Top Law Schools

What are your thoughts on scanning questions for an entire RC section BEFORE attacking a specific passage?

Potential benefits:

1) Ranking Q's before hand might save time. So, when you finish reading a passage you know exactly which to attack first (ie global/main point, detail, inference, logic). While I rank q-types before attacking anyway (immediately after roadmapping passage), doing so FIRST thing would help me rank passage difficulty AND tell me what to look for. If I can do this under 1 minute, and it allows me to answer even one or two more question's faster (detail, most likely), then I think this would be worth it.

Main advantage is killing two birds w/ one stone: ranking q difficulty for each passage should help me rank passage difficulty, both of which are tasks I conduct w/ ever RC section.

Feedback is appreciated.

I tinkered with a variation of this. I quickly scanned the section and first answered the passages with the most questions. It worked, but I then saw declines in my score on the next two tests.

Go with what works for you. Honestly, I believe the best strategy for me at this point is to just read and answer questions.

gdane5 wrote:I tinkered with a variation of this. I quickly scanned the section and first answered the passages with the most questions. It worked, but I then saw declines in my score on the next two tests.

Go with what works for you. Honestly, I believe the best strategy for me at this point is to just read and answer questions.

He is saying rank questions in each passage, not passages.

I can see how ranking passages would be beneficial, but no way ranking questions would. If your goal is to finish all 26-28 questions then how would you save time doing them in any particular order other than on the last passage? You still have to do each question...

Plus that means you have to read every question an extra time, so if you are already stripped for time, can you really afford to be spending time pre-reading questions?

It depends. If your goal is a 180, then you need to waste as little time as possible with logistics and just get straight to the reading/answering. If you are trying to mitigate your losses, then determining which passages and which questions give you the most trouble will let you get a better estimate of where you should be spending your time.

2014 wrote:

gdane5 wrote:I tinkered with a variation of this. I quickly scanned the section and first answered the passages with the most questions. It worked, but I then saw declines in my score on the next two tests.

Go with what works for you. Honestly, I believe the best strategy for me at this point is to just read and answer questions.

He is saying rank questions in each passage, not passages.

I can see how ranking passages would be beneficial, but no way ranking questions would. If your goal is to finish all 26-28 questions then how would you save time doing them in any particular order other than on the last passage? You still have to do each question...

Plus that means you have to read every question an extra time, so if you are already stripped for time, can you really afford to be spending time pre-reading questions?

I tinkered with a variation of this

I know what the OP said. Hence, why I said variation. Guess it didnt directly answer his/her question. Still, wanted to put a little input.

There's no way you can rank and have a general idea of 27 questions in under a minute. This strategy will waste 3-4 precious minutes.

Its prob a good idea to do RC questions in a certain order but don't spend time ranking them. Do line reference RC questions first this way you have a better understanding of the passage - this way you re-read parts of the text before doing any inference or abstract questions . If you are familiar with the test this should only take like 5 seconds per passage. Also I always do the MP question first because they are the easiest.

If you are trying to get all 4 passages completed its prob not a good idea to do this for the first two passages. They tend to be alot easier and you can save time by doing the questions in order. Passages 3 and 4 are going to be more difficult so try there, it may improve accuracy.

Er6297 wrote:Its prob a good idea to do RC questions in a certain order but don't spend time ranking them. Do line reference RC questions first this way you have a better understanding of the passage - this way you re-read parts of the text before doing any inference or abstract questions . If you are familiar with the test this should only take like 5 seconds per passage. Also I always do the MP question first because they are the easiest.

If you are trying to get all 4 passages completed its prob not a good idea to do this for the first two passages. They tend to be alot easier and you can save time by doing the questions in order. Passages 3 and 4 are going to be more difficult so try there, it may improve accuracy.

Good idea.