Reading Comprehension Strategy

batniki1

Ok, we've talked a lot about Logic Games strategies as well as Logical Reasoning strategies, primarily about skipping, but I feel like I haven't yet found or come up with a solid Reading Comprehension skipping strategy. Yes, I have been able to come up with a personal amalgamation of JY's memory method and other methods but I am yet to figure out how to skip questions. First of all, do you guys ever skip questions on one passage, only to return to that passage after you've read some of the later passages? I think that's a bad option and I very rarely do so. Second, do you rather skip questions within a single passage with the intention that some of the following questions will bring about an explanation or light a bulb in your head about what that one previous question you skipped was asking? And finally, I have generally tried to stick to the rule that I have to be done the first passage within the first 8-9 minutes, and the second passage no later than 15-16. Do you guys agree? Any advice, comments are welcome

Daniel.Sieradzki

I am really glad you brought this topic up. I look forward to seeing what other 7Sagers say.

To answer your first question, I do skip questions on RC. On recent tests, I have found that a particularly hard 5-star difficulty question is placed in the first passage. I used to spend WAY too much time on this question, like 3-4 minutes. Because it was the first passage, I felt that I should be able to answer all questions and that they were easy, which was a mistake. Now, I quickly identify the hard question when I read it, pick my best guess, and move on. I usually have some time left over at the end of the section and return to that hard question. I have come to appreciate what some other 7Sagers have said about getting a fresh perspective upon returning to a passage. Yes, you do have to quickly reacquaint yourself with the passage. However, you also get a fresh pair of eyes and your brain has been processing the information in the meantime. I have found that I sometimes am able to quickly and accurately answer the hard question in the first passage after returning to it. That being said, even if I lose a point on the hard question, I would still skip it. I would rather have 3-4 minutes to answer an additional 2-3 questions on the last passage than waste it on a single question that I might still get wrong. Also, I have a strict 1 minute time limit for all questions on RC. If a question takes longer than 1 minute and I am making little progress, I make my best guess and move on.

As for your second question, I have heard of that strategy. I feel that PowerScore, Manhattan Prep, or Graeme Blake has a name for it, but I cannot remember what it is. Personally, I have not found it that useful. On some passages, it can help. However, it is never a major reason that I skip, I do it for timing and pacing.

For your final question, I would say that is a good pace. I try to go a little faster on the first passage (usually easier passage and I skip the hard question) so I aim to finish it in 5-7 minutes. From there, I try to do each passage+questions in 8 minutes. Recent tests have placed the most difficult passage as passage 2 or 3. Thus, you cannot really depend on doing passage 2 faster than passage 4. Passage 4 might be the easy one and passage 2 might be the science or art passage from hell. Even the first passage is no longer always a safe zone.

I hope this helps! Good luck on RC, almost all of us need it!

danielznelson

To your first question, yes, I do it often - maybe for 2-4 questions each section. Especially for some of the hardest questions, too much time can easily be spent. Should you fall for that trap, you're from then on trying to keep up and make time elsewhere, which is hard to do in RC in the first place.

Moreover, once you're unsure of where to go with a hard question, it becomes immediately a battle between solving the question quickly and worrying about time. You can't do both 100% at the same time, and usually, the former suffers, which ends up hurting your time anyway. Finally, just coming back to the question can really shed new, positive light on it. Maybe not, but I don't know that I've ever been at a disadvantage from coming back to a question. I've been given an advantage so often by doing so, however.

To your second question, yes, I do this often as well. If I'm at all hitting a roadblock, I move on. It's not so much about time but more about efficiency (which deals directly with time). When I'm not making progress or too slow of progress, I move on. But back to more of what you're asking - I do this a lot for MP questions, where I'm down between 2-3 answer choices. I know I know the answer, but I'm at this point really struggling to see the differences between the answer choices. Or, if I'm not exactly sure which direction the passage was going, I eliminate the garbage and come back. I can see the potential for this strategy, but it's at least never happened to me. Often, the other questions and their respective ACs help inform me of the main point. And going back to the passage when I do helps better articulate the main point, as well. This is just one example, but you really can use the test to beat the test, especially in RC.

I agree with @"Daniel.Sieradzki" on this last one. You can't really reliably gauge how much time a passage should be taking you unless you're actually doing the passage.

Great questions!