In one aspect, the present invention provides methods for synthesizing multiple copies of antisense cDNA molecules from an RNA molecule, comprising using an RNA molecule as a template for synthesizing multiple copies of antisense cDNA molecules. In some embodiments of the methods, the RNA molecule is incubated with a primer and with an enzyme possessing reverse transcriptase activity under suitable conditions for synthesizing multiple copies of antisense cDNA molecules. In some embodiments, the methods produce multiple copies of double-stranded cDNA from a template RNA molecule. In further embodiments, the methods produce multiple copies of cRNA from a template RNA molecule.