RC is my worst section, by far, as is, but I'm really struggling with science passages more than others. I think I struggle, in part, because the terminology is foreign to me. Then, I allow that to overwhelm me to the point I have trouble following the structure of the passage.
One suggestion in the RC strat guide is to read for the forest AND the trees, and I've started to find a decent balance on non-science passages. But, I keep getting to the end of a scientific passage only to realize that I can't summarize what I just read.
Any advice on how to approach these?
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- cardsfan04
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Vinny Gambini
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- maryadkins
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Atticus Finch
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Re: Struggling with Science passages
Sounds like you're on the right track. Something else I like to do is take a long word that I don't understand and come up with an abbreviation for it as soon as I see it. So Phytoflagellumbingo Florenza or whatever would become "PF" in my mind (and I'd probably jot it down in the margin, too). From then on, every time I see that word, I just think "PF" and hardly even read it. This is one way not to get too anxious about the big words.
Remembering to pause after each paragraph and ask yourself what you just read is another tactic you don't want to forget. Usually even the science passages can be broken down into fairly straightforward concepts and relationships, you just have to sort through all the wording!
Good luck, hope this helps.
Remembering to pause after each paragraph and ask yourself what you just read is another tactic you don't want to forget. Usually even the science passages can be broken down into fairly straightforward concepts and relationships, you just have to sort through all the wording!
Good luck, hope this helps.
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- a3friedm
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Elle Woods
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Re: Struggling with Science passages
Another approach that turned science passages from my biggest fear in reading comp to my favorite type is to take the passages into the abstract.
LSAC doesn't expect you to know all the fancy science terms, and so they will hardly ever test whether you actually know what a neurotransmitter is but rather it's relationship to the argument. As the book tells us, read like a debater. As Mary said, you can abbreviate the words you dont understand into Psuedo conditionals. By the end of a science passage, if you recognize the passage had a structure such as A leads to B, which new research suggest causes C; the passage tends to fall into place.
There's on passage in particular that really exemplifies this regarding shifting weather patterns and a vortex thing, but I can't remember which test it's from!
LSAC doesn't expect you to know all the fancy science terms, and so they will hardly ever test whether you actually know what a neurotransmitter is but rather it's relationship to the argument. As the book tells us, read like a debater. As Mary said, you can abbreviate the words you dont understand into Psuedo conditionals. By the end of a science passage, if you recognize the passage had a structure such as A leads to B, which new research suggest causes C; the passage tends to fall into place.
There's on passage in particular that really exemplifies this regarding shifting weather patterns and a vortex thing, but I can't remember which test it's from!
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