RC difficult questions

[snowgirl]

Hi,

I have been struggling with only the most difficult reading comprehension questions (4- to 5-star difficulty), regardless of the passage's difficulty. I initially thought this was because I wasn’t fully understanding the passage. So, for the past few weeks, I have been practicing to identify the main point, the author’s attitude, and the structure of the passage.

While I now get the main point and structure questions correct most of the time (though not consistently for author’s attitude), I still struggle with the most difficult questions. I also tried to identify patterns in the question types I tend to get wrong, but there doesn’t seem to be one—except for "imply" questions, which I often answer incorrectly.

Could you please provide any advice or tips to help me answer difficult questions more accurately?

Thanks in advance,
snowgirl

[Jeff Wren]

Hi snowgirl,

Unfortunately, RC questions can be difficult for any number of different reasons. For example, some questions are difficult because there is one very tempting wrong answer that many people choose. Another question may be difficult because it requires combining/linking ideas from two different parts of the passage that may not be obvious.

The specific reason why you missed one difficult RC question may be completely different than the specific reason why you missed another difficult RC question, so general RC advice only goes so far in this situation.

In the same way, the problem in some cases may be poor diagramming of the passage (i.e. not noting an important idea that would have helped answer the question), in other cases the problem may be not prephrasing, or not finding support for an answer directly from the passage, etc..

What is critical to improving on these questions is that you determine for each question that you missed, exactly why the correct answer is correct, why you chose another answer, and how to change your approach/understanding so that you won't make a similar mistake going forward. This is why a thorough review of RC passages, practice tests, etc. is so important.

Of course, if you are ever unclear why a certain answer is correct even after reviewing it, that is where consulting other sources (such as our online LSAT forum or even our private tutoring) may help.

As a general resource for Reading Comprehension, I recommend PowerScore's "Reading Comprehension Bible."