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Reading Comprehension

LSAT Strategy Guide

This guide will teach you an effective technique for mastering LSAT Reading Comprehension and then sharpen your newfound skills with full passages and targeted drills. Learn to change the way you read, tackle the questions effectively, and apply your skills to a wide range of material.

Reading Comprehension LSAT Strategy Guide, 4th Edition

10-digit International Standard Book Number: 1-937707-76-8
13-digit International Standard Book Number: 978-1-937707-76-7
eISBN: 978-1-937707-81-1

Copyright 2014 MG Prep, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any meansgraphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, web distributionwithout the prior written permission of the publisher, MG Prep, Inc.

All actual LSAT questions printed within this work are used with the permission of Law School Admission Council, Inc., Box 2000, Newtown, PA 18940, the copyright owner. LSAC does not review or endorse specific test preparation materials or services, and inclusion of licensed LSAT questions within this work does not imply the review or endorsement of LSAC.

Each copyrighted LSAT question that appears in this book is part of a section marked with the exam and exam section from which it was taken (e.g., PrepTest 43, Section 2). Each question is marked with the official question number of the particular question.

Layout Design: Dan McNaney and Cathy Huang
Cover Design: Dan McNaney and Frank Callaghan

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Why Study Reading Comprehension?

I already know what reading comprehension is. What can this book do for me?
We strongly suspect that you already know how to read! Not only that, but your reading comprehension has probably been tested many times before, starting in elementary school and continuing on through the SAT and now the LSAT.

There is a reason for this: reading comprehension exams are a great way to test an individual's ability to absorb, comprehend, process, and respond to written information in a time-efficient manner. Of course, these are also skills you'll need as a law student and as a lawyer.

It seems to make sense, but is it really possible to accurately quantify a person's level of reading comprehension? Can't we all, by looking at our own lives and experiences, see that our own level of reading comprehension is something that fluctuates from situation to situation?

Let's look at a few scenarios:

1. Terry is an electrical engineer. She has been working in a niche industry for years, but it's very easy for her to understand and evaluate articles on engineering concepts that fall outside of her specialty, even when she isn't familiar with the specific terminology involved. She's recently become interested in the stock market and has been trying to read up on it. However, she's having a lot of trouble understanding and organizing the investment advice that she's read in various financial publications.
2. Chad is a freshman in high school. He has mastered the art of instant messaging, sending and receiving hundreds of messages a day. He filters and organizes them easily and is able to weave together a cohesive understanding of the lives of his friends. However, when he tries to organize the personalities and events of 18th-century Europe from his history textbook, he's hopelessly lost.
3. Jane is an English literature professor and a Luddite. She's finally getting around to using the internet to communicate with her students. She is surprised by the short, abrupt, and casual messages they send to her. She can quickly make sense of complex texts on abstract literary theory, but in this new format she is unable to catch subtleties and has difficulty interpreting the tone of the messages she receives. She tries to write short responses back but invariably ends up sending emails that are too long and take her too much time to put together.

It's easy to see how different types of reading comprehension exams would score Ted, Sally, and Jane very differently. The truth is, none of us has a definable (or quantifiable) level of reading comprehension. Put simply, our reading comprehension ability is highly variable. It depends on many factors, including our familiarity with the subject matter, the manner in which the material is written, our purpose for reading, and our overall interest and focus level.