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Hello everyone, on reading comprehension I usually miss the questions where you have to go back to the given line number in the question stem. I usually read 2-3 lines above and below the given line number. Any suggestions on how to improve on this type of question? Like should I quickly scan the questions before I read the passage and note the line number that is going to be asked in the question? Or would that just be a waste of time?
Thank you very much in advance.
Comments
I think your approach to this type of question is correct. You might just need a little more practice. Do you miss these questions on a particular passage type? I personally don't think it's of much help to scan the questions before reading the passage. RC deals with short term memory, and looking at the questions beforehand is a waste of time because by the time you get into the passage you either forget the question or you become distracted from understanding the passage.
How do these compare to your scores in RC overall? Are these questions truly an outlier or are you missing other key questions in a passage as well?
Reading around the lines indicated gives you a sense of context . So what you’re doing is correct , I would recommend more practice and also making sure you understand the passage very well (overall idea )
@Ohnoeshalpme For example if I get -10 wrong, 3 of them would be this type of question... I get the main point and other structure related questions right most of the time.
@Kermit750 No, I get them wrong regardless of the type of passage. Yeah, you were right about it being a waste of time. Actually I coudn’t even afford to look at the questions before reading the passage. lol
If you are generally missing 10 in a section it's probably not that you are having difficulty with this specific type of question but more that you are missing something in the passage more broadly. Focus on making more accurate low-res summaries and do a considerable amount of untimed RC work until you are consistently going -2/-3 in a given section. See how that effects these question types. I am guessing that in this exercise, the trend will go away.
Also, you can film yourself taking a section to see where you are wasting time, it might be that you are low accuracy on these questions but you finish them way faster than your average.
@Ohnoeshalpme Great explanation! Focus on making lowres summaries and being able to translate them into high-res in your head, and of course like mention above, do a solid amount of RC drills untimed!
@Ohnoeshalpme Thank you so much for the advice!!! I will definitely try filming myself take a section!
After doing the section timed, I reread all the passages and do the questions again untimed. I would only get -2, -3 quesions wrong. I’m usually not able to solve 3 to 4 questions because I run out of time. So I basically start with a -3. I guess this means I’m a slow reader...?
Not necessarily. I used to think that way about myself too but when I recorded myself doing an untimed passage, I found that the amount of time I spent reading a passage was on par with JY's recommended time. However, what hurt me was the amount of time I spent verifying answer choices. If you're going to spend approximately four minutes reading a passage, then you have to trust that you got everything you needed during that read and just have to trust your gut with the answer choices. Especially if you're going -2/-3 in BR.
Perhaps this post might be helpful for you https://7sage.com/discussion/#/discussion/16952/confidence-drills-for-rc
@keets993 Thanks a million! I will try filming myself when I take my next PT.