Reading questions aloud

[ThanhM403]

I've noticed that I struggle with this section of the test, but I was going over a prep test and I'm noticing that if I read the question stem, the paragraph and the answer choices, I get the answer right. Do you have any suggestions for when I take the test?

Thank you,
Nicole

[ohthatpatrick]

Agreed, there's a definite advantage to being able to read the material aloud.

First of all, some of us are highly auditory in terms of our listening / comprehension talents. We're better listeners than readers.

If that's the case for you, then you'll have to practice hearing your voice (silently) within your mental theater. You can practice this a bit by just closing your eyes and picturing yourself saying different things in different inflections. Say something in a sad voice, a surprised voice, a silly voice, a taunting voice, etc.

All of this is done silently, but you are trying to vividly hear the sound of your own voice through these imagined performances.

Once you can do that with improvised words (i.e. you're probably making up your own sentences as you practice this), then you try it with an LSAT paragraph.

Reading something aloud forces us to read more slowly, so the words have time to come out fully.
It forces us to add color and emphasis, which aids in detecting and absorbing tone.
It forces us to confront sentences we didn't really understand, by saying them again or saying them a different way until the meaning makes more sense.

Reading silently, but with that same sense of drama and conversational normalcy, is a big skill to develop.

I think one of the biggest things that improved my ability to do LSAT RC was finding this slower speed of reading silently, turning it into a slower moving / more interesting conversation that I was intently listening to.

For now, I would continue to use the reading aloud crutch a lot, but start to wean yourself off in the coming weeks/months by reducing it to a whisper or mutter, before ultimately making it you just silently mouthing out words.

Good luck!

[RuthB677]

Thank you for the help!