At Blueprint, we’ve found that students expect the LSAT’s easiest section will be reading comprehension. We’ve also found that students often get a nasty surprise from this section. People think that, since they’ve been both reading and comprehending for most of their lives, that this will be an easy section. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. This news can cause some soul-crushing despair, because people think you can’t get better at RC. Well, we at Blueprint LSAT absolutely believe that you can get better, following the methodology below. Without further ado, andale!

Who is Saying What, and How Strongly do They Feel?

This, in essence, is what reading comprehension is all about, in our learned opinion at Blueprint LSAT Prep. Unlike other tests, RC on the LSAT is all about arguments, not details. You’ll get tons of questions about all the different viewpoints and what the author thinks. And even when you have to answer a detail-oriented question, if you had a good understanding of the arguments you were given, you’ll know where in the passage to look.

Key Things to Watch Out for in RC

We at Blueprint have noticed that on LSAT reading comprehension there are certain things that tend to get asked about whenever they appear. One of these red flags is whenever something is defined. If you didn’t know what a trogolodyte was before, but the LSAT just told you, then they’re probably going to ask about it. Also, when they cite some random person, this is a big red flag. They’re probably going to ask about this random person, and what his opinions are on some extremely boring subject. But the biggest thing of all, and what we at Blueprint LSAT really think you should look for, is author attitude. Whenever the author is injecting himself into the passage, that is hugely important in our view at Blueprint LSAT. The author in RC is your (terribly boring) friend, and you should pay attention to everything that he’s saying.

Get Excited

Seriously. If you can force yourself to think that you actually are enjoying reading about archaic 19th century British legal history, it’s going to be a lot less difficult. You might feel like a phony, but here at Blueprint LSAT we’ve seen it work for tons of students. So put a smile on your face and get ready for some delicious reading comprehension.

Practice Now

Improvement in RC can be more gradual than in logical reasoning or games. This is why, in our opinion at Blueprint LSAT Prep, you absolutely cannot put off RC practice. It’s boring, so people often save it until last, then never get around to it. Don’t skimp on the reading comprehension, or you’ll be skimping on your score.

Article edited by Jodi Triplett and Trent Teti, founders of Blueprint LSAT Prep. Blueprint LSAT was founded in 2005, and Blueprint has been instructing students in the LSAT and pop culture ever since.