Is it realistically possible to get faster in 20 days

[tplan21]

I have 20days until the Feb LSAT.

RC is my weakest section. I take all 35 mins to finish just 3 sections and sometimes i dont even finish the 3rd one. And i usually miss 1-2 per section.

Is it realistically possible to improve to the point that i either dont miss any or get through all 4 in less than 20days?

(PS i have been studying for 3 months...i just throw the fundamentals out the window everytime i practice test bc im so darn slow and im trying to speed up).

[ManhattanPrepLSAT1]

So it's not faster that you're looking for, it's a better understanding of the LSAT. You could take practice test after practice test and see no improvement. What you should do is become a guru of how the test operates, what language is important, and the rules of argumentative reasoning.

Do that, and you'll see your speed increase! Maybe even to the point that you'll have some extra time to throw at the really hard problems.

The key is not to focus too much on improving your timing on the hard questions, but on the easy ones. It's much easier to build up a bank of time by taking care of the routine questions quickly.

Good luck!

[chike_eze]

I have 20days until the Feb LSAT.
Is it realistically possible to improve to the point that i either dont miss any or get through all 4 in less than 20days?

I think at this point you should probably work on getting to as many questions as possible within your comfortable reading pace. In my opinion, it is less helpful, at this point, to focus on getting faster with less than 3 weeks to the exam. Increasing your reading-pace drastically at this point may cause you to be less accurate--especially if at your current pace, you are missing 1-2 questions per passage.

The idea is to increase your hits at bat before going faster!

So, a strategy may be to plan to complete 3.5 passages.
In order to accomplish this, you could increase your reading pace slightly (of course you'll have to test this with several passages to make sure you are not going too fast)

Another strategy may be to assign 30 minutes to 3 passages, and 5 minutes to 1 passage. On the last passage, you may only have time to answer 22-24 questions (or more depending on RC difficulty) -- i.e., main idea, main purpose, function of passage.

With both strategies you may end up guessing on 3-5 questions (or less if you are lucky). But I think this is better than rush-reading 4 passages, attempting all questions, but missing more questions.

PS. I am a slow reader as well. I took the Dec 2011 LSAT and didn't do as well as I planned to. I'll take it again this June or Oct. One of the things that messed me up was going too fast on RC. I attempted almost all questions, but missed more questions than usual.

[trulybird]

I have 20days until the Feb LSAT.

RC is my weakest section. I take all 35 mins to finish just 3 sections and sometimes i dont even finish the 3rd one. And i usually miss 1-2 per section.

Is it realistically possible to improve to the point that i either dont miss any or get through all 4 in less than 20days?

(PS i have been studying for 3 months...i just throw the fundamentals out the window everytime i practice test bc im so darn slow and im trying to speed up).

I'm doing just a tiny bit better than you but i'm still far from good. But I can share with you how I got here from where you are, which was where I was.

I developed a notation for each element I want to take note of. Remember these symbols and apply to the passage as soon as you see them. This speed can increase a lot after immersing yourself with just RC for 4-5 passages. I marked down everything: main point, author's view, critics view, author's attitude, conclusion, comparison, contrast, problem, solution, cause, effect.... this is also to build up a habit of always thinking of WHY the author wrote what he wrote. At the end, I was able to label everything in the passage with what they are. It takes 6 minutes to read and label, which is of course too long. Another result of the practice is so that you don't have to think about what label to use while reading, or labeling everything the same which doesn't help.

Then I try to reduce the labeling to just the most appealing parts of the passage, focusing on main point, structure and WHY the author wrote the way he wrote it. This got me to about 4.5 minutes to finish reading, which I still want to improve.

Another thing I find helpful is to imagine the story in your head. If it talks about automobile pollution, imagine a car with black smoke coming out of behind. This activates the right brain. But I find it difficult to imagine passages discussing ethical theories or abstract stuff.

Also, do you find yourself spending a lot of time proving why a wrong answer choice is wrong? I do that. Now, I quickly read all 5 choices, cross out the must be wrongs and look at the contenders again.

I'm doing the FEB test too. Good luck!

[tplan21]

chike_eze n trulybird, thanks so much for the advise.

Never heard about the visualizing technique...way smart. Thank you!! N good lucknto u too!

chike_eze thanks for that advise, it prob wldnt be smart to try tonget faster if I'm missing so many. The giving myself myself more time per passage will probably make more sense at this time and calm me down. I really appreciate the wisdom.

One follow-up: should I take 4-5 days stritcly on RC or just continue to do practice test until test day?

[chike_eze]

One follow-up: should I take 4-5 days stritcly on RC or just continue to do practice test until test day?

I guess it depends on where you are at with LG and LR. I think if you are okay with LG and LR, then you could plan to include one PT with "4 RC sections" in your PT rotation-- e.g.,
PT 55
Customized PT = 4 RC, 1 LR/LG.
PT 56
PT 63
PT 64

And a few days before the test, you could take a few single RC passages + extensive reviews. Review questions--Was my pacing good? What went well? What didnt go well? What little (and I mean little) issue can I fix for next time?

I think this will give you more concentrated practice with RC. Hopefully, even if you do not improve on speed, you'll build RC endurance and decrease your overall anxiety with the RC section.

Good Luck!

[trulybird]

One follow-up: should I take 4-5 days stritcly on RC or just continue to do practice test until test day?

Thanks for the follow up. I'm not sure about number of days to devote, as we're close to the exam, but when I was trying to develop a consistent system to apply to all passages, I did try to do only RCs for a while.

Recently i find that doing a lot of timed prep test is definitely important, as I still make a lot of silly mistakes, which I wouldn't make if I were given enough time. I've noticed things that I wouldn't find if it weren't for the timed prep tests. For example, if I wake up and started doing the test right away, I make a lot of silly mistakes cuz i'm not fully awake yet, and I don't know that I'm not fully awake. so on the test day i'll probably do a few questions in the car before getting into the exam center just to get the heart beat up.

with just 2 weeks left, i think we should all definitely believe that we CAN improve, cuz there's a method to resolve each problem. lets discover these methods quickly!

[chike_eze]

I've noticed things that I wouldn't find if it weren't for the timed prep tests. For example, if I wake up and started doing the test right away, I make a lot of silly mistakes cuz i'm not fully awake yet, and I don't know that I'm not fully awake. so on the test day i'll probably do a few questions in the car before getting into the exam center just to get the heart beat up.

Yes, you should always warm up before taking any full PT. I think I've seen this suggestion: 1 RC passage, LR: 10 questions, LG: 1 game. Some also suggest you use thesame PT for warm up over and over again. The warm up is to wake you up and get you in the zone -- think of it like stretching before a basketball game. Gosh, I almost never stretch before a game--yayks!

with just 2 weeks left, i think we should all definitely believe that we CAN improve, cuz there's a method to resolve each problem. lets discover these methods quickly!

I believe we can always improve. In 2 weeks? if you improve that's always good, but you should not be attempting to drastically change anything during this time. For the most part, your reading pace is your reading pace, your high-level strategy for attacking must-be-true questions, for matching flaws, for diagramming binary games shouldn't change.

[tplan21]

Trulybird! Wish I would have thought of that sooner! I know I shiuldnt try changing things last min but at my rate I can't afford not to. Gonna start having a consistent symbol for items in rc author opinion, opinions, contrast, etc. I'm gonna take one day just to do RC passages to work at it in place of reviewing an exam. I'll use the exam I don't review more to work on extreme testing conditions like TV in the background or at a restaurant. That way I don't just waste a test.

chike_eze I'm so glad you mentioned that warmup too. I had only heard about using a LG but using RC and LR in addition would be better. I bet that will help alot BC it takes me a minute even in PT to get into the groove. Thank you!!!