broken language. And when you end up getting an answer wrong, you'll compare it to your proof sentence, determine why one is not equivalent to the other, and thereby refine your ability to measure wording from the passage against paraphrases in answer choices.

Hope this helps.

[ttunden]

when reviewing, should i go through every question and see if i can get a line reference to show exactly why the q is wrong?

also how do people comprehend the passages so well? after reading passages i always get the gist but need to reread certain parts that are brought up in later questions. it always seems to be a little detail i miss out on that gets a question wrong for me.

[ohthatpatrick]

Yes, when reviewing (or when practicing an RC passage untimed), I think you should try to find line references to support your chosen answer and you should try to identify the words in each incorrect answer choice that break it (pick as few words as possible ... almost half the time, there's just one word breaking an answer choice).

In terms of better retention, there's no easy fix for that. That's what makes some people "better readers" than others (and why LSAC chooses to test us on this). I'm not saying we're innately a certain kind of reader, but through good/bad habits over many years, we are definitely not all on a level playing field when it comes to reading/retention ability.

I think you'll find that you can improve a lot at your retention if you really start with an enthusiastic blank slate and read slowly enough that you give your brain time to understand every sentence.

Some sentences are awkward and confusing: re-read them.

Sometimes you lose your focus and don't know what you just read: re-read it.

Sometimes you're unclear about how the current sentence relates to stuff you just: go back and re-read the stuff before the current sentence to make sure you understand it.

Many people reading this will probably say, "Hey, won't that take too much time?"

Yes? No? It depends.

For me, reading slowly enough to fully comprehend the material means that I will be able to get through questions much more quickly.

For others, it could be that reading this slowly take more time and barely increases their retention, in which case the extra time wasn't worth it.

You'll have to experiment with your reading habits to see whether it would behoove you to read something more closely.

As a (fun?) experiment for yourself, try reading an RC passage TWICE, yes - twice! - before you go to the questions.

Theoretically, reading it twice should give you pretty good comprehension. (And on the second read, you'll probably skim the sentences you remember well, but dig into the sentences you didn't really get the first time -- or suddenly understand their relevance to the big picture)

If you find that answering the questions is easier and more accurate after having this augmented understanding, then you'll see the payoff of better retention and maybe be able to try to make your first read more like a 1st/2nd read put together (i.e. only re-reading the parts you need to for optimal comprehension).

Good luck!