How to Practice RC

Comments

• lexxx745 Alum Member Sage ⭐

  July 2019 3190 karma

  For me, I feel like the "understanding" part of the reading comprehension is very hard to improve at. However, what seems to improve easily for me is reading speed. The questions themselves always seem to be hit or miss, but for me reading speed is always improving. If you can improve your reading speed, then youll consequently have more time to do the questions. Thats why I usually try to do RC timed. If I run out of time, I'll just make note of that and try to finish the section.
• Hopeful9812 Member

  July 2019 872 karma

  Great question! I'm not an expert at this but I can say that I have been doing them untimed until I feel that I understand the concepts being tested. Especially during the learning phase, it helps me to focus more on understanding and worrying about time afterwards. RC is a hard section, but what seems to be working is to keep practicing and doing RC passages. Good luck!!
• 2 Likes

  AudaciousRed Alum Member

  July 2019 2689 karma

  Time yourself, but don't look at it. Understand and practice first. Your time will probably be awful at first. No biggie. When you feel like you've got a good grasp on it, then do timed sections. But if you don't have a good understanding of it, what does it matter how much or how little time you take? Fast and wrong is still wrong. Slower and right at least means what you get done is right. And speed comes in time when you start connecting things faster and you understand what the questions are actually wanting from you.
• 2 Likes

  savanyu.emma Member

  July 2019 34 karma

  I am having the same issues with RC. It is somehow my most hit or miss section. I agree with lexxx745, I have been able to improve on my speed, but not understanding. What I am trying now is to practice reading without understanding, but rather prioritize recognizing what the point of each paragraph is. That way, you know where to look back if you hit a question you don't understand. I am a person who reads to understand and that is really not the strategy here. I found this reiterated by Malcolm Gladwell is his recent podcast: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/31-puzzle-rush ...
• AudaciousRed Alum Member

  July 2019 2689 karma

  I would agree with the above. In my post, I do not mean "understand" as understanding the subject matter. Understand what you are reading. Can you tell me who/what the players are and how they relate? (Dude A thinks experts are wrong. Experts B and C say he is confused. The author doesn't care one way or another who is right). If you know the structure and can retain enough to go "Oh yeah.. I read that detail they are asking about there.." and either you remember how it went or exactly where it was, that is easily half the battle or more.
• 9 Likes

  Adam Z. Xie Member

  July 2019 edited July 2019 127 karma

  In RC, I was -10 BR on average. Now I am -2 PT on average.

  For practicing RC, the first thing you need to do is to have the right attitude. The worst mistake that I made, was that I got intimidated. Later, I found that it was totally unnecessary.

  The statistics demonstrate that at most RC has two (extremely rarely, three) difficult questions that are beyond the ability of 150/160 scorers. 95% of the questions are MBT, and 5% asking inferences that you will be able to discern if you understand the Main Point of the passage. Despite some passage are difficult to read, almost all questions are not supposed to be as hard as LRs.

  Moreover, each passage is actually very short, and has clear structure. Most of the time, the structure of every passage “rhymes,” if not repeats, previous passages. For example, some common structures are: phenomenon, hypothesis 1, hypothesis 2, evaluation; description, analysis, application, and qualification; a myth, someone debunks this myth, explanation 1, explanation 2; a theory, the reasons why this theory is wrong 1, 2, 3. Pretty much like every standard academic essay. Putting yourself into the shoes of the writer helps to discover the flows of ideas, a.k.a., the structure.

  The take-away? First, trust yourself. Second, you need to focus on finding the Main Point. Each passage has one and only one core logical relationship between X and Y that you must understand to answer any of the question correctly. Third, divide and conquer, tackle each question with confidence.
• Regis_Phalange63 Alum Member

  July 2019 1058 karma

  @"Adam Z. Xie" said:
  In RC, I was -10 BR on average. Now I am -2 PT on average.

  For practicing RC, the first thing you need to do is to have the right attitude. The worst mistake that I made, was that I got intimidated. Later, I found that it was totally unnecessary.

  The statistics demonstrate that at most RC has two (extremely rarely, three) difficult questions that are beyond the ability of 150/160 scorers. 95% of the questions are MBT, and 5% asking inferences that you will be able to discern if you understand the Main Point of the passage. Despite some passage are difficult to read, almost all questions are not supposed to be as hard as LRs.

  Moreover, each passage is actually very short, and has clear structure. Most of the time, the structure of every passage “rhymes,” if not repeats, previous passages. For example, some common structures are: phenomenon, hypothesis 1, hypothesis 2, evaluation; description, analysis, application, and qualification; a myth, someone debunks this myth, explanation 1, explanation 2; a theory, the reasons why this theory is wrong 1, 2, 3. Pretty much like every standard academic essay. Putting yourself into the shoes of the writer helps to discover the flows of ideas, a.k.a., the structure.

  The take-away? First, trust yourself. Second, you need to focus on finding the Main Point. Each passage has one and only one core logical relationship between X and Y that you must understand to answer any of the question correctly. Third, divide and conquer, tackle each question with confidence.

  This guy. Gospel.
• tanika.s Alum Member

  July 2019 185 karma

  @"Adam Z. Xie" Thank you! This helps!