Quick tips for Reading Comprehension sections in LSATs?

Read the story fairly slowly, from beginning to end, circling the important words with a pencil. Important words include names, time words (before, after, then, next), superlatives (all, none) and relations (because). The physical act of circling gets the facts, their relationship and the time line in your head. Next, read all the answer choices. You'll be able to eliminate at least two of them immediately, because they have something that contradicts the story. Choose between the other two based on what matches the important words. If you can't decide between two answers, choose the one that has no superlatives. If it's not all right, it's all wrong. If you still can't decide, make a random guess, curcle the question number and go on. Come back at then end if you have time.

Here's my experience for what it's worth. I took the LSAT twice. The first time I listened to the folks at the review course. They told me to skim the reading sections (rather than to read them) in order to save time. It was a disaster. I tried skimming and when I got to the end I hadn't "retained" anything. This made me panic. I then tried to read the whole thing from start to finish and ran out of time. The results were disapointing, as you might imagine. The second time I took it, I relaxed and read everything from start to finish. And I ended up scoring in the 90th percentile. So here's my advice: You've presumably made it through college by this point, and you're someone who thinks they might have an aptitude for the law. If you're anything like the lawyers I know, you majored in some sort of liberal art. You can read and you can comprehend. What will kill you is stressing out about it. I think 90% of doing well for these types of tests involves being calm and not freaking out. I've even heard people recommend having one beer before the test. So relax . . . the absolute worst thing that happens is that you don't become a lawyer. And really, the world doesn't need more lawyers. Good luck.

Don't try to skim the passages, but do read the questions before you read the text. That way you'll have a heads up on what details will important.

bananafish has good points about relaxing and that your mindset going into the test is hugely important. Even more important is stamina. Make sure that in this final week you are taking practice exams with 5, not 4 sections, under reasonable testing conditions. Too often, students only practice on four sections at a time and then find themselves mentally fatigued by the time they hit the end. RC more than the other sections, requires you to focus and you'll find that your score drops even more if you feel rushed and tired. Best of luck.

I've never taken the LSATs, but on every sort of 'reading comprehension' type test, I've always done the skim, then refer back method. I skim the whole passage, reading quickly. I don't necessarily read for content, but more position. Then when the questions ask me something, I have a decent idea of where in the text the answer is, and I go back and get the answer.

I'll join the recommendation that you read the questions first. I took the test a few years ago and did well using that method. Make sure you practice, though, so you know how much time that takes you. I found it actually took me less time to read the questions first, because I was better able to filter out extraneous details in the passage when I read it.

Definitely read the questions first. Another possibility is to underline the topic sentences of each paragraph as you read and/or write one or two words about what the paragraph was about next to each. It didn't help me so I didn't do it, but I know it helped some people in the class, so you could give it a try.

Wow, I've never tried reading the question first in the RC (do it sometimes in LR). I'll definitely give it a try when I do jam sessions throughout the week. Thanks for the advice. I should be able to do well in RC, I am an English major... :)

Everyone's different. I took it in September and I'm taking it on Sat. as well (damn logic games) and I do the skimming thing. It works great for me, but that's the way my head works. How'd you do on the SAT (if you took it, you probably did) reading comprehension? Stick with the strategy that worked for you there, it's not all that different, just bigger words.