Breakthrough in RC Forum

[nodummy]

I used various methods (writing M.P. of each paragraph in the margin, underlining key phrases and definitions, and boxing names and key terms, etc.) I found on the forum for improving my reading comp score from averaging -10 to averaging -3, however I am only scoring well when going way over the time limit.

In other words, the new method seems to be working but I'm usually finishing the section in 45-50 minutes instead of 35. Any idea how I can use these new techniques and finish in 35 minutes? How do you improve timing in reading comp?

[fosterp]

You gotta practice writing your notes and reading at the same time. I am guessing that you are probably taking too long reading and marking, causing your time to go over.

[nodummy]

You gotta practice writing your notes and reading at the same time. I am guessing that you are probably taking too long reading and marking, causing your time to go over.

Thanks for the suggestion...I'll def give this a try. I think a lot of my time is spent placing the information I'm reading into a mental realm of understanding so that the information fits together and makes sense.

It occasionally takes me a few minutes to fully understand what the passage is about--if that makes sense. For instance, if the author is talking about authoritarian rulers and shifting toward democracy I have to remind myself of what this is and all the implications it presents in reading the passage.

Aside from that a lot of my time is spent making sure the chosen answer is correct despite having a pretty good feeling that it's right. I'll spend minutes looking through the passage for exact quotes that will gaurantee the answer is correct. Will this "confidence" improve with time or do you think it's always necessary to find what makes the answer correct each time?

[greg737]

What I've found is you just got to answer the questions really quickly. They say like 40 seconds or so per question; that will get your time down on the sections. If you can't get it right off the bat, just skip it. Skipping one problem and missing it is better than not getting to 3 of them at the end of the section.

It should take you around 4 minutes to read the passage is what they say, so you have to try to get proper understanding in that time.