Ive done tons of RC passages, and I find myself stuck on the same two things every time. Either I miss an important detail that turns into a question or I find myself just not remembering the right things because of a poor paragraph summary. For me, Im loosing faith in the idea that you dont have to understand the whole passage. Ive found myself lost on questions simply because I didnt have a strong enough understanding. The idea of needing only 70%-80% understanding seems to be arbitrary and subjective.
What are some strategies that you guys use? I try to do the short summary but never seem to actually capture the right things in my summaries. Untimed I do well because I can re-read and parse through dense text. I dont struggle with RC in any other test, as I dont have to read something in 4 minutes.
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I'm not good at RC by any means, but I've recently gone from -10+ regularly to -4 and -5 on my most recent PTs. The biggest change I've implemented is a longer read. I'm consistently reading for 3-3.5 min, sometimes more. Before, I was trying to speed through my reads in 2.5 min. I highlight every new perspective and any shift in attitude, usually just the first few words or the whole sentence. That way if you have to go back to the passage, you've narrowed down what you need to reread. But also, I've been doing at least 1-2 timed passages every day for the past month (when I'm not doing a section or PT). The repetition has taught my brain how to predict the questions and know what information I need to remember. I've been able to shift from a more passive read to an interactive read. I hope this helps!