RC harder if you know the a lot about thet topic? Forum

[dajja15]

I was wondering if anyone thought that its actually harder if you know the topic of the RC passage really well. I have only taken one PT so I can't compare it to anything, but I did pretty bad on an RC about dark matter. I am doing my senior project on Dark Matter and I have been doing research on it for two years. I just kept getting distracting and disagreeing with the article. I read a lot and I got perfect on the RC on the ACT, so I was hoping to do pretty well, but I think I got like 8 wrong. Anyone else experience this?! Just curious.

[februaryftw]

I was wondering if anyone thought that its actually harder if you know the topic of the RC passage really well. I have only taken one PT so I can't compare it to anything, but I did pretty bad on an RC about dark matter. I am doing my senior project on Dark Matter and I have been doing research on it for two years. I just kept getting distracting and disagreeing with the article. I read a lot and I got perfect on the RC on the ACT, so I was hoping to do pretty well, but I think I got like 8 wrong. Anyone else experience this?! Just curious.

This has definitely happened to me on a few passages where I have quite a bit of knowledge on the subject. There can be a few things going on, I think. I had the same problem of disagreeing with the article. Also sometimes it is easier to assume you read something in the passage which you just inferred because you know the material from outside sources. The main problem for me is that outside knowledge seems to hurt because it can cause you to lose focus on the exact words of the stimulus.

[reebtoor]

I actually did have that problem with some literary analysis RC questions. I'm an English Lit major, and it was the same kind of thing. You really just have to concentrate on the thesis and supporting statements of the argument. I thought my prior knowledge would give me a leg up, but, as you say, it just became distracting.

[dajja15]

I thought it would help me to! I got so excited when I started reading it. Hopefully there won't be any articles on Physics or Aerospace Engineering on any upcoming test!

[MC Southstar]

Honestly, I thought it helped me read the article a lot faster.

[Pricer]

I can see it going either way. In your case, I can understand that it hurt you. If you had agreed with the article, it would have made things easier, though, would it not have? Some RC passages are hard for me when I am completely unfamiliar with the material. I get lost trying to figure out what is what, because I have to keep referencing to earlier explanations in the passage. For example, say I had a passage about the parts of a plant, and I am unfamiliar with a plant's anatomy. The passage says the three main structures are A, B, and C, three words that I have never heard of. As it goes on to explain the structure, location, purpose, etc. of A, B, and C, I have to keep looking back to earlier to see which one it is talking about. If I had at least minimal knowledge of A, B, and C, I would be able to comprehend the descriptions of each and be able to separate them in my head.

[Cupidity]

Yes. These screwed me over in June 09 with fractals. Assumptions I made threw off two of my answers.

[lostjake]

+1

I had one dealing with mud on oil rigs on a PT. I don't think the problem is with disagreeing so much, its with having extra knowledge, which made it hard to rule out some of the answers, where someone without the knowledge would only know what was read in the passage.