Drop the Phone and Pick Up Some Books!
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Last month, I wrote about how diving into Shakespeare can help you improve your LSAT Reading Comprehension score, by forcing you to “read for the scale.” (If you’re not sure what that means, check out the article!)
While the scale is important in every passage you’ll tackle—since the LSAT is, of course, a test about arguments—you shouldn’t neglect the fundamentals of Reading Comprehension as a general test section. It’s on just about every standardized test, from the SATs and ACTs to the LSATs and MCATs… And for good reason.
So, LSAT-specific Reading Comprehension tips aside, how can you get better at the basics?
One answer: Read more books!
Uh… Is that True?
Learning science proves it: habitual reading does for your brain what hitting the gym does for your body. It increases your memory and brain power, relaxes you, improves your empathy (which helps with comprehension and finding the scale!), expands your vocabulary, and even activates the analytical part of your brain. Generally speaking, science bears out that reading can help make you smarter.
And today’s holy grail: according to one study, reading books is linked directly to—you guessed it—improved scores on reading comprehension tests!
Some people love reading books. Some people, not so much. But no matter how you feel, if you’re studying for the LSAT, you should stock up your bookshelf and get studying.
What Should You Read?
While the activity of reading is healthy and helpful for your brain, you want to make sure that you’re reading the right stuff.
First, pick books that are appropriately challenging. Reading teen lit, while admittedly very fun (or is that just me?), won’t stretch your vocabulary too hard. On the other end of the spectrum, reading dense tomes of Ancient Whatever metaphysics or the NASA instruction manual to piloting a spaceship wouldn’t work best, either. You would spend too long looking up every other word or drawing out diagrams: you want to prepare your brain for LSAT-level difficulty, and overshooting it can actually hurt.
If you’re not sure what’s ideal, you might want to take a look at the New York Times Best Sellers list, books reviewed by The New Yorker or other culture reviewers, or your local librarian’s favorite novels.
Second, vary the kinds of book you read. Try your hand at literary fiction, literary non-fiction, journalism, biographies, histories, and science and law writing. The more genres you try out, the more rounded-out your vocabulary will be—and the less you’ll panic when an unfamiliar topic pops up in your Reading Comprehension section!
How Should You Read These Books?
Now that you’ve picked out an armload of books, you’ve got to make sure that you read them the right way.
What does that mean? Here are a few things you should do in order to get the most out of your book-based LSAT studying:
- Read without any distractions! No TV, no music, and certainly no iPhone nearby. (In fact, turn it on airplane mode and keep it in another room.) Studies show that multitasking temporarily reduces your IQ by dozens of points, and that constantly distracting yourself from a long, slow activity will prevent you from receiving any of those important benefits.
- Don’t read where you sleep. Many people read right before bed, which is fine, but it’s best not to read in bed—otherwise you risk falling asleep mid-paragraph. Pick a cozy chair instead.
- Take notes and write summaries of chapters or entire books. This will help you retain the information you’ve learned, and get your brain into the habit of organizing what you’re reading to maximize comprehension. (Sound like a good strategy? I think so too.)
- Highlight and underline. If you’re able to mark up the books you’re reading, this is another great way to increase retention and comprehension. Plus, it’ll get you ready for all that annotation you’re going to be doing on the LSAT.
- Make time to read. Schedule it out—remember, this is studying! Maybe that means setting aside an hour in your calendar, or committing to finishing a certain amount of chapters each week. Plus, you can read on your commutes, while you wait on line at the grocery store, on a rollercoaster… Whenever you have some free time that you might otherwise spend on your phone, for example.
Good reading! ?
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Ben Rashkovich
is a Manhattan Prep LSAT instructor based in New York, NY. He’s a graduate of Columbia University, and he scored a 172 on the LSAT. He enjoys the mental challenge and logical acrobatics of the LSAT—and he feels that studying for the test can teach everyone to approach problems more rationally. You can check out Ben’s upcoming LSAT courses here!