The New Paired Passages
In June 2007, LSAC added a wrinkle to the Reading Comp section, which it calls
“Comparative Reading.” We’ll refer to it as “Paired Passages” in order to highlight
its distinguishing feature: two short passages instead of one long one.
What It Is
One of the four Reading Comp question sets will be based on two short
passages written on the same subject, labeled, cleverly enough, Passage A and
Passage B. The subject matter will fall into one of the four usual categories:
humanities, law, social science or natural science.
The ideas in one passage will in some way relate to the ideas in the
other. Some pairs may contain conflicting viewpoints, but even these may contain
points of agreement and complementary elements. The relationship between the
passages may be nuanced. For example, one passage may explore a generalization,
while the other discusses a specific case to which that generalization applies.
The authors do not interact directly; that is, they don’t respond to each other.
The passages exist independently, even though they share a common topic.
Together, the two short passages will be roughly the length of a standard
long passage—about 450 words—and the question set accompanying them will contain
somewhere around seven questions. A few of those questions may refer to a single
passage, which means they’ll be just like the question types we discussed
earlier. We call these “Passage-Specific” questions. However, the majority of
the questions in the set—“Comparison” questions—will focus on the relationship
between the two passages.
Why It Is
LSAC says that the change is “a result of extensive research.” Uh,
okay—thanks for sharing. It does go on to say that the purpose of Comparative
Reading is to assess the skills necessary to synthesize information from
multiple texts, such as the ability to recognize and evaluate comparisons,
contrasts, and generalizations. That said, it’s not hard to see how the ability
to compare two sides of a story is relevant to the study and practice of law.
After all, our legal system is based on an adversarial approach that pits
various interpretations of events and situations against each other. It appears
that the test makers have adopted this comparative reading format as an attempt
to re-create that dynamic.
Your Motivation
It’s likely that some unprepared LSAT test takers may not even know about
this relatively new Reading Comp item type, so acing the Paired Passage question
set provides yet another opportunity to edge out your competition.
