somethingelse55 wrote:pt-60
lg -3 (all misses in g4)
lr1 -2 (q13, 15)
lr2 -1 (q24)
rc -8 (-1 in p3, -7 in p4 due to no time)
I don't go perfect in RC every time, but I have plenty of times and as of late I've been doing really well on it. I've never actually timed how fast I read the passage versus how much I spend on questions, but I would be willing to make an educated guess that I spend more time on the passage. I read the passage and make sure that I comprehend every sentence (to an extent), as well as make sure I'm keeping track of the general structure of the passage and the viewpoints being presented. I may not remember every single detail from every sentence, but IMO its important to at least be able to make sense of each and every sentence to the point that you genuinely understand what its trying to say. Otherwise you might miss its place in the structure of the passage or misinterpret a viewpoint. I also do absolutely 0 marking up whatsoever which saves time.
As for the questions, whenever it tells me to go back to specific lines, I do so and usually read about a line or two above what lines they point out, especially if its asking something like "The author does this in lines 20-30 in order to..." As for the rest of the question types, I would say that for the majority of them I do not refer back to the passage, unless its asking for really specific details, or I'm not 100% sure that I recall what the author or viewpoint that the question is referring to consists of. But for lots of the questions, such as those that ask "It can be inferred from the passage that..." I usually will not have to refer back. Mainly because 1) I usually remember what the major viewpoints are, and 2) So many of the incorrect ACs are obviously incorrect, usually because they are too strong in logical force or out of scope (just like most strongly supported LR questions). However, if I know exactly what portion of the passage the question is referring to, I might glance at it really quick just to be that much more confident and to avoid stupid mistakes (this has actually saved me on a couple of Qs). But for main point questions as well as the questions that are asking for the organization or purpose of the passage, I almost never refer back. These are things that you are better served to keep in mind in the process of reading the passage, rather than ascertaining afterwards.
this is useful writing, i'll try this during my next RC drills. not to say that i don't try to read the passage carefully, but i find that if i take over 3:30 min to read the passage, i usually run out of time like i did in pt-60 above where i never even got to the last passage.
when you say you spend more time on the passage does it mean that you spend over 4:30min to do the initial read per passage?
also, do you subvocalize when reading passage or doing questions?