The way Ive been doing it recently thats help my rc go from -10 to like -6 is actively read it like it is the most interesting thing in the world. I usually now try to act like when Im reading it I want know it enough to be able to present it to someone that does not know anything at all about the passage. My biggest issue during RC is focusing during it so if yours is too this should help!
what helped me is not moving on to the next sentence until you've fully understood the sentence you just read, as in you can rephrase it and even try to picture whats happening in the passage. force yourself to slow down on your reading and then you can do the questions way faster without having to refer back to the passage. also try to be interested in what you're reading even when it's boring and read for structure, as in finding the main point of every paragraph. predicting answers as much as possible helps a lot too
A way to help cement and verify what you just read is to have 2-4 words that identify what's in that paragraph. It can be written down or just mentally noted but it helps put a little flag down about what information was noted and, if needed, you know where to look back to.
I was asking my 7Sage AI assistant this recently, and it identified something pretty interesting. I was consistently reading the passage pretty quickly and then spending lots of time on the questions, but I should actually be doing the opposite. I tried slowing down my reading and taking more like 3-4 minutes per passage as opposed to the 1.5-2.5 I had been taking, and then found myself much more confident going into the questions. I also spend less time needing to go back and re-read now, which again helps me go through the questions faster and more confidently. Maybe give that a try? Your AI assistant can tell you how long you spend reading and help set goals for you.
this is definitely not the approach for everyone but i saw someone talk about doing untimed drills reading and quickly rescanning the passage as this helps build your memory of it. I saw this help me a lot however the process has to be just as fast as a typical read of about 2-3.5 minutes so that it doesnt time sink you. this also helped me gain a better understanding of the passage so that I didnt have to wait until i understood it but could rather use my initial read to make sense of my scan and attack the questions more easily!
I would say anything that implies the author's opinion is worth a slight note or highlight, because there's always a question about where the author stands. When you're reading, ask whether they're in favor of, against, or neutral toward the overall stance. I'd also try to catch adverbs like "amazingly" or "stupidly," because a lot of the time those are opinion indicators.
The biggest thing is to fully comprehend what you're reading. If you read a sentence and don't understand it, don't rush ahead to the next one, because then you're just expanding your misunderstanding. Something that helps me a ton on more abstract passages is to make them satirical and visualize what's happening. On a really difficult passage the other day, I remember tying it to Donald Trump because it was funny and made it easier to remember, since I came up with it myself.
My biggest advice is to take the time you need to fully understand the passage before answering the questions. You have about 8.75 minutes per passage, but there's no "strict time" you should be reading it in. Three minutes, four, six, it doesn't matter. If you read it in two, great, but did you understand it? If it took you five, great, but did you understand it? I'd rather take six minutes to read and fully understand, then two minutes to answer, than rush through and miss things I would've otherwise caught and get questions wrong because of it.
9 comments
The way Ive been doing it recently thats help my rc go from -10 to like -6 is actively read it like it is the most interesting thing in the world. I usually now try to act like when Im reading it I want know it enough to be able to present it to someone that does not know anything at all about the passage. My biggest issue during RC is focusing during it so if yours is too this should help!
@SamCushing This is honestly the greatest advice
what helped me is not moving on to the next sentence until you've fully understood the sentence you just read, as in you can rephrase it and even try to picture whats happening in the passage. force yourself to slow down on your reading and then you can do the questions way faster without having to refer back to the passage. also try to be interested in what you're reading even when it's boring and read for structure, as in finding the main point of every paragraph. predicting answers as much as possible helps a lot too
A way to help cement and verify what you just read is to have 2-4 words that identify what's in that paragraph. It can be written down or just mentally noted but it helps put a little flag down about what information was noted and, if needed, you know where to look back to.
I was asking my 7Sage AI assistant this recently, and it identified something pretty interesting. I was consistently reading the passage pretty quickly and then spending lots of time on the questions, but I should actually be doing the opposite. I tried slowing down my reading and taking more like 3-4 minutes per passage as opposed to the 1.5-2.5 I had been taking, and then found myself much more confident going into the questions. I also spend less time needing to go back and re-read now, which again helps me go through the questions faster and more confidently. Maybe give that a try? Your AI assistant can tell you how long you spend reading and help set goals for you.
I am so in the same boat as you
this is definitely not the approach for everyone but i saw someone talk about doing untimed drills reading and quickly rescanning the passage as this helps build your memory of it. I saw this help me a lot however the process has to be just as fast as a typical read of about 2-3.5 minutes so that it doesnt time sink you. this also helped me gain a better understanding of the passage so that I didnt have to wait until i understood it but could rather use my initial read to make sense of my scan and attack the questions more easily!
Same! Any tips anyone?
I would say anything that implies the author's opinion is worth a slight note or highlight, because there's always a question about where the author stands. When you're reading, ask whether they're in favor of, against, or neutral toward the overall stance. I'd also try to catch adverbs like "amazingly" or "stupidly," because a lot of the time those are opinion indicators.
The biggest thing is to fully comprehend what you're reading. If you read a sentence and don't understand it, don't rush ahead to the next one, because then you're just expanding your misunderstanding. Something that helps me a ton on more abstract passages is to make them satirical and visualize what's happening. On a really difficult passage the other day, I remember tying it to Donald Trump because it was funny and made it easier to remember, since I came up with it myself.
My biggest advice is to take the time you need to fully understand the passage before answering the questions. You have about 8.75 minutes per passage, but there's no "strict time" you should be reading it in. Three minutes, four, six, it doesn't matter. If you read it in two, great, but did you understand it? If it took you five, great, but did you understand it? I'd rather take six minutes to read and fully understand, then two minutes to answer, than rush through and miss things I would've otherwise caught and get questions wrong because of it.