Initial Observation 设置阅读题的难度，过滤众多申请人
The LSAT is a very sophisticated test. The Ivy League law schools need to make differentiations among applicants in the 99% range. Therefore the answers to very difficult questions must rely on some meaningful distinctions grounded in the applicant's knowledge, in logic, or the applicant's ability to draw inferences.
Finding the Answers in the Passage 在文章中寻找答案
The answers to the questions in the LSAT Reading Comprehension passages are found not in what the passage STATES, but in what is IMPLIED. This differentiates them from passages on other tests, such as the SAT, ACT, etc. The consequences are that some of the techniques useful on other tests may be less so on the LSAT:
Reading the questions before reading the passage. If the answers will not be immediately apparent on a first normal reading, carrying unanswered questions in short-term memory may just serve to confuse, without other benefit.
Underlining and circling key words when reading, while useful for easier questions, will have less effect because the answers are not in WORDS but in their IMPLICATIONS.
When questions refer to lines in the passage, the answers are usually not found at the reference but likely 10 or 15 lines earlier, connected to the reference by an antecedent pronoun or other subtle link.
Reading the Passage 阅读时的注意事项
My suggestion is that the passage not be skimmed and re-read, but that it be read only once, very slowly and carefully. Count on answering the questions based upon this one reading. The reasons are:
A slow, thoughtful reading of the passage allows the mind to form unconscious, subtle connections between parts of the material. Answers to many of the difficult questions will depend upon picking up on these subtle connections. A reading speed of 200 words a minute is quite adequate to get through the material. Repeated re-reading, hunting for the obvious answers - which simply are not there - is what wastes time.
SUGGESTION: Carry on a verbal dialogue with the material as you read.
What's the author trying to say?
Is it true?
Is it someone else's opinion?
Is the author going to rebut?
Does the content agree with what I know?
Am I supposed to take content seriously?
I don't get it. Is it meant to be nonsense?
Some questions deal with the TONE of the passage.
Is the passage:
Argumentative
Factual
Ironic
Censorious
Conjectural
Authoritative
Didactic
An interactive reading will prepare the applicant to answer such questions without further re-reading.
The answers to the very subtle questions will depend on faint resonances in the mind. The in-depth reading has the best chance of creating such resonances. Consciously, there will be just a faint sense as to which answer is correct. In my experience, it is the ability to pick up on those faint resonances which is being tested.
It is expected that the subject matter of some of the passages will be unfamiliar to the applicant. That may be the point. Lawyers are expected to become instant experts on the material in their cases. The ability to have quick insight into the unfamiliar may be a valid subject for testing on the LSAT. In-depth reading helps in this regard.
Words are included in the passage that the applicant is not expected to be familiar with (successfully so in my teaching experience), e.g., words as 'homunculus' or 'halcyon' (before it became known as the name of a street drug). Questions are then asked about such words. The point is that the applicant is expected to decipher the meaning from CONTEXT, i.e., the implication of the words connected to it.
Comment 人们已经习惯被简化的知识...
A classical liberal arts education used to guarantee that as a result one could read. This appears to be no longer the case, except perhaps at the most prestigious schools. Exposure to the writings of the great thinkers, philosophers, and writers used to assure that one was exposed to complexity of thought and expression. Today, study is mostly from second-hand sources, from predigested textbooks that are written, apparently, to make the material accessible to a wider audience. Also the multicultural emphasis on less-developed cultures, where thought and expression have not yet had the chance to reach higher levels of intricacy, may have had some influence. (Ravi Shankar and the sitar did not spring up overnight.) Therefore, the typical LSAT applicant is at a disadvantage when confronted with complex reading comprehension passages. What to do?
Suggestion 如何攻读复杂的LSAT文章
Order the books of back tests from the Law Service. This expense of $50 or so is the best investment I can think of, especially if one does not take a formal prep course. Read all the comprehension passages slowly and carefully. What this does is acclimatize the mind to complexity, which may be unfamiliar from normal college study.
It has the secondary effect of attuning the mind to the rhythms of the LSAT passages. Typically, the passages have to go through in-house and external review committees before they appear on the test. As the authors get to learn what will and will not pass muster, they develop unconscious habits in the structuring of passages and the framing of questions. That is, inherent patterns arise.
Exposure to many examples of the results of this process allows one to get attuned to the inherent patterns. The result is that, when taking the test, there will be a ring of familiarity to the material.
I recommend that you do not mark up the books on first reading. You should do all the material a second time, now looking for patterns, not just answers. Look at HOW the answers are arrived at.
Writing LSAT-like material is very difficult. The material will not have gone through the filtering process mentioned above. I recommend working through the past tests, even if one is taking a prep course which provides its own material.
责任编辑：mman
