Self-study
Title says it all. Heard a rumor somewhere that this is a real thing, and AI bot mentioned it lol. Can anyone confirm that in a RC section, passages 4 vs 1 tend to be different?
3
Title says it all. Heard a rumor somewhere that this is a real thing, and AI bot mentioned it lol. Can anyone confirm that in a RC section, passages 4 vs 1 tend to be different?
5 comments
Hello! I have heard that as well, and I do remember many PTs following that trend, but as @AltanM said, it is not necessarily a strict rule.
For instance, PT146's RC passages are pretty much in order of difficulty: Passage 1 is a 2/5, Passage 2 is a 3/5, and Passages 3 and 4 are 4/5. But if you look at PT137, the order does not strictly follow that curve: Passages 2 and 4 have the highest difficulty levels. I can't recall the exact PT number right now, but I remember a PT where the very first passage was more difficult than the third or the fourth passage. Still, some people do find that the first passage is usually the easiest, so they like to tackle it first to warm up their brains.
Regarding LR, there definitely used to be a much clearer pattern of questions increasing in difficulty as the section progressed. However, in more recent exams, the test makers have started planting difficult questions in the first half of the section, so that ordering is no longer a strict guarantee either. I hope this helps!
Not necessarily. It can feel like that sometimes, but the passages are usually randomly assorted. The first passage could be the easiest, but it could also be the hardest. It isn't like LR where there is a clearer pattern of harder questions later on.
@AltanM That second thing is also new to me. So there is some pattern in LR?
@SpencerY passages in the teens tend to be harder
@SpencerY Yes! In LR, the questions tend to get harder as you go. So 1 should theoretically be easier than 27. However, they shuffle some around so if a question is really tripping you up in the first 10, it could also be harder difficulty. It's not an exact science, but generally the questions get harder as you continue.