Timing Drills for RC

Nubblet654

I'm consistently spending too much time reading the passages. I'm pretty confident when going through the questions and I answer them quickly, but my timing issues while reading/sketching the structural outline of the passage foreclose my opportunity to reach the fourth passage, which forces me to guess on all the questions on the final passage. I only refer back to the passage for questions referencing specific line numbers, and my structural outline is normally around 3-7 words per paragraph (sometimes a few more depending on subparagraph breaks).

What sort of drills can I do to cut down my reading time?

David Busis

This is a common problem, so you're definitely not in this alone!

I have two recommendations. First, try drilling a few passages without taking any notes. No highlighting, no marginalia, nothing. Notes can be a way to think on the page, but they can also be a crutch that prevents thinking. Sure, you feel like you're processing—but maybe you're just pausing and letting yourself feel busy. A lot of very strong RC takers do all of the processing in their heads. You can still do a mental low-res summary (I think of it as adding a "tag" to a passage) for the time being, but as you get more confident, you'll need to think about the act of summarizing less and less.

Second, try ratcheting up your speed little by little. Start by reviewing your analytics. If you find yourself spending about four and a half minutes on the passage, set a target of four minutes. If you find yourself spending about nine minutes altogether on the questions, set a target of eight minutes. These time goals don't account for the difficulty level of various passage, but they're still useful.

Drill a few passages with your time goals. Use two timers—one for reading the passage, and one for the questions.

Good luck!