Comparison Passage Strategy

vinnyowen

Does anyone find any substantial benefit of reading just passage A first and immediately going into the questions before reading passage B? I have adopted that strategy, but I sometimes feel like I'm just wasting more time having to go through the questions twice than I would otherwise. I know it's different for everyone and we all have our preferences, but is there any general consensus on which strategy works best for most people?

noonawoon

I would read the first passage and go through questions, but I wouldn't necessarily spend a ton of time deliberating on each question. I would just quickly cross out things that I know cannot be true based on passage A. If there was a question specific to passage A then I would spend more time on it. It's definitely helpful to eliminate things quickly based on seeing only passage A, especially if the question asks "what minor detail do both passages mention." If you read both passages and then answer that question, you might forget what is specifically mentioned in which passages and have to go back and reference. If you answer that while only having seen passage A, you can easily eliminate everything that is completely unfamiliar.

So I definitely think read passage A then jump into the questions, but don't sit and deliberate on each question. Just quickly knock out answer choices.