| 1. Look for the key words that indicate a degree of certainty.
These include words like some, most, all, always, never and the difference between singular and plural. There’s a big difference between "I binge-watched some of Game of Thrones and I binge-watched ALL of Game of Thrones.”
2. Keep an eye out for the passage’s main idea
Make a note whenever the author summarizes a point of view: “Although some scholars propose…”
Identify any bits of evidence used to support a point of view
Figure out whether or not the author agrees with each point of view. This one can be the trickiest. Basically, if a point is made with no proponent, then its the author’s opinion.
3. Look at the relationship between the evidence and conclusion in each paragraph. Here’s a few questions you can ask yourself:
What is the evidence for the paragraph?
Does the conclusion follow from this evidence?
Does the author promote any guiding principles?
Does the passage contain sub-conclusions?
Does the author mention any counter-arguments?
What is the passage’s argument or goal?
This isn’t a comprehensive list, but is a good indicator of the things you should be thinking about reading these.
4. How to spot tempting incorrect answers
Much like Logical Reasoning, Reading Comp questions are usually wrong for the same handful of reasons:
- extreme statements not supported by evidence
- irrelevant info outside scope of discussion
-the exact opposite of the passages argument
- minor changes to info supported by the passage
- illogical or random combination of passage’s arguments
- false attributions of individual’s points of view
5. Know the different types of Reading Comprehension questions
Main point / Main idea
These tend to be the easiest, I’d recommend knocking these out first to both to build your confidence and save some time.
Specific / “according to”
The most straightforward question type. These usually follow the passage’s structure and ask about part of the author’s argument.
Inferences
These tend to be toughest because they as you to make a prediction based on the argument such as “The author would agree with which one of the following statements?”
Next time, I'll dive a little deeper on question types, since I really don’t feel like a quick blurb on a list does them justice.
Til next time!
Steve “Comprehension Champion” Schwartz
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3. LSAT Vocabulary Builder
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