Self-study
Feeling sheepish because I disregarded practicing my pacing on Reading Comprehension until the last minute... ran a full diagnostic, and just wasn't able to keep up with the RC. LR is solid, and where I want to be. RC, I was still reading the last passage. I practiced RC up front because I knew pacing was going to be an issue, but I kept procrastinating pacing exercises. Timed LR + untimed RC gets me a 178-180. Timed RC, it's 172-174. So I just pushed it to June. Any suggestions on pacing exercises for the next 7 weeks? I have an eye issue and paper/pencil accommodations, so I'll need to sort of DIY my own pacing drills.
4
1 comments
This is a common issue, especially when we know we can get just about every RC question right by just taking a bit more time. Here are a few things to try:
Set pacing guidelines. I personally try to finish the first 2 passages in 16 minutes. That means I do whatever it takes to move on to the third passage at that point. If that means having to complete two or three questions much, much more quickly than I'd like, then that's what it takes. Flag and come back later if there's time. I also like to make sure I have at least 8 minutes for passage 4. That might mean I need to move on from a question in passage 3 when I'd rather not.
Practice doing a few RC sections where you give yourself unlimited time on the passage, but blaze through the questions as fast as possible (while still reading carefully, of course). Maybe even avoid looking back to the passage, unless a question directs you to a specific line. The purpose is to experiment with pushing the pace and getting a better sense of which questions really do need more time and which ones you're spending extra time on that don't require it.
Try doing a second skim-read of the passage after the initial read. The extra 20 to 30 seconds it takes to do this often pays off because it helps you solve questions faster.