When I was in college, my roommates and I used to go grocery shopping at 2 a.m. The reasoning behind these trips was some combination of a need of something to do when everyone else was asleep, the joys of riding shopping carts across empty parking lots and a desire to avoid the scornful looks of veteran shoppers. Maybe you’ve got your grocery shopping routine down, but I don’t. Even when I bring a list I constantly find myself having to double back to find things I’ve missed. During the day this earns looks I’ve learned to loathe from the queens of the aisles that mockingly ask, “You again? Weren’t you just here?” The accompanying smug smiles only make things worse. Late at night though, the only people noticing my lack of supermarket prowess are the night staff stocking the shelves, and in general they hate their jobs too much to notice much of anything.

So what do my late-night wanderings in search of frozen pizza and tortilla chips have to do with the LSAT? They answer the title question to this blog with a definitive no. In the reading comprehension you are presented with a vast amount of information. Specifically searching for the answers to 5-8 questions you want to answer while sorting through that information will undoubtedly lead to lots of doubling back. Also, focusing the search on individual bits of information will make it much more difficult to see the big picture and answer questions about the author’s main point. That’s especially important since global questions of that nature show up on almost every LSAT reading comprehension passage.

In hindsight, I would have been best served in my grocery shopping to start with getting an understanding of the basic layout of the grocery store. If I understood the logic behind how the store was organized, I could have quickly had an idea of where to find every item on my list. That’s exactly why Kaplan recommends that you start by strategically reading the passage, rather than reading the questions. Understand the big picture and you’ll be able to find the little details to pick up points as efficiently as possible.

Think about that the next time you’re at the grocery store. If your goal is to get what you need as efficiently as possible, you will benefit. But, if you’re goal is to accidentally run into your future spouse on aisle 7, that haphazard approach might give you the best chance. Then again, I met my wife in law school, so that more efficient approach that will earn you more points on the LSAT does pay off… happy studying!

If after reading today’s post you are still stymied or generally annoyed by Reading Comprehension, check out our new Reading Comprehension On Demand course for a little supplemental prep.

Why is LSAT reading comprehension section so boring? This is a question I’ve been asked by dozens of students over the last few years. I tell them, just like I’m about to tell you, this is one of the things you should be thankful for. Crave the boringness. Embrace it.

Let’s first discuss where the test makers get the passages. They take the passages from scholarly writing and book reviews and adapt the passages to fit into 60 or so lines of text from which standard LSAT questions (e.g. about the author’s purpose, tone, etc.) can be asked. The test makers draw broadly from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and law. They intentionally look for dry, boring text from a variety of subject areas because this is one way to make the LSAT more difficult. The test makers figure that if someone is bored by a passage, then they will lose focus and have to re-read the passage several times, meaning they won’t do as well on it and will take too long to answer the questions. In sum, the test makers make passages boring in order to help separate the best test takers from average test takers.

You may think to yourself as you read the four passages in the section, I don’t care about how honeybees communicate or the social movement New Urbanism (subject matter for some passages on the June 2010 LSAT). This is a good thing. You don’t have time to care about or be interested in what you’re reading on Test Day. You have 35 minutes to read over 2,000 words of text and answer 27-28 questions about this text. If you did care about how honeybees communicate, you run the risk of spending too much time deep reading this text. You are not meant to learn anything from the passages. Your task as a smart and efficient test-taker is to quickly skim through the passages, focusing on structure rather than content so that you can answer questions about the main ideas in the text, how details are used in the text, and what can be inferred on the basis of what is written. Bryce offered some good recommendations last week about how to skillfully attack this portion of the LSAT by embracing ignorance, thinking like the author, and always going back to the text. This advice is especially true when the passages are boring.

In fact, besides the risk of running out time, there is a danger of being overly interested or invested in a passage’s subject matter. An LSAT instructor I know talked about how he saw a passage about a particular legal philosopher on a practice LSAT, and because he had recently read an article by that same philosopher in one of his university classes, he found himself arguing with the author of his LSAT passage, which adversely impacted his performance on the questions accompanying the passage. Again, not only do you not have time to care about the content of the passages, you shouldn’t ever bring outside knowledge or unwarranted assumptions to the text. The questions will be based on the text contained in the LSAT—not on any other information you may have on the subject matter.

Instead of being frustrated by the boring nature of LSAT reading comprehension passages, embrace the fact that you don’t care about them. If you aren’t invested in the passages beyond your desire to correctly answer all of the accompanying questions, you’ll find it easier to focus on the structure of the passages rather than the details. In turn, you won’t spend your limited time trying to learn something from the passages or carry on an internal debate with the author of the passage—two things you definitely want to avoid doing in order to get the high score you want.

From the beginning, students often see the logical reasoning section as the most intuitive section of the exam. If this is how you feel, or felt, when you first begin studying for the LSAT then good for you.

The logical reasoning (LR) section of the LSAT comprises approximately half of the available points on the exam. Therefore, it is also the most important aspect of the exam from a numerical standpoint. In case you haven’t seen the LSAT yet, it comprises of 5 separate 35 minute sections and a 35 minute writing sample. The test is divided into two with a break coming after the 3^rd 35 minute session. Of the 5 sections, four of them are graded and that raw point total is used to comprise the 120-180 LSAT score.

Of the four graded sections, two are logical reasoning, one is reading comprehension, and one is analytical reasoning (logic games). The ungraded section can be any of the three.

LR questions have the same basic elements. There is evidence, conclusions, keywords, adverbs, and the like restated again and again. If you train your eye to see and understand their context, your LR section score will reflect this skill. Then there are often keywords which help you foresee where the argument is going and also the connotation of the speaker making the argument. Consider the following examples:

Mike went to state, BUT he got a LSAT of 170.

Mike went to state BECAUSE he got a LSAT of 170.

Ask yourself how these two statements differ based on one word? How does my opinion of “state” in the examples differ? Do I consider “state” a higher quality school in the first sentence or the second? These questions are all answered by identifying keywords that the writer uses to make their arguments.

The top 10% LSAT test-takers, regardless of how they prepare, have the ability to identify the structures of the argument almost immediately upon reading it. This is a skill that can be developed with dedication. Also, a test-taker scoring in the top 10% almost always can eliminate incorrect answer choices based on the characteristics of the answer choices themselves. Stated another way, wrong answer choices in the LR section specifically are often wrong for the same reasons. Yes, you read that correctly. The LSAT is systematic in how it is written. You may be thinking “Why is it important to know why an answer is wrong, I only care about which choice is the credited response?!”

The reason is simple; when you can systematically eliminate common wrong answer choices the test itself becomes exponentially quicker and easier. And if you have ever taken an LSAT, you can attest to time being a factor. The quicker you are the better.

In honor of the launch of our new Reading Comprehension On Demand course, today Bryce shares with you tips on how to improve your performance in Reading Comprehension. If you get bogged down by complex passages filled with convoluted content and confusing questions, this blog will be a start. For more, check out the new course featuring over 15 hours of comprehensive online reading comprehension instruction.

For those of you taking the October LSAT, it’s officially squeezing time. These next few weeks will be your last chances to squeeze every point that you can out of the LSAT and the last chance to boost your score for this fall’s applications. The more points you pick up, the more enjoyable it will be to get the mail when admissions decisions are released.

Today we cover the new titleholder of Most Difficult Section on the LSAT: Reading Comprehension. Over 50% of Kaplan students rated Reading Comprehension as most difficult on the June 2011 exam. Beyond the basics of strategic reading (which is of course essential), here are three little things you can do to pick up those last few questions- on even the most difficult passages- that will make your LSAT score stand out.

1. Embrace Ignorance- As counter-intuitive as it sounds, you would probably do better with reading comprehension if you understood less of the passage. Your instinct when you encounter an unfamiliar subject is probably to read deeper and closer in order to compensate for that lack of knowledge. As a result you read and re-read and get lost in the details. So, let it go. Embrace ignorance. You don’t need to understand the content in that passage about mitochondrial membranes or medieval legal theory. All you need to understand is the big picture. “Okay, so there’s some sort of process and it’s a good thing, but there’s a drawback.” The LSAT isn’t a content-based test, so the test maker doesn’t expect you to know about the specific subjects being discussed. If you accept the fact that you don’t need to know anything and just focus on the big picture, you’ll be able to move through passages more quickly and effectively, saving valuable time along the way.
2. Quit Thinking Like a Reader- Yes, it’s reading comprehension, but it’s not the reader’s perspective that you need, it’s the author’s. When my students struggle to map reading comprehension passages, it’s often because they’re going through each paragraph and trying to summarize the material. There is no Cliff Notes for the LSAT and Reader’s Digest isn’t hiring, so if you really want to get into law school, quit summarizing and start asking yourself why instead of what. Put yourself in the author’s shoes and try to figure out why each paragraph is being written and how it all fits together. Once you understand the purpose of each paragraph, the details fall neatly into place.
3. Don’t Be Lazy- Remember, since you aren’t expected to know any of the content, the answers are right there in the passage. You can put your finger right on the answers to detail questions, and for inferences, you should be able to find support in the text for any answer you choose. Don’t let the burden of turning your head back to the text stop you from picking up those sure points because you misremembered something!

Keep these tips in mind as you practice reading comprehension over the next couple weeks and pretty soon you’ll be wringing the section dry. Good luck and happy studying.

Kaplan is proud to announce a new partnership with JD Oasis! Bookmark them at www.jdoasis.com.

Everyone does it differently, but at the end of the day, everyone still has to take it. That it is the LSAT. Seeing as it’s still relatively fresh in my mind, I thought it’d be something fun to discuss, especially for the prospective monkeys out there looking to go to Law School. The test itself has a total of 5 sections of Scantron Style answers to be filled in and a writing section.

The Scantron portion of the LSAT breaks down into three distinct areas:

1. 2 Sections of Logical Reasoning

2. 1 Section of Reading Comprehension

3. 1 Section of Logic Games

The final section, the experimental section, will be one of those three topics and will usually occur in the first, second or third section of the exam. Everyone has a section they personally find to be easy as all hell and one that they find to be the devil incarnate. Me, I loved the games and hated reading comprehension. I know others that took the test and were absolutely miserable with the games yet loved the logical reasoning. That said, lets deconstruct the LSAT.

Logic Games: Why Playing Tetris Actually Pays Off

I love playing Tetris. In fact, I still do play a lot of Tetris. That game is also the reason why I found Logic Games to be the easiest section on the LSAT. Logic Games are not quite what they sound like. They are not brainteasers or trivia, but sequencing games, much like Tetris. Some games are pretty straight forward and have only one variable and others are a little more interesting with up to 3 variables in a non-linear sequence using multiple groupings. The reason why I find the games to be like Tetris comes down to how you can manage the relationship between the falling pieces and the constantly changing board, much like how you can sort the variables of the game into much more manageable and organizable groups.

For Logic Games, the rules are simple. Take a given set of data and constraints and answer the questions about that set of data and constraints. There are three things to note here. The first is that your explicit data serves as your guidelines for what pairs work and don’t work. The second is that the questions will either ask you to solve for factual data (everything is defined by the constraints) or theoretical data (Say constraint X is in position Y). The final thing is that you can always find a way to group or order your data.

Logical Reasoning: Test Logic Trumps All

Logical Reasoning, while I disliked this area, was an immense challenge for me. LSAT logic is not like normal logic, and being a finance guy, it was definitely foreign to me. LSAT logic isn’t a matter of a basic Yes or No. For the LSAT, Yes or No becomes either Yes and Not Yes or No and Not No. Confusing right? While I don’t know why the LSAT logic is like this, once you understand the construct of logic, it becomes easier to understand how the questions are asked. Like the games, Logical Reasoning focuses on Facts, Theories, and Opinions. Facts are sets of data solely present. Theories are arguments from one person. Opinions are the two person conversation pieces.

The difficulty I had with this section came down to understanding the minutia within each question. I could be asked a question to strengthen the argument but it might fall under one type of subcategory of that question. This would have been the hardest section for me if not for reading comp, but it was difficult and required the most work for me. To prep for this, I was grateful I took a class. I spent hours going over the materials covered after class in order to understand the nuances of Logical Reasoning questions and did as many practice questions as I could get my hands on. I did 3-4 hours a night of Logical Reasoning Homework during the week and 7-8 hours on the weekends. As it reached the end of the course and closer to the LSAT, I did full logical reasoning sections in order to improve my time and ability. It definitely helped me out majorly.

Reading Comprehension

Ralph Wiggum wrote: Me fail English? That’s unpossible.

I don’t know how to describe Reading Comprehension better than this. Ralph Wiggum, the 8-year old classmate to Lisa Simpson, could not speak finer words when he uttered that quote. That’s how Reading Comprehension made me feel. It wasn’t overly difficult, per se, as the logical reasoning questions were the basis for reading comprehension questions. It was just a very time consuming section with materials that I honestly had no clue about. This is the same Reading comprehension that’s on the SAT. This is the same paragraph followed by questions structure we all know. Basically, it’s 4 passages and questions. One of the passages will be 2 different speakers on the same topic and the rest will all be 1 long passage.

Personally, I hated it. To quote Jay Sherman, “It Stinks!”