Drilling still getting so many questions wrong...

Comments

• Kateryna Alum Member

  April 2018 984 karma

  Want to know as well.
• s_jricke Alum Member

  April 2018 360 karma

  @lawhopeful_13 said:
  Hi,
  I have been doing untimed reading comprehension drill. I am still getting -12 wrong on the section.
  Any tips on improving and how to drill properly for reading comprehension?

  There are a lot of things you might be able to do to lower the amount your missing. One thing that might help is recognizing the recurring themes that appear in the passages. Like, science passages almost always follow the pattern of here's something that happened and here are scientific attempts to explain it. Art passages seemed to be centered around how somebody or some movement was awesome because it was so original and creative.

  I think most importantly, it's all about understanding the argument structure of a passage and being able to differentiate between various viewpoints. When a questions asks "according to the author" don't get tripped up by something somebody else said in the passage or bring in outside assumptions. Outside knowledge definitely helps on passages, but don't make unwarranted assumptions about answer choices that you can't infer from the passage.

  Also, are you seeing any patterns to the questions you are missing? Are they main point questions, most strongly supported types, function in the argument ones or the identifying a person's viewpoint variety. Zoning in on the types you are missing can help you pick up patterns on how those questions work. For all those question types though, you still really need to focus on what the argument is in the passage and how it functions.
• 1 Like

  NotMyName Alum Member Sage ⭐

  April 2018 5320 karma

  What's your process for untimed RC drilling?

  This would be my recommendation for you at this point:

  1) Read the passage and create 4-5 word low-resolution summaries for each passage ("Hypothesis" is not enough... that's too low resolution). Articulate to yourself how the paragraphs interact with each other (what is the structure). Does the author have a voice or is it written descriptively?

  2) Watch JY's commentary on the passage. Compare his analysis to your own and pay close attention to sections where your understanding doesn't match his -- you'll need to understand why that mismatch exists.

  3) Answer the questions. Find a line references to support every AC you choose and, if possible, a line reference for every AC you believe is wrong (why it's wrong).