How to solve LSAT Reading Comp questions like a boss

The Sphinx of legend, the wise man on the mountain, the Cheshire Cat, and the LSAT. What do they all have in common? They like to make simple things really confusing. While this is kind of the point, that doesn’t make it any less annoying. LSAT time, I went over a few of my strategies for Reading Comprehension. (Here’s a related article on them for a quick refresher.) Anyway, the last one was about the types of Reading Comp questions you’re likely to see and I wanted to make sure we got this covered, since it tends to trip people up.

Main Point Questions These questions usually ask about the author’s viewpoint or whichever viewpoint was given the most attention in the passage. People often fall for choices that describe specific parts of the passage instead of the whole thing. *Once you know it’s a main point question, go for the answer that they talk about most. I know it sounds overly simple but the easiest way to get this question wrong is to overthink it. Primary Purpose / Function Questions These questions are similar to Main Point questions except that they use more general language and tend to speak more abstractly. The verbs in the answer choices are really important here. You’re more likely to be looking at the why instead of the what of an argument. Inference Questions Here we go. Inference questions can be really tricky if you aren’t paying attention. That's because they don’t actually ask for any new information. Instead, they ask you to draw a conclusion based on the information you’re given. That’s fine, except the LSAT will often give you this information indirectly, which can make it hard to spot. The LSAT likes to tell you something the author doesn’t believe, and then it is on us to infer that the opposite is what they do believe. This “reading between the lines” can be difficult, but as soon as you know what you’re looking for it immediately becomes a lot easier. No matter what kind of questions you’re answering, it can always help to take a step back and get in the head of the test-maker. When you’re worried about the minutiae of the question, you can get tangled up in the details of the argument and completely miss the big picture. You can’t see the forest for the trees. (If you’ve got your LSAT PrepTests handy, you can follow along with some examples I shared In an article covering this topic, just follow this link.) Coming up next, I’m gonna share some good habits you can get into to start acing these questions. Happy Reading! Steve “LSAT Machine” Schwartz P.S. If you’re looking for more help with understanding RC questions, how to avoid tempting wrong answers, etc., check out the LSAT Reading Comprehension explanations I’ve got for most PrepTests. They cover all 5 answer choices in detail.

Free Stuff | YouTube | Podcast | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Books | Courses