Foolproof RC

october_testtaker

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has been able to foolproof RC passages in their prep journey? I was wondering if you could share some tips on how to do it and whether it has helped you improve your accuracy & time

brooke23

Here for the comments

gabes900-1

Hi @october_testtaker , I am currently foolproofing LG. But I foolproofed some of the passages from PTs 1-35 a few weeks ago. I basically would get an RC passage, time myself while doing the passage and questions as fast and accurately as I could----which replicated test taking conditions----then I would BR the passage and questions untimed. During my BR and after my BR I would type out explanations if I didn't completely own the passage under the 8-8.5mins target times for each and if I didn't get the questions 100% correct. After this first attempt, review and notes, I would then analyze where I went wrong and how I could improve in terms of time and accuracy. By ascertaining where I needed improvement, I then would try to memorize what I could do better and how I should approach the next passage. I would repeat this process for maybe 2--3 passages a day as it was time consuming and pretty dense study work. But over some time, I saw exponential improvements in: (1) anticipating reasoning structure, (2) subject matter familiarity---as BR and reviewing trends equips one to be able to get more comfortable with some of the dense information RC passages tend to write about, (3) question attack process, (4) confidence in approaching tough passages. All of these improvements combined has helped me with RC, however, after I am finished foolproofing LGs, I will most likely foolproof the remaining passages from the PTs 1-35 and review the ones I had done. I still have areas to improve on in RC in terms of speed and accuracy, but foolproofing RC definitely has helped me improve since my diagnostic. I need to improve my skipping strategy even further which foolproofing the section does help with.

I hope this helps!

october_testtaker

hi @"Mage of Reason" , this is great, thank you for sharing!! I am definitely going to try this method out as well.

BlindReviewer

I think foolproofing in general is extremely helpful, for all three sections. For LR, if you keep doing the same sections over and over again, you'll burn the patterns and common question types/flaws into your brain that it'll be hard for you not to notice when you take a fresh test. For RC, it's only when you can remove the challenge of a fresh passage that you can focus on how the test is designed, i.e. where you have to look to find the questions, what is and is not a waste of time, and what exactly the questions are even looking for. I've found that for RC, my BR consists mainly of "If I couldn't get the answer, then what would I have had to do to get the answer under timed conditions?" so beyond the content/what questions are asking for, I think about what was and was not realistic to do under timed conditions for a fresh passage. For example, some questions you're just going to have to throw because you just didn't retain the information, or you don't know where to look. So BRing really helped me figure out things like when I should go back to the passage, and when I should just move on. For example, if I don't even know where to find the part that they're referencing, it's just not worth my time to scan the ENTIRE passage for one question. If I have time at the end, I'll come back. In comparison, if I've narrowed it down to 2-3, and I know where to look for the best contender, then I'll definitely go back. Lastly, I think foolproofing really helps for understanding what "MSS" or "Most likely to agree" really mean -- they generally mean at least suggested or explicitly mentioned in the passage. And when they lead you to a particular claim or section of the passage, you have to learn why they're pointing you there and what they want you to do (which will usually reduce to a LR question because you've been pointed to an argument you have to strengthen or weaken -- the real issue is if you can't even find what they're pointing to).

All that being said, I think RC is still my worst section haha I think it's the hardest to take what you learn from foolproofing and apply them to a fresh section just because the passages are so dense/can be subjective depending on your familiarity with subject matter. What helped for me mentally going into the June exam was just focusing on techniques that would help me finish rather than aiming for a perfect section.

gabes900-1

@october_testtaker said:
hi @"Mage of Reason" , this is great, thank you for sharing!! I am definitely going to try this method out as well.

Hi @october_testtaker , no problem. Best of luck with it!