Reading Comp tip id like to share

lexxx745

Happy New Years Eve! Id like to give a reading comp tip ive been trying out.

Ive been scoring in the mid-high 160s on the recent tests and low 170s on the older tests and i usually miss around -4 to -7 on RC. I would say most of the time its -5 or -6. On the older RCs I can get anywhere from -3 to -0. Most of the time, Ive been spending quite a lot of time on the passage up front, and going slowly through the questions. This usually leads me to never having sufficient time to answer all questions. Ill usually spend 3 and a half - 4 minutes a passage.

Now, ive been trying to just read as quickly as I can, while spending the absolute MINIMUM amount of time up front. If im not sure what a sentence means, I probably wont read it a second time. Now ill usually spend 3 minutes - 3 and a half minutes on the first read. This is usually against what J.Y and some others recommend. However, I would argue that I can usually get a fairly good understanding of the passage just one quick read through. With that extra time, I think its worth it to then move on to the questions. Spending up to 4 minutes on the passage, for me at least was unneccesary. My tutor Cant Get Right taught me to just believe in myself, and kind of (recklessly) just snap pick an answer and move on. For me, it turns out my intuition was usually right, but that I was getting so fixated on making sure each answer I picked was 100% correct.

Now, with reading the passages faster, answering the questions faster, and trusting myself more, Ill consistently not miss more than 5 on RC. Its usually -3 to -4 now.

If anyone has experimented with RC strategies, please let me know! Id love to hear thoughts. For me, I personally think just spending much less time up front and more time on the questions is better.

luxembourg93

Seems like a shoot from the hip approach but if it works for you, run with it!

danielbrowning208

If this is the strategy that works for you then definitely rock with it. I just want to add a few words of caution, because I have tried this approach myself. I ultimately came to the opposite strategy in RC as you. @"Cant Get Right" is right that you want to go quickly and trust intuition on RC on the easier questions. You can spend way too long trying to verify answers. That being said, your intuition needs to be grounded in something. For me, that grounding comes from a good reading of the passage. Because I know I have read the passage well, I can be confident in flying through some of the questions. Your strategy will definitely work sometimes; I was able to be very successful with a rapid reading, but, in my experience, you will also have sections where you miss three or four more than usual, because your intuition led you astray on a tough passage.

In summary, be reckless but ground this recklessness in good understanding. In LR, you should be reckless as well, but it would be foolish to choose an answer on intuition after not understanding the stimulus. Keep experimenting though; RC is different for everyone, so find what works for you!