Question about Manhattan LSAT RC Method

[skapur777]

I have your Manhattan LSAT RC book, but for some reason, while it has helped, I haven't been COMPLETELY effective at using its' methods.

I think, probably, the biggest method endorsed is the PEAR method. How exactly do you Manhattaners effectively use this. First off, when your under the pressure of the test, what do you guys do to summarize what the previous paragraph was saying (including all the nitty-gritty involved in evaluation), and anticipate what's gonna come next and re-assess things?

For me it's really hard!! And second, the book advocates a certain notation system, however I have found that I seldom ever referred back to my notes when answering questions. Sometimes I get -1 or -2 on RC, upwards to -6! It seems that with the combination of the notation and PEAR method, it would add like a solid minute of time spent on the passages.

Speaking of notation, the book speaks of underlining in the beginning of the notation chapter but, as the book progresses, and especially in the 180 experience section where there is a real-time thought process of a really good RC-er, there is no underlining process whatsoever and is mainly notes on the side. Is there an implication here that this is the Manhattan LSAT preferred method?

I must be missing something since you guys are all beasts at this. Could you possibly clarify on specifically how you guys tank through the RC section? Being motivated to understand the RC section isn't a problem for me, nor is energy.

[ManhattanPrepLSAT2]

Hi there --

Those are some great questions you pose, and all are common challenges other students have had. I'll try to give some thoughts, but keep in mind that in order to give you practical advice, I have to be a bit presumptuous about your personal reading process. If you feel like any of the advice doesn't apply to your situation, please let me know and I'll be happy to continue the conversation.

One other caveat -- one of the developers of our reading system, Dan Gonzalez, is an incredibly smart guy, but, admittedly, a very slow reader, even compared to the average test-taker. Keep in mind that the systems were developed to help one read faster, and if they aren't helping you do that, you are certainly correct in sensing that they aren't working properly for you.

The LSAT is, to a large degree, a test of your reading ability. I would argue it tests your reading ability even more than it tests your reasoning ability, though of course these two things are intertwined. One reason I know this is because I've met many many excellent readers who have gotten 170+ with little or no background/understanding of formal reasoning, but very few (just one actually, that comes to mind) people who are able to get to a top score with excellent reasoning skills but poor reading skills.

In terms of reading skills, the most obvious thing that comes into mind is our ability to understand the meaning of specific words and phrases, and we see evidence of this being tested all over the place on the exam -- (even in LG, where they test your ability to see, say, the difference in meaning between "all the boats that could come before X" and "all the boats that do come before X").

However, I would argue that the test-writers place even greater emphasis on another reading skill: your ability to prioritize and organize. It is this skill that is most critical in your RC reading process, and it is this skill that our systems have been designed to assist you with.

Try this -- take an RC passage, and see how long it takes you to read the entire thing straight through. Make sure you don't stop to think about what a sentence means, and make sure you don't read anything twice or whatnot. Just read straight through. See how long it takes you. It's a little different for everyone (per the Dan example above), but for most people it takes about a minute.

So, what is it that you are doing that makes it so you don't have time to pause between paragraphs and reflect? I'd argue that likely you are doing this sort of reflection, but in spurts throughout your read of the paragraph, and I'm guessing you are thinking about a million different things -- arguments, opinions, evidence, what the heck a sentence means, etc --

The PEAR process is meant to streamline this, so that you reflect at regular intervals, and in a manner that is going to put you in the best place to answer questions.

Imagine an analogous challenge: Imagine your job is to read a sentence and understand the main gist of it. How would you best do this? You'd probably read the entire sentence, then think. Your brain has organized sentences millions of times, and it'll tell you what the main point is without too much mechanical effort on your part.

Now, imagine that you read the sentence but you try to figure out the main gist one word at a time -- that is, you read the first word, pause, think about its significance, guess where the rest of the sentence is going, then read the second word, pause, think about its significance/meaning, etc.

I think you'll agree that in this analogy two things would be true -- this second method would take you much longer and, I would argue, at the end of the day it would give you a less certain understanding of the main gist -- because you've been distracted into thinking about too many other things.

I believe something similar happens in reading of RC passages. Your job, in your first read, is to figure out the main points, and to understand the organization of the passage relative to those main points. However, most students are also thinking about doing a hundred other things (finding key words, marking examples, trying to absorb EVERYTHING), and this distracts from the priorities. Too many students spend too much time and energy thinking about every sentence. By the way, I think test prep companies are in many ways responsible for causing this situation, by giving advice that includes a thousand tips and tricks, without a proper sense of context or priority.

The pause at the end of a paragraph is meant to free you up from all the inter-paragraph reflection/distraction. This isn't to say that you shouldn't stop and re-read a sentence or think about something if you realize it's significant. However, I strongly recommend that you consider making time for the PEAR process by trying to streamlining some of the other things you are doing during your time. Make it a habit that you get through a paragraph fairly quickly, even if you aren't 100% sure you understand everything. Use the pause at the end to figure out what the main gist is (do NOT use this time to summarize every nitty-gritty detail), and see if you can see the general structure. You need the time for this, because again, this is what is most important to the questions. If you continue to have trouble seeing this type of structure, you will continue to have challenges when it comes to the questions.

In relation to your other question, many students have combined their note-taking process with this pause -- that is, they don't underline anything as they read a paragraph initially, but instead, in their reflection, they figure out what was key and notate it. I think that's a great system if you are comfortable with it.

In terms of more specific annotation strategy -- in our books we recommend that you develop a system that you feel comfortable with. Again, I think the underlining or noting while reflecting after a paragraph is a good idea, but see what works best for you. Keep in mind that your notations should be a means to an end, and they should help you perform the tasks that are most important -- which are to see the sides of the scale, see where the author lies, and to see, in a very general way, how the passage is physically structured relative to that scale. The notations should help you read better (most people read much better when they have a task, like underlining or taking notes, which makes them active) and it should help you have a mental map you use when you answer questions.

The sense I got from your post was that you feel you are being pulled in a lot of directions, and feel overwhelmed by all that the RC requires of you. Don't think of the PEAR method, or the annotation, as another thing you have to add to your pile of to-do's -- they are processes that are meant to simply and organize your to-do's. It's really hard to change how we read (especially for some standardized test), but hopefully this response helps you move towards the right direction.

As I stated before, please do feel free to continue this discussion if you have other concerns or questions, and I'll be happy to do whatever I can to help.