Why (and How) LSAT Reading Comprehension Can Be Improved (Part 1)
If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “Reading comprehension isn’t really something I can improve on much, right?” I would probably have cable.
Unlike octopuses, humans are perfectly capable of acquiring and improving literacy!
When I start working with a new student, one of the first things I tell him or her is that the LSAT is a very learnable test. It’s not an opaque and mysterious arbiter of natural intelligence, nor is it an unpredictable obstacle course for which no one truly knows how to prepare. Sure, the LSAT isn’t easy, but it tests real skills that can be improved upon through hard work.
Usually, after our first logic games lesson, students get what I mean. They are, by learning the test, learning that the test is learnable. But when we begin to discuss reading comprehension, spirits fall. Someone who is missing 40% of the questions on reading comp thinks she’s doomed to do the same on test day.
“You can’t teach someone to read who doesn’t already know how,” a student informed me once.
Actually, you can. Literacy is only taught. Human beings are not born literate, after all, and many people have learned to read late in life. Adults of all ages acquire second (or third, or fourth) languages every day.
Why, then, would it make sense to assume that reading improvement—the kind required to do well on the LSAT—is impossible?
Improving your reading comprehension score isn’t impossible. It’s just not fast. Students see quick gains on logic games and logical reasoning and expect that if reading comp were teachable, they’d note equally quick advances there. In fact, developing your reading skills just takes longer, which is not necessarily a bad thing for those of you willing to do the work.
Okay, Mary. If that’s true, how do I do it?
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting tips for improving your score on LSAT reading comprehension. In the meantime, notice how you read (and if you don’t, you’re starting TODAY). Do you skim? Do you re-read the same sentence over and over? Do you forget what you just read?
Picking up on your own bad habits is the first step to changing them.
This is part 1 in Mary Adkins’ series on improving LSAT Reading Comprehension ability. You can check out part 2 here: LSAT Reading Comp Is a Bad Play: Advice for Sub-text Sleuths (Part 2)