Are there any time-saving techniques for LSAT Reading Comprehension

Question

What tricks can I use to speed up the section?

Answer 1

The easy answer is the by learning the correct reading strategies and practicing them, you will be become faster over time.

However, there are a few quick and dirty techniques you can apply right away! The one I will explain here applies to dual reading passages (when there is a Passage A and a Passage B).

On dual reading passages, it is often helpful to quickly skim the questions before you read the passage. Often, you will notice that, for example, out of the 6 questions presented, 3 of them refer only to Passage B. When this occurs, you should read Passage B first and disregard Passage A. Then, complete the three questions that refer only to Passage B.

This can be an extremely helpful strategy. The reason is that questions that refer only to one passage will bring in similar information from the other passage in order to trick you. However, if you answer these questions before you read the other passage, the extraneous information they are trying to trick you with will seem completely irrelevant. You will be able to complete these passage specific questions quickly.

Once you quickly and easily attack these questions, read Passage A and answer the remaining questions.

This strategy is one of the few on reading comprehension that can immediately improve your score and better help you reach the other passages quickly.

Answer 2

Highly highly highly discourage you from following Barbara's advice.

I might guess that she has not taken the LSAT.

There are no tricks to magically go faster on any part of the LSAT.

The goal is:

Read and comprehend.

If you take 10 minutes to thoroughly read and understand the passage, that's time well spent. Carefully read (and re-read as you are going as necessary) the passage and ask yourself questions: What is the point? Why did this author get out of bed today? Start predicting where the passage may go. Active and engaged reading.

RC falls mainly into 3 main buckets:

-Reporting facts (There are volcanoes in Hawai'i!)

-Reporting facts and why it matters (There are volcanoes in Hawai'i and they are dangerous when they erupt!)

-Reporting facts, why it matters, and what we should do because of it (There are volcanoes in Hawai'i, and they are dangerous when they erupt, and maybe we shouldn't build houses on volcanoes!)

Designating which bucket can help dramatically in understanding the main point of the passage and help you answer many of the must be true questions about the passage.

One thing to think about: 95% or more of the questions in reading comp are simply: Must Be True.

They are based on the passage, do not (and can not) rely on outside information, and are not asking you to infer anything. They say: Based on the passage XYZ. The passage itself is a collection of all the correct answers, so most of the answer choices are unsupported because they add something extra. They turn up the volume just a little too much. They say "All lawyers think XYZ is great" (which is incredibly hard to prove) rather than "Some lawyers think XYZ is great" (much lower bar to prove).

Let me know if you have any additional questions, happy to help with LSAT prep—it's my one and only thing I tutor.

Answer 3

Don’t rely on tricks, but you can build good habits for professional reading.

1. Scan the passage for a basic subject or thesis. The question(s) canguide you as to what to look for.
2. Locate the supporting arguments for the thesis.
3. Start answering the questions. If you don’t quickly recognize at least where to look in the passage, scan again.