How to Solve Reading Comprehension
Blueprint offers LSAT courses throughout California. If you’re considering taking one of our LSAT prep courses, the following will give you a sense of our reading comprehension curriculum. In our humble opinion, it’s the best out there.
A Difficult Section
We’ve found with our California LSAT classes that it can be the case that students are totally confused when they first see logic games, but then increase their score as they become familiar with the section. This is not usually true of reading comprehension. From teaching thousands of LSAT students in California and elsewhere, our theory is that this is because students are typically already familiar with reading a passage and answering questions about it from schoolwork. Accordingly, they tend not to work as hard to prep this section of the LSAT as they might for logic games.
Do It
This is the first tenet of reading comprehension in a Blueprint class: actually do reading comprehension. We find many of our students in our California LSAT classes don’t improve on this section because they simply don’t do the homework.
The Blueprint LSAT Prep Reading Comprehension Method
Blueprint also has a unique method for tackling reading comprehension LSAT questions in our LSAT classes in California and elsewhere. First, we categorize every passage according to its structure. Once you understand the structure, or number of views in a passage, you can typically answer the main idea, purpose, and author attitude questions without returning to the passage. This represents a huge advantage on this timed exam.
Our California LSAT students also find it valuable that we teach secondary structures in reading comprehension. Many reading comprehension LSAT questions correlate to the amount of space dedicated to a certain topic in the passage. Recognizing these patterns can help students anticipate the kinds of secondary questions (outside of main idea, etc.) likely to be asked about.
In addition, we teach our California LSAT students to tag the passages correctly. By jotting notes in the margins regarding things that the LSAT typically asks questions about, students will either be able to answer questions directly or know where to go in the passage to find the correct answer.
Finally, Blueprint teaches its LSAT students in California and elsewhere the common types of questions that appear after the passage. Some questions, such as those that ask about what would happen if the passage continued or what the title of the passage would be, are particularly difficult for our California LSAT students. We teach the best way to approach these and other questions so students can increase their LSAT score on reading comprehension.
In the end, Blueprint’s approach to reading comprehension can teach you what to read for and how to anticipate the kinds of questions likely to be asked about—all huge advantages when it comes to performing well on this section of the exam.
Blueprint LSAT Prep offers LSAT classes throughout California as well as an online course option available worldwide. Schedules for our live California LSAT courses may be found here.
