How to improve RC in 4 days...?

mackenzie_fitzgerald

In the rest of my sections I'm doing great, I only miss like 3-4, but without fail for RC I generally miss about 10!! I know if I could master this my score would shoot up....I neglected doing all of the stuff in the course outline because I was lazy and for whatever reason told myself, "eh it's just reading comprehension...I know how to read." I was very wrong and now I don't think I have enough time to go all the way back through it. I was wondering if anybody had an advice on how to get at least a couple extra right - even if it means I'm still missing 7 or so. Please help! I am taking the test Monday so any and all advice would be awesome opossum. Thanks

Dr. Yamata

What brought my score out of the -12 to -9 range was summarizing each paragraph mentally and making a little visual picture or "movie" of what it was saying. Visual memory sticks with us longer and also more clearly in the short-term, which is what reading comp is testing. However abstract the topic may be.. like aboriginal land disputes or the law-and-literature movement, you can come up with a little visual depiction of what it is saying. When you go to the questions, you don't need to worry about memorizing little technicalities and words, you just remember your little pictures, and if you can't get the questions based on that alone, your three or four visual images will provide a big hint as to where to scan for the answer. I also like brief annotations, signaling viewpoints or positive/negative comments, and stopping for a moment after each paragraph to re-group while making my "movies."

This method isn't perfect. I still get like 4 wrong each section.. but I'm getting the section done with time to spare, and it's reasonably accurate for me. Sounds like something you could implement "at the buzzer" here.

mackenzie_fitzgerald

Thanks!

Shownuff

Yeah, the movie thing sounds like a good idea -I mean, it seems to get you more actively involved.

dave.arpino

do like 10 timed RC sections over the weekend, you will notice after you get through more and more of them they kind of ask the same questions over and over again. I've gotten to the point where I can read an RC passage and be quite certain I know they are going to ask a question specific topic in the reading as I'm going through it. Also, after every paragraph - take 10 seconds and jot down in your own words what is happening on a macro level. Something as simple as "Author likes forensic psych, but critics think it sucks"