Viable RC Strategy? Forum

[The Truth]

I recently registered to take the December test (retake) and after analyzing my RC sections, I've found that the passages in which I am least efficient in both time and accuracy are those in which science is involved. The problem here is that I spend more than 10 minutes completing these passages and by the time I arrive at the last one I have about 6-7 minutes.

My question is, do you think it would be wise for me to spend ~20 seconds at the beginning of the RC to evaluate each section and save the science-related passages for the end?

Besides the risk of misbubbling, what other pitfalls could there be?

[glucose101]

Why don't you just do the passages in order, and when you get to a science passage, you skip it and return later. This won't sacrifice the time you need.

[The Truth]

Why don't you just do the passages in order, and when you get to a science passage, you skip it and return later. This won't sacrifice the time you need.

Yeah, that's probably what I'd do.

But on a general note, is there some type of order of difficulty in regards to RC passages? (For example, the 1st 10 LR are easy and 15-20 are harder...)

[Agitprop]

Why don't you just do the passages in order, and when you get to a science passage, you skip it and return later. This won't sacrifice the time you need.

Yeah, that's probably what I'd do.

But on a general note, is there some type of order of difficulty in regards to RC passages? (For example, the 1st 10 LR are easy and 15-20 are harder...)

It seems to be that way. The first two are generally easier and the last two are more difficult. I am not completely sure about this, however.

[casterfield]

RC was my worst section originally. I would get around 9 wrong per section. But then I scanned each passage at the beginning and kept in mind: number of questions on each passage; length; how many paragraphs; and subject.

I would start with the passage that had the most questions (usually a 7-8 question passage) and save the 5-6 question passage last. I wouldn't even read the passage first. I'd go straight to the questions, seeing what they were asking for and looking for any line references that I could get out of the way quickly. And just by reading the questions I was able to get a gist of what the passage was about, thereby helping me with the Main Point questions.

I would devote about 10 minutes on that lengthy passage and then move on to the other passages on the basis of the above criteria.

It's all about preference, really.

Science was my worst passage subject as well, but if you just have a method down and don't get bogged down in the actual details and names that might sound foreign, it's just like any other passage (perhaps a bit more boring).

Anyway, using this method helped me go from a -9 to a -2 on the Oct. test.

[thegrayman]

I always went back to front for the section, 4th passage first on back. I did that on the real test as well, I like having more time to do the 4th.

[Agitprop]

RC was my worst section originally. I would get around 9 wrong per section. But then I scanned each passage at the beginning and kept in mind: number of questions on each passage; length; how many paragraphs; and subject.

I would start with the passage that had the most questions (usually a 7-8 question passage) and save the 5-6 question passage last. I wouldn't even read the passage first. I'd go straight to the questions, seeing what they were asking for and looking for any line references that I could get out of the way quickly. And just by reading the questions I was able to get a gist of what the passage was about, thereby helping me with the Main Point questions.

I would devote about 10 minutes on that lengthy passage and then move on to the other passages on the basis of the above criteria.

It's all about preference, really.

Science was my worst passage subject as well, but if you just have a method down and don't get bogged down in the actual details and names that might sound foreign, it's just like any other passage (perhaps a bit more boring).

Anyway, using this method helped me go from a -9 to a -2 on the Oct. test.

Shit, for real? I am going to try that. Has anyone else done it this way with good results - reading the questions first and then going to the passage?

[casterfield]

RC was my worst section originally. I would get around 9 wrong per section. But then I scanned each passage at the beginning and kept in mind: number of questions on each passage; length; how many paragraphs; and subject.

I would start with the passage that had the most questions (usually a 7-8 question passage) and save the 5-6 question passage last. I wouldn't even read the passage first. I'd go straight to the questions, seeing what they were asking for and looking for any line references that I could get out of the way quickly. And just by reading the questions I was able to get a gist of what the passage was about, thereby helping me with the Main Point questions.

I would devote about 10 minutes on that lengthy passage and then move on to the other passages on the basis of the above criteria.

It's all about preference, really.

Science was my worst passage subject as well, but if you just have a method down and don't get bogged down in the actual details and names that might sound foreign, it's just like any other passage (perhaps a bit more boring).

Anyway, using this method helped me go from a -9 to a -2 on the Oct. test.

Shit, for real? I am going to try that. Has anyone else done it this way with good results - reading the questions first and then going to the passage?

Well, it's more like scanning the questions and seeing what types there are an seeing any key words that might pop up more than once on the questions. Like, questions that both have 'transnationalism' and 'black writers' in them (i dont know if that was the case on Oct test. Coming from memory).

Personally, I'm bad at main point questions sometimes (1 of the 2 wrong was a main point question :facepalm:) and by reading/scanning the questions really quickly, I was able to get a good idea of what the passage was about.

And I should clarify that I would read/scan the questions of the passage I had determined to work on and not read/scan ALL of the questions from each passage first. That would definitely be a waste of time, IMO.

Hope that helps or doesn't confuse you at least.

[glucose101]

Looking at the questions could be good beforehand if it helps you. However, if you're in a time crunch, and you know you refer back to the passage after you read the question anyhow, it potentially could be a waste of time. Depends on you though.