Tips to get -0 on tricky LSAT reading passages from a 175 scorer (even if you're a slow reader)

[@courtneynoelle1761]

Thank you for this video Trevor! This made RC so much easier for me to understand.

[@t.f.7974]

Just did a reading comp section with this strategy and it worked fairly well! Without focusing too much, my score turned out to be a little better than what I usually get.

[@nicholasamore1508]

Interesting: “spend more time on the answer choices than the passage”, that might be my barrier. I also rarely if ever refer back to the passage, idk why I try to remember the whole thing lol.

[@lukedauberman531]

Hi, do you ever keep track of obvious signs of other voices of viewpoints or opinions in the passage by highlighting or underlining them? Or do you refer back to it/find it when necessary like you did in the demonstration?

[@trevorklee308]

the latter

[@theomnithinker]

I also find that you should do the general questions (main point, author's tone) first and then do more specific questions. This saves time.

[@alanmichaels9711]

So the only reason I’ve heard against this technique is the fact that you have to refer back to the passage multiple times, looking for specific details - opposed to looking at your tags/notes which would’ve been done if you read the entire thing. In this case, clearly not reading the entire thing was able to work , but it seems like that was reliant on the fact that you were able to find specific terms/words in the passage within seconds? But i feels as though that’s usually not the case, for me anyways. So how are you able to find specific details that fast? How long should we be looking - at what point should I say, this is taking too long- followed up with what would be my next move? Skim the passage until I find it? Or move on to next question?

[@trevorklee308]

Yeah, having a basic idea of the passage helps (which you get through skimming), then it's just like doing a word search. You literally can just match terms in the question to terms in the passage. You don't need to actually read the passage at all.

[@yatingli7521]

Hey Trevor, like the method. I have one question. what If the first sentence is background information or the last sentence is unrelated to the first sentence or both? Or the last sentence seems to be a quotation from out of nowhere? Thanks

[@trevorklee308]

Thank you! The only time that would happen is when the first sentence of the first paragraph is unrelated (like it leads into the main point). You'd be able to notice after you read the last sentence of the first paragraph. Then you can either just skip that and figure out the summary of the second and third paragraphs, or you can read one or two sentences more into the first paragraph to find the main point. If you do the former, you should be able to combine the summaries of the second and third paragraphs with the last sentence of the first paragraph to form a basic summary of the whole passage. Make sense?

[@yatingli7521]

@@trevorklee308 yes, thanks! There are times(quite often) when I won't get some concrete coherent idea of a given paragraph until I read one or two sentences further----"defination of tradition problem FWS" passage for example. Other times, a whole paragraph contains only 2 long sentences, but many clauses within the two long sentences.

[@trevorklee308]

@@yatingli7521 yeah, so that takes a bit of practice. You need to think about what exactly you need from the paragraph, especially with the 2 long sentence ones. We're really just looking for a basic idea (i.e. one short sentence) of the paragraph, not a full reckoning. The most important things to pay attention to are always words that indicate someone's point of view: what does the author believe? What do the people mention believe?

[@yatingli7521]

@@trevorklee308 so basically, skim the passage,watch out a point or points of views but pay more attention to the first and last sentence? Also, what do you mean exactly here in the book. "Also, unlike other sections, the reading comprehension answers are never going to be outright wrong, as they are based off of real passages that someone wrote for an actual publication. So, feel free to pick based on what seems to be correct. "

[@rosiedhillon1430]

Hey Trevor, thanks for this video. It makes sense for very difficult passages to not lose time in trying to understand details or middle sentences of the paragraph where they will either- not be understood anyways OR not tested on. However, do you personally read the entire passage for easier passages. In this video it seemed you stopped at the point where it became complicated quickly and backed off to the overall reasoning structure....on easier passages would you just keep reading if the content was understandable and digestible? And then, is there even a point to try and read the whole passage (even if you can) because you just showed here how to attack the questions without being stopped by those details anyways. Basically if you can do it without, is that the way to go on any difficulty of passage? Excellent video, you bring a new efficiency to RC!

[@trevorklee308]

Good question! I try not to read the whole passage for any passage. But yeah, if the content is easy, you're not losing much time by continuing to read.

[@equallyyoked1]

Thank you!! I’m going to try out some of these techniques!!

[@adarshrajxsc1056]

Thanks a lot it's very useful video to better your rc but the tricks you are showing are bit lengthy. But would you please make a video on how to get difficult rc right in a fast manner and some exercises to get at it.

[@shanicew7165]

Thank you for this

[@daniellecorrell2904]

do you have any tips on recognizing harder passages quickly.

[@trevorklee308]

What do you mean? Like the difficulty of a passage? I wouldn't worry too much about that. If it seems hard, it is hard.

[@brianseeger8905]

Trevor, great video, your methods are helping me a lot. On passages like this (more difficult ones), what would you say your average timing of getting through them full-speed is? Pacing is my biggest struggle, so it's become the most important thing for me to master.

[@trevorklee308]

I aim for a minute per question, but I sum it over an entire passage. So a 6 question passage should take me 6 minutes total, but I'm ok with spending 2 minutes on a main point question if I can make it up by spending 30 seconds on a detail question.

[@josephzenteno8293]

Does Khan Academy recommend reading like this as well?

[@trevorklee308]

No.

[@yazminmoreno1787]

❤

[@nathanjmarcus]

woah lol