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Forgetting parts of the RC passage

beezmoofbeezmoof Alum Member
edited August 2019 in Reading Comprehension 555 karma

If I am forgetting lines in a passage (for example that X rarely occurs or that X percentage of something does something else) that support an AC in a question therefore leading me to getting questions wrong, what larger problem do you think that’s a symptom of? Should I be reading more slowly for nuance and/or is my memory method process faulty?

The scenario that happened more than once in a recent PT is that I thought none of the ACs were supported in a question so I chose “the best” AC begrudgingly even though I recognized the flaws in it. On BR though I ultimately found the part of the passage that supported an AC that I originally thought was unsupported. I realized I had forgotten about a line or part of the passage.

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  • DivineRazeDivineRaze Alum Member
    556 karma

    @beezmoof Be more interested in what your'e reading and you will understand the passage. Understanding the passage is more efficient than remembering details. Actually read it like your'e reading something that interests you and everything will click. Once you get comfortable with that you will automatically start recognizing things while reading without putting in effort like main point, tone, what each passage supports and/or how they follow from one to the next. You will eventually get to the point where you instinctively know which words and which sentences will be important and which ones wont be. The key to mastering RC is two things. 1. Reading it like you are really trying to understand what is going on and it's something that enjoy reading. 2. Exposure to different passages and the way that the writers will keep going back to the same patterns for questions and passage structure. Although everything will come naturally if you read it like you enjoy and truly want to understand what is being said in the passage.

  • AudaciousRedAudaciousRed Alum Member
    edited August 2019 2689 karma

    I agree a lot with @DivineRaze .
    Also, consider reading it like your grandma or child asked you to read it for her and then tell her what it was about. Slow down a little bit so you can retain enough to answer the questions. Mainly, focus on the structure. Who are the main players? What is it really about? How do the players relate to one another? If you can get it down to "A bunch of experts think this. Dude A says experts are wrong, because that. Experts B and C says Dude A is confused. Dude A says he gets their point, but still thinks they're wrong because X. The author doesn't seem to care one way or another." that is half the battle. You don't have to remember every detail, just as grandma wouldn't expect you to. But if you read it well, you would know exactly where to look to find out. It's okay to go back to the reading for detail questions.
    And I promise you, there will never be a question that asks you about details that aren't in there somewhere. They are there in the text. It might be a combination of half a sentence here and the end of another three sentences down, but it will be in the text, always. The right answer will always be supported.
    A lot of people come up with this weird rule that you shouldn't take more than 3 minutes for a reading. Experiment with reading slower and more relaxed, thinking after every paragraph, "what is going on here with the subject and the players involved? " If your reading time goes up, but your questions are answered faster and more of them are correct, you still come out ahead.

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