timing issues

thedramallama

Okay, so I've been taken ~2 PTs/ week for the last month, and I'm still having issues with my timing for reading comprehension. Often times, I need an extra 5 minutes to finish all 4 passages + questions. Does anyone have any tips/advice for improving my reading speed?

Thanks!

standardizedcanbelearned

I also used to really struggle with this, and still do on occasion. This is what has worked for me, and what allowed me to first move from barely finishing 3 passages to finishing all 4 and answering the questions with pretty good confidence:

Really try and read for structure and for the author's attitude/main point. Don't make a bunch of annotation. That really sucks away time when you're just trying to absorb the passage. When you go through the passage, act as though it is the only time you will read it. It will force you to retain the information as much as possible. You want to go directly from reading the passage to answering the questions, without referring back to the passage (unless of course it is a direct line interpretation question).

What I have learned about reading comp. is it just takes time and doing as many timed PT sections as possible to really get used to it. It is my worst section by far but has slowly gotten better the more PT's I complete.

rbreville

Ive been hearing this alot. What do you mean exactly when you say "read for structure"? I thought I should ask this because I am getting through all passages but my accuracy is slowly improving. Hopefully if I can master this, I would get more points

xenonhexafluoro

@rbreville said:
Ive been hearing this alot. What do you mean exactly when you say "read for structure"? I thought I should ask this because I am getting through all passages but my accuracy is slowly improving. Hopefully if I can master this, I would get more points

For me, reading for structure started out by actively asking myself as I went through each sentence something like "So what? Why is this sentence here? Is there support for it? If it is, then maybe it's a conclusion or subsidiary conclusion. Is there no support at all? Maybe it's a premise?" Reading for structure is zoning in on the purpose of each phrase in an argument and picking up on how the author is supporting a conclusion (or how third parties the author is reporting are supporting their conclusions). I have a running spreadsheet with the cookie cutter structure of passages I've struggled with, and I try to look out for one of these structures when I take timed tests.

Something that really changed the game for me in reading comp (I used to only get through 3 passages, but I can consistently get through all the questions with a minute or so to spare) is learning to trust my gut on some questions and not digging through the passage for minutes for just one question.

Also, when I finish passage 2, I always glance at passage 3 and 4 to see which one has more questions. I do the one with more questions after passage 2, just in case I'm running short on time. That way, worst comes to worst, I can do a quick read of the passage I have left and hit the broader questions correctly at the expense of a detail question or two.

Hope some of that helps!

thedramallama

Thank you for your responses, they really helped!