passage order

Comments

• 1 Like

  The Great White Shark Member

  April 2020 1058 karma

  I go in order and if one passage seems difficult within a few sentences I save it for last. It’s not a perfect strategy because sometimes the questions are what make the passage difficult. But it works for me.
• taschasp Alum Member Sage ⭐

  April 2020 edited April 2020 796 karma

  TL;DR: there is no universal strategy; for most people you should just go in order, but it depends on your specific circumstances.

  If you are having trouble getting through all 4 passages, and you're choosing to only do 3 of them, then it's a valid question and I think you should choose either based on topic (e.g. skip the science passage if that's not your cup of tea) or read a few sentences and skip the one that makes you go the most "uggggghh". Also, whatever you skip should ideally be one with less rather than more questions attached -- because you get more bang for your buck on passages with more questions.

  But if you're getting through all four of the passages, which in the majority of cases is what you should be doing, then I would really say don't waste any time on the order. Instead, set limits for yourself on how long you should spend on each passage.

  That being said, I actually sort of broke my own advice here, so I'll let you know what I did when I was studying in case it's helpful or it offers you some ideas for how you might actually want to choose the order of your passages in a strategic way. Keep in mind, I was going for -0/-1 in RC and science was usually the most challenging passage for me, so this strategy won't make sense for most people--if you do want to choose a specific order, it has to make sense for your circumstances.

  Anyway, I realized when science passages were last or even second-last in order, I usually lacked adequate time to spend on them and they just took me more time to understand. So I started doing the science passage first: I'd just quickly flip through, find the science passage, and start with that. And I'd set a strict time of 11 minutes max to do it. 11 is much more than 1/4 of the time for the section, but I knew I needed it, and I'd bomb the science section if I didn't have enough time (while I could feasibly do other sections in a bit less time). Then for the other sections, I'd max out at 9min but ideally spend less than that depending on the difficulty of the passage and number of questions. Ideally, I'd spend 10 min on science, 8.5 minutes on a hard non-science passage, and 7 minutes on the two easier passages, with another 2.5 minutes to go back and check answers (which I think is roughly how much time I spent on test day).

  Now, the caveats for why it wouldn't be a good idea to use this strategy, even if you also struggle with science passages: the only reason it made sense for me to do science first was because I wanted to make sure I had enough time for it, and if I left it for last, I wouldn't know how much time it would be worth it to spend on the other passages. If I was scoring significantly lower in RC, I would have probably done the opposite strategy--save science for last knowing that I'd get the least bang for my buck given it would take me longer to get through the passage and questions.
• 2 Likes

  EveryCookCanGovern Alum Member

  April 2020 401 karma

  I skip the ones I know I will find most boring. This is almost always art. As soon as you start telling me about the expressionists or Rembrandt, you're losing me. I'd rather read about fish hatcheries. It gives motivation to push through it by making it the last passage. Also I find that I am at the height of my concentration trance during the last passage, so it makes sense to kick the passage I will be able to concentrate least on for last.
• faith234-1 Member

  April 2020 67 karma

  Thank you!! @EveryCookCanGovern @taschasp @thegreatwhiteshark
• lschnepel Alum Member

  April 2020 30 karma

  If the first passage is Art, unless it's obviously a lower-level passage, I'll skip it. This lets me move onto a more engaging passage, which "warms me up" to the RC section and builds a little confidence. Then I come back to it later on.