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Life-Changing RC Tips? Help me friends.
Hello!
So RC is consistently my worst section. Do y'all have any life-changing RC tips that really helped you raise your score or changed the way you approached the passages? I'm getting anywhere from 6-8 wrong per RC section. I'd really looove to get down to just -4, so affording myself one question wrong per passage. Well I'd love to get down to -0 but ya know, 2 weeks left and all so I'm trying to be realistic. I have trouble connecting the ideas sometimes and then when the words get more unknown and the concepts more complex and confusing I just get lost (like in science passages..) I'm doing the low res summaries for each paragraph but I find that just mainly helps me with knowing the main point/structure of the passage. When it comes to the inference questions or anything that asks me to operate on a concept I struggle more.
Any help would be greatly appreciated 
Thank you for your time!
Comments
Hi there. If this is any help, I'm with you in your frustrations!
I'm definitely not great at RC. However, one thing that I found helped me, at the very least mentally (although I think I improved slightly as a result of this) is to keep a quick pace in the questions. Invariably, you will be given hard questions. Sometimes, you'll have two 5 star questions in the first passage alone! The key is to not get bogged down. If you narrow it down to 2 ACs, that's a 50% on that question. The reason I advocate this approach is that you don't want to sacrifice the entire final passage rushing through it. Additionally, you may have extra time to come back to some of the questions you took an educated guess on.
I increased my accuracy by about 30% with these things:
1. I got a subscription to the Globe and Mail for a month and read the whole paper every day. I used this to practice the techniques discussed in the CC, plus as a bonus, the number puzzle games were great LG warmups
2. I just read more in general, before bed especially.
3. I googled speed reading and tried some of those strategies. I didn't go too heavy into it because if I did I would miss key points, but I did find two things most helpful. I had a bad habit of going back and re-reading things unnecessarily that I had no awareness of and I also didn't realize how much extra time I was taking to read everything "outloud" in my head as if I was hearing myself speak it. Stopping those habits and using peripheral vision on each line by looking at the centre first were most helpful for me.
4. I mixed up the order of the passages, starting with the first, then going to the last, then deciding whether to do the second or third next depending on the subject matter.
I was stuck in a rut for a long time not even getting to the last passage and completely guessing on the whole thing and now I consistently have time to spare to go back and review my answers. Hope this helps!
Here’s a tip from another post here on 7sage that I can’t find at the moment but will link as soon as I do. *(honestly, for me, worked like magic. I’d lost all hope in RC until following this strategy).
So, here’s my attempt to sum it up!
Read the passage to understand it. This means, while reading, take mini breaks every so often (mid-paragraph sometimes, depending on difficulty level). During these breaks, sit with what you just read to make sure you understand it. That doesn’t mean you need to know what every single word meant, nopez. But, you should have a general idea of what the author is even talking about. For me, this looks like saying (I.e., thinking) what I just read in my own words. Takes me ~20 seconds, I think. But even if it takes/took longer, I’d still do it. Because like LG, spending more time upfront (during setup, for exp.) has a greater payoff when you get to the questions. RC is the same.
Next, don’t mark up the passage. As in, at all. This serves as a challenge to make sure you’re actually understanding the passage at the level you should (again, it’s gist/general idea/purpose + AU opinion, if there is one. If there isn’t, that’s impt. also).
Lastly, (MOST IMPT.) only go back to the passage for questions that ask about specifics/details (that, you probably didn’t memorize. Which is fine). Meaning “line x — y” questions. That’s it. The rest of the questions, do from memory. Because that’s how accurate you should be attempting to strengthen your understanding of the passage.
That’s it. Do this forreal for a solid 7-10 clean passages (as in, you’ve never seen), and you’ll notice a difference. “Forreal” meaning actually follow each part to the T.
//
Side note, this is a well-known JY tip: for comparative passages, immediately after reading the first passage, skim questions and ans. ones that apply to author 1 (only) and, in questions that ask about both authors, element ACs that can’t be right based on author 1 (only). Because if it’s asking for the main point of both passages, or, a shared purpose, and an AC can’t be right based on author 1, that AC is wrong. Regardless of what passage 2 reads.
I'm much more visual and write a lot less. I had to work and practice the memory method JY advocates to get there though. It's been a while since I missed more than 3-4 on a modern RC section and I really do attribute it to internalizing and practicing the CC's memory method along with low-high res summaries
People always say RC is the hardest section to improve on but I realized that it was because I wasn't drilling as much as I was LG/LR.
What do you think is the reason you're having an issue specifically with inference questions?
I found that my performance improved immensely once I started consciously pausing between paragraphs (and sometimes in the middle of a paragraph) so I can sit and absorb what I just read. I also try to anticipate what the next paragraph will say - not because I'm good at predicting it (I'm actually not) but it forces my brain to think about the material in a more rigorous way.
Your main goal should be comprehension rather than rote memory. When I really understand a passage, I can breeze through passages. For passages with more foreign subject material, I remind myself that I only need to understand exactly what the passage is describing - I don't need any background info.
@Alex
how do you manage your confidence levels when you hit the questions?
i feel like even after i think i have a strong understanding of the passage, there are so many question stems and trap AC's that are very complex and subtly written.
I often achieve 60% confidence on one AC and 40% confidence and another, and end up just going up with my gut, with only 60% confidence. Sometimes this feels like shooting in the dark. Sometimes I get it right, but a lot of times I get it wrong.
I would ideally want to go back to the passage and reread/find stuff, but the clock is ticking and I often don't have time to do that.
Any advice or suggestions? Thanks so much.
I think my POE skills on the ACs are where a lot of my confidence comes from on RC. Even on the hardest Qs I can usually eliminate 3 potential answers based on the language being too strong/inaccurate.
I also think going back to the passage is something most skilled RCers do sometimes. I know I do it all the time! The secret here is to go back knowing what you’re looking for specifically and where you’re likely to find it. If I’m going back it’s not to re-read a paragraph or try to better understand something I missed the first time — it’s almost always to check the specific wording of something or to re-read a line cite they give me on a question. This allows me to scan quickly and efficiently. Like you alluded to, time is not your friend on RC, so make the most of it by being surgical when you do go back into the passage.
Also A TON of confidence comes from having done so many passages. I’ve done basically every RC passage from 36-72 at this point. Many more than just once. I will also admit that the RC section is my favorite so I’m sure that gives me a little confidence boost based on nothing but my love for it. Learn to love it
Besides, when else will I get a chance to read about Sand Art or Fractal Geometry??
This is really my weak area too. I'm around -3 or -4 in LR sections, but RC and pure grouping games are what's currently holding me back from 167+. I'm going to drill pure grouping games and RC passages this final week in hopes that it'll get me to where I need to be for November's test.
Answering the questions out of order for each passage can be helpful. I typically do the questions that refer to a specific word, line, or paragraph first and the harder "inference/attitude/most strongly supported/the passage states which one of the following questions" last.
If you do this, you will not only have done what I think are the easier questions first; you will have also re-read parts of the passage.
So by the time you get to the harder questions, you will have way re-read parts of the passage and refreshed yourself on the organization of the passage. Thus, you won't have to look as hard and re-read/skim the passage as much to find the right answer and eliminate wrong answers.
Thank you all this is super helpful! I definitely need to be doing more RC passages and reading in general, it's just hard sometimes to have the motivation to drill as hard in RC when I consistently see the least improvement there
Gotta push through that frustration!
I have no trouble with inference questions in LR because it's just a few sentences you have to worry about inferring from whereas in RC it's just this huge block of writing which ends up being intimidating to make inferences from sometimes because I almost always feel like I'm missing something so I end up going back and carefully re-reading things which wastes time. I think a lot of it also comes from not being able to conceptualize some of the ideas and so I'm not able to remember them and how they specifically build on each other as well. And then some of the science passages require a level of visualization for some ideas that I struggle with as a liberal arts person. I've done the memory method with the low res summaries which has helped me to a certain extent with understanding the main idea and structure of the passage but not with the detail-oriented inference questions as much. Maybe I just need to be better at my summaries