speeding up on RC Forum

[esther0123]

Does anyone have any tips for speeding up in RC? my accuracy is O.K., but I always end up not finishing the last RC (totally guessing), leading to an inevitable -5~-9 in general... Do you drill RC's just like you would with LG and LR? Should I start with untimed drills and move onto timed?

[mindarmed]

Drill.

[cahwc12]

One thing I can recommend is to slow down. If you feel like you're rushing yourself through the passage, this is very likely going to add to your overall passage time.

I started doing untimed RC sections when I resumed prep and found I was averaging 28-30 minutes, and then when I began timing again and not looking at my watch so much, I still maintained that low time. I felt like I was going slowly too.

That's not to say this will work for you, but give it a try. Certainly drilling is going to help, but when you drill try doing some untimed sections for a few days and break yourself of this time crunch. Then see how do.

(By untimed, I mean go through the section with your watch face down or some way you can't observe the time or hear it tick. Don't dwell forever on questions and spend 15 minutes on a passage, but just mosey through it and see how long it takes to finish a section.)

[bp shinners]

Time yourself on a single passage. Let us know how long you take on the passage and how long on questions. While the general 'drill' advice will help, we can give more specific advice if we know where you're spending your time.

[cloudhidden]

I have more consistency issues on RC. I have had multiple -0 or -1 sections lately but then a few real duds (-5 to -7). I started annotating and this has reduced the need to skim over the passage again just to answer the synthesis questions. Although I read at a normal speed for me, I find that if I let up even a little bit on the intensity of my mental processes I begin to snowball downhill. RC remains the most exhausting section for me because you have the same mass of material to juggle in your head as LG, but the un-mathematical uncertainty level of LR. However, I am still weakest at LG because I have struggled with the maths since high school.