Tips on Reading Comp

LPLPLPLP

What are your tips on how to improve on the Reading Comp section?

I notice that I get a handful of questions wrong on every Reading Comp section and I'd like to hear from fellow 7sage students as to how they best tackle the passages. 7sage recommends understanding every sentence before reading on, being an active reader, feigning interest in the passage if necessary, and "pushing back".

Are there any rules that you live by for Reading Comp? What have you found to be most effective? How do you "read actively"?

I find it best to mentally summarize each paragraph after reading it and trying to relate it to the other paragraphs in the passage. I also try to stay vigilant for the author's tone and opinion. For more technical passages, I try to be extra careful for referential phrasing.

Feel free to share!

Gracelover

One thing I do on the science passage is to use abbreviations for long scientific terms with which I am unfamiliar with so that I can refer back to them more easily when trying to understand the relationship between different concepts and entities

vandyzach

Also interested in this topic. I currently average between 8 and 10 wrong on RC (angry face) hehe.

I will say this in case this helps someone: what most test prep companies not named 7sage advocate kills me (maybe some people are good at it and I am not, which is why I'm saying only that it kills me).

Reading (essentially skimming) the passage in two minutes and planning on referring back to the passage for questions that require it is a bad strategy in my (non-expert) opinion. Many, many questions test whether you can connect certain parts of the passage together (either with word references or inferences) or they ask you about an author's opinion, and the correct answer may not actually have direct textual support requiring a small inferential leap from the text of the passage. Trying to answer these questions by simply "going back to the relevant part of the passage" does not work for me, because if you have to connect two parts of the passage for example, and there's two of those questions, you're going to end up rereading the whole damn passage! Why not just read it more slowly, analyzing more, and perhaps retaining more the first time?

LPLPLPLP, it sounds like you already knew this, but maybe this will help someone else!

Also, I am planning on posting a relatively lengthy study tip for reviewing RC passages. Everyone don't get your hopes up, lol. I will post it soon!

I feel a great discussion coming...

turnercm

@vandyzach thank you for this. i'm about to start the reading comp section of 7sage and the [failed] strategy you mentioned is what i have been doing - no more!!!

Gracelover

@vandyzach Yes I agree, it is a much better idea to spend more time upfront on the passages, it saves a lot of time and helps with accuracy on the questions.

I'm actually planning to read a lot more science passage, legal theory passages, and literary analysis passages while at the same time learning what patterns, underlying conceptions, and key themes that these kind of passages focus on to increase my accuracy on these passage, which are my weak points. I'm hoping it will help me increase my reading score....

vandyzach

Let me know how your RC drilling goes, Grace!

[Deleted User]

Really understand the structure of the passage, what each paragraphs purpose is, where the author stands, and know why details/theories/groups/ or experiments results or views are.

Then make sure you know the proper strategy for dealing with the RC questions. Most RC questions are primary purpose, paragraph purpose, author opinion, or a soft MBT or regular MBT. Majority of the time you should refer to the text. Don't reread 2-3 paragraphs but just refer to any keyword in the stimulus.

The above is how I improved to -3 in reading comp. All of this worked in a gradual manner too. First was correctly dealing with the questions. I practiced that. Then I am now refining and improving my strategy for understanding the passage. It all comes together gradually, nothings instant unless you are redoing an RC section for the 3rd time and remember most of the answers and structure of the passages.

MambaMentality93

How do you guys review your reading comp section after a PT?

akistotle

@TChalla said:
How do you guys review your reading comp section after a PT?

This is a thread from 4 years ago! I don’t think the 7Sagers above are active.

katrinagk

I just recently boosted my accuracy by 40% on RC with a couple of additions to my regular studying process:
1. I googled speed reading and techniques. I found the most useful things were quite simple and intuitive... eliminating the need to "read out loud" in your head, using peripherals more by looking to the centre of each line first, and not going backwards mindlessly. These were things that seemed obvious afterwards, but I wasn't giving thought to at all.
2. I got a subscription to the Globe and Mail Monday-Saturday and spend time implementing my RC and speed reading strategies by engaging with the paper for at least 30 min. at the start of my study sessions. Bonus of this is that I also use the sudoku and kenko games in there to warm up my brain for LG's
3. Honestly, just reading more in general. In a variety of topics. First thing in the morning and before bed everyday.
4. Making myself a "legend" for markings in the passage. For example, I circle timeline indicators and proper names of things, underline things that indicate the feeling or emotion, and use slashes to indicate transitions. I also clearly mark "A" beside parts that are in the author's voice, and use a different letter for other voices so there is a clear roadmap in the margins for who is speaking and when.

Hope this is helpful!

Regis_Phalange63

Dear OP,
Have you drilled every RC passage from PT 1 to 20?

keets993

@Regis_Phalange63 this thread is from 4 years ago so I'm not sure if OP will be able to respond.

Regis_Phalange63

@keets993 said:
@Regis_Phalange63 this thread is from 4 years ago so I'm not sure if OP will be able to respond.

@keets993 Good catch! Why is this thread even commented on in the first place? I had no idea.