Lsat Reading Comprehension Tips

Paragraph 1

Suggested Approach for Reading Comprehension

Because the LSAT is taken under time conditions, it may be most effective to use the first approach. Still, you might want to experiment with each of these different approaches and decide what works best for you.

Strategies for Reading

When reading the passage or pair of passages, try to distinguish the main ideas from the supporting ideas, and opinions and attitudes from factual or objective information. Pay attention to transitions from one idea to the next and try to identify the relationships between different ideas or parts of a passage. Consider why an author makes certain points and how they draw conclusions. You may find it helpful to mark key parts of the passage(s). For example, you might underline the main idea or important arguments. You might circle transitional words, such as “although,” “nevertheless,” “however,” and the like, that will help you understand the structure of the passage. Also, you might find it helpful to underline descriptive words that help identify the author’s attitude toward a particular idea or person.

Since passages are drawn from different disciplines, you should not be discouraged when you encounter something unfamiliar. It’s important that you answer the questions based on the information provided in the passage(s). You will not have to make any inferences based on prior knowledge of the subject brought up in the passage(s). When taking the test, you may want to begin with subjects that seem more familiar and defer working on sets that seem particularly difficult or unfamiliar.

Strategies for Answering Questions

• Always read all of the answer choices before selecting the best answer. The best answer choice is the one that most accurately answers the question being posed.
• Respond to the specific question being asked. Do not pick an answer choice simply because it is a true statement.
• Answer the questions only on the basis of the information provided in the selection.

LSAT Reading Comprehension: Strategies from a 180 Scorer

High-yield tips to help you improve your LSAT Reading Comprehension, plus practice questions

Table of Contents

Part 1: Introduction to the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section

Part 2: LSAT Reading Comprehension Section Structure

Part 3: Frameworks for Approaching the Reading and Questions

Part 4: Comprehension Strategies

Part 5: Tackling the Question

Part 6: Practice Passage and Questions

Part 7: Frequently Asked Questions

Part 1: Introduction to the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section

Law students and attorneys alike will emphasize the extensive amounts of reading they must complete. These readings—usually dense, complex, and lengthy—are a staple of the legal profession. Accordingly, in addition to its sections on analytical and logical reasoning, the LSAT tests reading comprehension. From understanding the main point of a passage to making inferences about what the author says, the LSAT Reading Comprehension section evaluates your ability to quickly and thoroughly synthesize written material.

The LSAT Reading Comprehension sources texts from a variety of subjects. Sections often draw from material about the arts and humanities, science, or topics within law and policy. These articles, which are edited to fit the format of the test and come in at around 450 to 550 words long, require you to process large amounts of information and understand how arguments are structured. Oftentimes, you’ll need to discern patterns within the text to answer questions and apply the information to other scenarios.

The questions in this section of the exam are designed to be objective and draw solely from the information in the passage. Though some students enjoy the fact that this section does not require any outside knowledge, other students find that this makes the section all the more challenging to prepare for. Despite that challenge, understanding the LSAT Reading Comprehension can help you prepare and feel more confident, and we’re here to provide you with tools that you can use to help increase your LSAT Reading Comprehension score!

Click on the following links for high-yield strategies to use on each of the LSAT sections:

Part 2: LSAT Reading Comprehension Section Structure

Each LSAT will include one graded Reading Comprehension Section. The section is 35 minutes long and includes 26-28 multiple-choice questions. Within the section are 4 passages, each with its own set of questions. On the exam, one of the four passages consists of two shorter and related texts, which is a variation called Comparative Reading. The other three passages are single articles. There is no set order for where the paired passage appears or order for the passages in general. In other words, the passages don’t necessarily become more difficult as you progress through the exam.

Each question in the section will have five answer choices. Though several answers may be true, there will only be one correct answer. This correct answer will most accurately respond to the question. Each passage will include 6-8 questions. LSAC differentiates the topics of the questions as follows: “the main idea or primary purpose, information that is explicitly stated, information or ideas that can be inferred, the meaning or purpose of words or phrases as used in context, the organization or structure, the application of the information in the selection to a new context, principles that function in the selection, analogies to claims or arguments in the selection, an author’s attitude as revealed in the tone of a passage or the language used, the impact of new information on claims or arguments in the selection.”

Don’t worry if this sounds like a lot—we’ll break it down for you. Here are the question categories you’ll need to be familiar with:

• Main idea
• Stated information
• Inferred information
• Word/phrases in context
• Organization
• Application
• Principles
• Analogies
• Author’s attitude
• New information

Broadly, the questions fall into the categories of reviewing for overall understanding; identifying the function/role of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs; and making inferences.

Generally, each set of questions begins with a question about the main point or purpose of the passage it is evaluating. Each passage will list which questions that specific reading applies to, and questions in the Comparative Reading portion may reference one or both readings in the pair.

Part 3: Frameworks for Approaching the Reading and Questions

There are many ways to approach the readings and questions within the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section. You may already know which approach works best for you. However, you may also find it helpful to try some alternatives and see how they feel. You may even find that a combination works best or that you switch it up depending on the specific passage. This section provides several options for you to consider. In addition, it’s important to point out that these approaches aren’t mutually exclusive. In other words, even if you read the passage first (approach #1), you’ll still need to decide whether you complete the main point question first or last (approach #4).

Reading Approach #1: Passage first

With this approach, you read through the passage thoroughly and then move onto the questions. You do not preview the questions first and move on to them only once you have completed reading the text.

Reading Approach #2: Questions first

This approach entails a few steps. You begin by reading that passage’s questions. This gives you a preview of what parts of the text the questions will focus on. If you come across a “word/phrase in context” question, highlight the word/phrase in the passage so that when you read the passage, you’ll pay close attention to the highlighted text. Some students who use this approach then thoroughly read the text with attention to the questions and finally answer the questions after reading the passage in its entirety.

Others, however, may choose to search for the answers within the text without ever reading it thoroughly and in its entirety. This tactic should be used with caution. Remember, the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section evaluates your ability to synthesize long and dense materials. Therefore, arguments are often built using various portions of the text so scanning for keywords may be insufficient. If you are short on time, though, this approach could be helpful.

Reading Approach #3 Skim first

Some test-takers find it helpful to skim the reading and questions quickly to get a basic understanding of the topic, structure, and question types. After skimming, you should reread the passage for understanding and then complete the questions.

Reading Approach #4 Main Point Question

This approach focuses on main point questions. Usually, each set of questions begins with a question about the main point, purpose, or argument of the passage. Some test-takers complete this question first as it appears, while others reserve it for last after they’ve spent time answering other questions and exploring the passage in greater detail.

Completing the question first allows you to confirm your general understanding of the passage before moving into more specific questions. Sometimes, however, the main point may have been illuminated from the other questions you read and the analysis they required. If you are struggling with the main point question in a passage, or often completing these questions incorrectly, you may want to try saving it for last.

Reading Approach #5 Back and Forth

Some people find it helpful to skim the passage first and then slowly complete the questions. Then, these students return to the passage to study it more in-depth when they encounter a question they cannot complete from memory. This approach can be helpful for saving time because you’re only reading slowly the portions of the text that you need more clarity on.

Reading Approach #6 From Memory

Another approach involves reading or skimming the passage first and then completing only the questions that you can answer from memory. Once you complete these questions, you return to the text to answer the questions that remain. This approach saves time because you’re not going back and forth, and instead, you’re only focusing on either the text or the questions.

Reading Approach #7 Time Restrictions

One of the main challenges students encounter with the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section is timing. You may find that you are not finishing the section before time is called. One solution for this (very common) problem can be setting smaller time restrictions to keep yourself on pace. Two of the most common frameworks are limiting the time you spend reading the text and limiting the time you spend on each passage and its questions. Some people find that limiting their reading of the text to 2 minutes allows them adequate time to answer the questions.

If you need more time to read, you may find it helpful to instead restrict the time you spend reading and answering questions in full. Since each LSAT Reading Comprehension Section is 35 minutes long and includes 4 sets of readings and questions, some test-takers find it helpful to spend only 8-9 minutes on each set, ensuring that they can make it to each set.

Reading Approach #8 Reordering Passages

The last approach we’ll discuss involves evaluating the order of the reading and question sets before completing them. This approach can be particularly useful for those who struggle to complete passages on certain topics or who struggle with completing the full set of questions. When the section begins, read the first few sentences of each passage and select where to start based on how many questions are asked based on that passage or your level of interest or comfort in the topic.

Some test-takers will save a passage they deem difficult for last so they can spend more time with passages they are comfortable with. Others will complete the more difficult passage first to ensure they have ample time to complete it. Generally speaking, it’s statistically more beneficial to make sure you complete sets that include more questions and save sets that include fewer questions for the end.

Part 4: Comprehension Strategies

The previous section explained ways to read through passages. This section will include strategies to help you understand what you read. The LSAT Reading Comprehension Section is designed to test your ability to synthesize and apply information. Sometimes, you may find simply reading through the passage is not quite enough due to the complexity of the passages the test-writers like to give students. Below is a sample passage, followed by strategies to help you understand readings in the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section and examples of how to apply them to this sample passage:

Without symbolism there can be no literature; indeed, not even language. What are words themselves but symbols, almost as arbitrary as the letters which compose them, mere sounds of the voice to which we have agreed to give certain significations, as we have agreed to translate these sounds by those combinations of letters? Symbolism began with the first words uttered by the first man, as he named every living thing; or before them, in heaven, when God named the world into being. And we see, in these beginnings, precisely what Symbolism in literature really is: a form of expression, at the best but approximate, essentially but arbitrary, until it has obtained the force of a convention, for an unseen reality apprehended by the consciousness. It is sometimes permitted to us to hope that our convention is indeed the reflection rather than merely the sign of that unseen reality. We have done much if we have found a recognizable sign.

“A symbol,” says Comte Goblet d’Alviella, in his book on The Migration of Symbols, “might be defined as a representation which does not aim at being a reproduction.” Gradually the word extended its meaning, until it came to denote every conventional representation of idea by form, of the unseen by the visible. “In a Symbol,” says Carlyle, “there is concealment and yet revelation: hence, therefore, by Silence and by Speech acting together, comes a double significance.” And, in that fine chapter of Sartor Resartus, he goes further, vindicating for the word its full value: “In the Symbol proper, what we can call a Symbol, there is ever, more or less distinctly and directly, some embodiment and revelation of the Infinite; the Infinite is made to blend itself with the Finite, to stand visible, and as it were, attainable there.”

It is in such a sense as this that the word Symbolism has been used to describe a movement which, during the last generation, has profoundly influenced the course of French literature. All such words, used of anything so living, variable, and irresponsible as literature, are, as symbols themselves must so often be, mere compromises, mere indications. Symbolism, as seen in the writers of our day, would have no value if it were not seen also, under one disguise or another, in every great imaginative writer. What distinguishes the Symbolism of our day from the Symbolism of the past; is that it has now become conscious of itself. The forces which mold the thought of men change, or men’s resistance to them slackens; with the change of men’s thought comes a change of literature, and with it comes a literature in which the visible world is no longer a reality, and the unseen world no longer a dream.

_{This passage has been adapted from the following source: Arthur Symons. (1919). The Symbolist Movement in Literature. E.P. Dutton & Company, New York. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53849.}

Comprehension Strategy #1: Active Outlining

In this strategy, you use your scratch paper during the reading section to outline the text as you read. Some students create one flowing outline while others find it helpful to separate their outline by paragraphs so they can quickly locate material in the text. For this strategy, you build your outline while you read, jotting down and connecting relevant information as you go. Because you are trying to note and relate relevant information, you should balance between documenting too much and too little text. A good strategy is to make notes every few sentences or between paragraphs.

Here’s an example of an outline of the passage above:

Paragraph 1

• No symbolism=no literature/language, words/letters/sounds=symbols
• Began with first words spoken…symbolism is a form of approximate expression
• Convention yields recognizable meaning, but not necessarily reflection

Paragraph 2

• Comte: symbol=representation not reproduction, concealment & revelation

Paragraph 3

• Naming of Symbolist movement is in line with Comte’s understanding of symbol
• Movement has influenced course of French literature
• Symbolism is employed by every great imaginative author
• Current symbolism is different because it’s conscious, change in literature comes from change in thought
• Conscious symbolism: visible world =/= reality, unseen =/= unknown

As you can see from the above outline, shorthand is an effective way to convey meaning without wasting precious time writing information. You should write in whatever shorthand is legible and efficient for you. LSAT Reading Comprehension Section passages are complex but well-written. Arguments may not be easy to grasp, but they will be clearly laid out. For this reason, you may often find the main point in the first or last sentence of the text, and your outline should make note of those as the test-writers love to drill those points home.

There are some other important pieces of information you should make note of as you move through a passage. For example, it can also be helpful to include outside perspectives that are referenced in the text and whether the speaker agrees or not. Additionally, definitions and dates may be informative points to add to your outline. Further, noting and connecting causes and effects can help you understand the layers of a writer’s argument.

The most helpful outlines will help you understand the structure of the reading and where to easily locate relevant content. This strategy may take time and practice to develop and complete quickly, but it can be very helpful for understanding complex passages, especially when they are about topics with which you are unfamiliar.

Comprehension Strategy #2: First and Last Lines

Another strategy for understanding an LSAT Reading Comprehension Section passage focuses on the first and last few lines of each paragraph. Rather than focus on the reading in full like the outline above, you would create notes or an outline synthesizing the openings and closing of the paragraphs.

NOTE: We primarily recommend this strategy for students who tend to run out of time and want to scrape an extra point or two out of a section. While we recommend focusing your notes on the first and last lines of a paragraph in this strategy, we still recommend reading all of the passage.

This strategy works because even though LSAT readings are very dense, they are still well-organized. That means that sentences and paragraphs clearly relate and build upon one another, so you can usually grasp the information by understanding where the argument begins and ends.

Focusing on the beginning and end of paragraphs can help you easily decipher the broader patterns of the text without being bogged down by too many details.

An example of notes taken using this strategy is shown below:

Paragraph 1

• No symbolism=no literature/language, words/letters/sounds=symbols
• Symbolism at best can produce recognizable meaning, but not necessarily reflection

Paragraph 2

• Comte: symbol=representation not reproduction, concealment & revelation
• Symbols blend infinite and finite

Paragraph 3

• Naming of impactful Symbolist movement is in line with Comte’s understanding of symbol
• Current symbolism is different because its conscious: visible world =/= reality, unseen =/= unknown

This strategy yields shorter notes and can help you focus on only the most important parts. You should especially consider this strategy if you struggle with running out of time on the exam.

Comprehension Strategy #3: Connect the Dots

This strategy is very similar to the last two, except instead of generating your notes as you read, you compile them after you’ve read the text. Sometimes, the patterns and connections in the text may not be immediately clear. You may find it helpful to summarize your thoughts after you’ve read the passage in full. Here’s an example of a summary you might write based on our example passage:

Symbolism is essential to literature. It is a form of approximate expression that gains meaning through convention. A symbol represents without reproducing (revelation & concealment). Symbolism is employed by every great writer, but the movement being described has impacted French literature because of its version of symbolism which is aware of itself

Comprehension Strategy #4: LSAT Interface Tools

This strategy can be used in combination with the previous strategies or on its own if you prefer to only use the tablet and not scratch paper. Since the highlighter tool has three colors, you may want to devise a system for using those colors. You can assign colors to specific types of information including dates, speakers, tone, and definitions. You may also assign a specific meaning to the text that you underline. Going into the exam with a pre-determined system that you are familiar with and have practiced many times can save time and help you generate notes that are helpful and easy to understand.

Deciding on a strategy approach

There are several different reading and comprehension strategies that we’ve presented, and it’s important to use a methodical approach to find which works best for you. To do this, complete the following steps:

1. List every strategy or combination of strategies that you’d like to try.
2. Understand each strategy on your list by referring back to this guide.
3. Practice each strategy on at least six to seven different passages. Try to find passages that range from easy to hard.
4. Calculate the percentage of questions you get correct from each strategy.
5. Select the strategy that helped you get the most questions right! Later on, you may find modifications to this initial strategy selection that help you even more.

Part 5: Tackling the Question

Now that you understand ways to read through the text, understand the passage, and the question types you may encounter, let’s get ready to answer the questions. Example phrasings of question types are listed below:

• Which one of the following best represents the main point of the passage?
• Each of the following is mentioned in the text EXCEPT?
• Which of the following can most accurately be inferred from the text?
• Which of the following best describes the role of the second paragraph?
• Which of the following best describes the structure of the passage?
• application
• Which of the following principles is supported by the text?
• The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements?
• Which of the following is most close to the relationship described in the passage?
• Which one of the following most closely represents the author’s attitude toward the subject?
• Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the argument in the passage?

Once you understand the question being asked, you can attempt to answer it. Here are some tools you can use to evaluate the answer choices. Remember, each question will have five answer choices. Though an answer choice may be true, it might not necessarily be the correct answer. The correct answer will best and most accurately answer the question. Like we mentioned before, no outside knowledge will be necessary to answer the questions. As a result, you should only use the information presented in the text to answer the question.

Note: For this section of the exam, if you have to make an assumption based on your own outside knowledge to justify an answer choice, odds are that that answer choice is incorrect!

Correct answers will have clear ties to the text. Since the LSAT must only include questions that don’t require external knowledge, the support for the answer must be within the passage. Correct answers will be true within the framework of the passage, connected to and supported by the text, and answer the question. It is important to note that just because an answer is true and/or in the text does not mean it is the correct answer. Sometimes, the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section will include answer choices with those traits to throw you off, encouraging you to select an incorrect answer choice just because you saw it in the passage.

Incorrect answers will either not be supported by the text, contradict the text, or not address the question at hand. Unlike the correct answers, which need all three qualities, the incorrect answer needs only one of these qualities to be wrong. As mentioned before, incorrect answers will often include near-verbatim excerpts from the text, but with keywords slyly changed or added that change the meaning. Therefore, it is important to make sure you are carefully reading the questions and answers in order to avoid these traps.

The above descriptions of correct and incorrect answer choices are generally true. The exception is (ironically) for questions that state “EXCEPT” in their question stem. On these questions, you are often instead of looking for four supported answers and one unsupported answer. These types of questions will always have the “except” written in all caps, but you still need to be sure to read the question carefully and in full.

As you evaluate the answers, look for words that show the answer is unsupported by the text. Remember, unless it is an “except” question, an unsupported answer is wrong. So, when you see an answer choice that is unsupported by or contradictory to the text, you can move to the next answer. When you select your answer choice for non-“except” questions, you should be able to reference the part of the text that supports it.

TIP: Any time you select the answer to a question, you should be able to draw a line between the answer you choose and the exact line in the passage that supports it!

If after initially reading the answers, you’re still deciding between multiple answers, you may find it helpful to either reread the answer choices or go back to the text to compare the choices to the passage, evaluating the choices for if they are supported and unsupported. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Which answer choice has more support from the passage?
2. Is there anything that the passage states that gives me any indication that makes one of the answer choices less correct than the other answer choice?
3. Did I reread the question stem? Which answer choice most accurately answers what the question asks?

Remember, incorrect answer choices will often contradict the text, not be supported by the text, not address the question at hand, or have a near-verbatim quote with its meaning changed.

Part 6: Practice Passage and Questions

While the majority of Louis Brandeis’s great progressive achievements have been connected with the industrial system, some have been political in a more limited sense. On nothing has he ever worked harder than on his diagnosis of the Money Trust, and when his life comes to be written this will be ranked with his railroad work for its effect in accelerating industrial changes. It is indeed more than a coincidence that so many of the things he has been contending for have come to pass. It is seldom that one man puts one idea, not to say many ideas, effectively before the world, but it is no exaggeration to say that Mr. Brandeis is responsible for the now widespread recognition of the inherent weakness of great size.

He was the first person who set forth effectively the doctrine that there is a limit to the size of greatest efficiency, and the successful demonstration of that truth is a profound contribution to the subject of trusts. The demonstration is powerfully put in his testimony before the Senate Committee in 1911, and it is powerfully put in this volume. In destroying the delusion that efficiency was a common incident of size, he emphasized the possibility of efficiency through intensive development of the individual, thus connecting this principle with his whole study of efficiency, and pointing the way to industrial democracy.

Not less notable than the intellect and the constructive ability that have gone into Mr. Brandeis’s work are the exceptional moral qualities. Any powerful and entirely sincere crusader must sacrifice much. Mr. Brandeis has sacrificed much in money, in agreeableness of social life, in effort, and he has done it for principle and for human happiness. His power of intensive work, his sustained interest and will, and his courage have been necessary for leadership. No man could have done what he has done without being willing to devote his life to making his dreams come true.

Nor should anyone make the mistake, because the labors of Mr. Brandeis and others have recently brought about changes, that the system which was being attacked has been undermined. The currency bill has been passed, and as these words are written, it looks as if a group of trust bills would be passed. But systems are not ended in a day. Of the truths which are embodied in the essays printed in this book, some are being carried out now, but it will be many, many years before the whole idea can be made effective; and there will, therefore, be many, many years during which active citizens will be struggling for those principles which are so clearly, so eloquently, so conclusively set forth in his book Other People’s Money.

_{This passage has been adapted from the following source: Louis Dembitz Brandeis. (1914). Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved December 20, 2020, from https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57819.}

Practice Question 1: What is the main point of the passage?

A) Louis Brandeis was an innovative entrepreneur who accomplished all of his goals for improving society.

B) Of all his endeavors, Louis Brandeis worked the hardest on his diagnosis of the Money Trust, which accelerated industrial changes.

C) Louis Brandeis’s most impactful accomplishment was setting forth the doctrine that there is a limit of greatest efficiency, which immediately created industrial democracy.

D) Louis Brandeis set forth many industrial and societal improvements, laying the foundation for evolution that continued after his death.

E) Louis Brandeis was both a good and intelligent person who worked extremely hard to accomplish his goals.

Practice Question 2: The author’s feelings toward Louis Brandeis can by characterized each of the following EXCEPT:

Practice Question 3: Based on the passage, the authors believe Louis Brandeis’s ideas and work contributed to which of the following:

B) Net neutrality

C) Currency bills

E) Railroad worker rights

Practice Question 4: Based on the passage, the author most likely uses the word “delusion” in the second paragraph to mean which of the following:

Practice Question 5: Based on the passage, it is most likely that the author values people that are each of the following EXCEPT:

Practice Question 6: Based on the passage, which of the following was most likely a theme across some of Louis Brandeis’s work:

A) Cooperative economics

Answer key for practice questions

1. Answer choice D is correct. This answer adequately connects the components of the author’s argument to synthesize an accurate conclusion. Answer choices A, B, and C each have components that are in contradiction to the text or unsupported by the text. Answer choice E, though true within and supported by the text, does not actually address the question. It provides evidence rather than the main point.

2. Answer choice A is correct. The author’s tone towards Brandeis is very positive. There are no details offered to suggest neutrality on the author’s part.

3. Answer choice C is correct. The fourth paragraph explains that the work of Brandeis and others have created changes, including a currency bill. Answer choice A may look appealing because the text references “industrial” democracy, but democracy, in general, is not supported by the text. Similarly, choice C, philanthropy, should not be conflated with the text’s mention of “sacrifice” in the third paragraph, and though the article references the railroad, it does not say what Brandeis’s specific work on the matter was, so answer choice D is incorrect as well. Answer choice B is entirely unsupported by the text.

4. Answer choice E is correct. The text says that Brandeis “emphasized the possibility of efficiency,” which suggests the delusion was a byproduct of misunderstanding or lack of imagination. Further, the incorrect answer choices do not match the tone of the sentence being referenced. The correct answer choice when exchanged with the word being referenced, maintains the meaning of the original sentence.

5. Answer choice B is correct. The other answer choices are clearly supported by the text–they are qualities that the author praises. Since this is an “except” question, the correct answer will not be supported by the text. There is nothing to suggest that he was timid or that was a trait the author valued. The author instead notes that Brandeis was courageous and progressive.

6. Answer choice B is correct. Answer choice B is supported by the last sentence of paragraph two, which points out that Brandeis has a broader study of efficiency into which other of his inquiries fit. Answer choice is A is not referenced within the text. Answer choice C is not referenced in the text and should not be conflated with “industrial democracy.” Answer choices D and E, though they could be true, are also not referenced within the text. Further, they are nearly synonymous, which suggests that they are wrong since only one could be right.

Part 7: Frequently Asked Questions

How is the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section graded? Like all of the multiple-choice sections on the LSAT, each correct answer receives one point. Each incorrect response receives zero points. There is no penalty for an incorrect response. The section will include 26-28 questions. The questions on the Reading Comprehension Section count the same as the questions in the other sections, with each question being worth one point counting towards your total number of correct answers.

How do I become faster at reading the passages? If you struggle with reading quickly, the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section can be very frustrating. What slows down many readers is how complex the readings are, in addition to not being familiar with the very niche topics many of the passages cover. Practice makes perfect, so try taking as many practice tests as possible. You may also find it helpful to read academic articles in areas you’re unfamiliar with so you can practice synthesizing and contextualizing complex readings.

In addition, please look at some of the reading approaches and comprehension strategies included in this guide. Many of them are designed to maximize your efficiency and prevent you from spending too much time on inconsequential details and passage fluff.

Is the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section weighted differently from other sections? Each question on the LSAT Reading Comprehension section is worth the same as the multiple-choice questions in other sections. However, the LSAT Reading Comprehension Section has the largest number of questions, with 26-28 questions per section. You can view an article about LSAT scoring here.

Is the LSAT taken online?

Beginning in September 2019, the LSAT switched from a paper and pencil format to digital in the United States (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and Canada. The test is completed on tablets. Though the format changed, the test structure and contents did not. LSAC offers tools to get familiar with the testing platform.

Within the digital LSAT Reading Comprehension Section, you can toggle between passages and flag specific questions. For viewing the passage, you may scroll the passage alongside the questions or view only the passage. Because the size of the text is adjustable, the lines are not numbered. Questions referencing specific parts of the text will highlight that text on-screen. You cannot annotate the text, but you can use a highlight tool in pink, yellow, and orange. There is also an underlining tool. You will have scratch paper available to make notes on.