Reading comp Struggling to finish time

Comments

• LawyeringForLife-1 Member

  February 2021 edited February 2021 279 karma

  Practice low resolution summaries that JY talks about in the curriculum and make sure you almost "ignore" the facts and focus on opinions and evaluative language. Passages often state clearly other people's opinions, but the opinion of the author may only come through in the implied judgement in the tone until some kind of clearer statement shows up in the end of the text.
  You won't get speed right away, however, if you drill passages with that focus, all of a sudden it will click and you will feel far more confident in your understanding of the passage. After that - drill, drill, drill, until it becomes second nature and you start seeing improvement in speed.
  I would take a passage and time how long it takes you to get it right now e.g. 13 min. Mark how long it took you to read it and how long it took you to answer each question.
  If a particular passage type feels easier, spend a few days drilling a dozen of those. Every day, push yourself to shave 30 sec. to 1 min from the reading time. Start mixing the types and hold yourself to a similar time constraint. Most important: don't get discouraged. Consistent practice is key.

  By the way, if you haven't seen that already, in RC, very often the questions revolve around maybe 5-6 sentences from the passage. The rest is fluff.
• swanganie Yearly Member

  February 2021 edited February 2021 294 karma

  I'm also working through RC timing in my drills right now and seeing some improvements. For reference, I usually could only get through 3/4 passages under time.
  There's a couple things I tried based on advice from more experienced test takers -- spending more time upfront on the passage to understand everything, active reading strategies, reading as quickly as possible, etc. For all of these, the most important thing is to get a good picture of the passage structure and all the other good things the previous commenter said.
  Oddly enough, pushing myself to read faster (2-3.5min vs 4-5min) has been extremely helpful in ability to focus on what's important (tone, MP, organization) and a few other RC posters on the forums have had the same luck. Experiment around and see what works best for you.