doing 3/4 RC Sections?

islandersandyankees

Hey Guys Just a Question,

I'm not doing very well on the RC. I'm rushing very quickly to get the 4 sections done, and I cannot concentrate very well because of the rush.

Do you think it would be a good idea to aim to only do 3/4 sections? I think I could more correct on the 3 sections if I have more time, and hopefully guessing on the last section can still get me 1 or 2 correct if I guess all 1 letter.

Any thoughts?

Ron Swanson

If you think that you can score higher by doing 3 passages and guessing on the 4th, do it. However know that this strategy can't be your long term plan if you're aiming 165+ and definitely not at 170+.

It's an ok strategy to help you develop mechanics/strategies in reading comp, but with some practice you definitely want to get to completing all 4 passages.

Cant Get Right

How long have you been studying?

runiggyrun

What are you BR scores like for RC? If they are 12-15 points higher than your timed scores and essentially close to perfect, then maybe give skipping a passage a shot and see how your results compare. If you're not getting close to perfect under untimed conditions, I think skipping a whole passage could have more disadvantages than advantages. You still won't get all the points on the passages you don't skip, and you're giving up the chance to rack up any points on a quarter of the questions. It's hard to know in advance which one is going to be the "easy" passage (for June 2016 the easiest was the last one, by a very long shot) so you risk forsaking 5-6 easy points by arbitrarily deciding on a passage to skip.
With the possible exception of ESL takers, for most people it's not the reading of the passage that's eating up most time - efficient reading for structure should be done in 3-3.5 minutes - but rather the answering of the questions. A solid question skipping strategy might be more beneficial than passage skipping - at least you'd get your eyes on all the passages and get the easiest questions in the bag for each.