RC question please help Forum

[nosleeptillsuccess]

How often do you refer back to the text??

I know main point questions you should already know the answer, but for most the others it seems as if you have to refer back to the text. This is very time consuming and eats my time up. I just want to makesure I'm doing it right.


Thanks

[BlaqBella]

For me, not much. Its still a work in progress but as my tutor makes mention, you should be able to read a passage and get a gist of what is being said. If you can't summarize what you've read after reading it, and how the passage is laid out, expect to waste more time than you need to correctly answer a question set.

I only try and refer back to the passage for ID and inference questions supported by the text.

Anything dealing with tone, main point, parallel examples, etc. I refer to what I've read/comprehended.

I try and keep markups and referring back to the passage at a minimum. That's what works for me.

[rinkrat19]

I referred back a lot for questions about specifics (not general questions addressing the overall opinions/topics/etc.) But I skim really fast instead of deep-reading (literally 30-45 seconds per page), which gives me a visual memory of where things are, more than a complete memory of the actual content.

So I might not remember any of the three factors are that scientist Joe Blow thinks are problems with solar power, but I know exactly where Joe Blow's list of three factors is in the selection and can just pop back over and read them.

But I think my approach is pretty unusual.

[objection_your_honor]

As the posts above indicate, I think there are two main camps with RC. One reads thoroughly through the passage and rarely returns. The other reads quickly through the passage and returns often.

I've tried both, and a quick reading generally works better for me. Not 30-45 seconds like the user above — more like 2 minutes. Many high scorers do the opposite. RC seems to have the most variance in terms of strategy.

[Redbandit]

The more thorough method works better for me. Try to understand how every argument or point makes sense in the scope of the passage. This method seems to help me avoid referring to the passage very often. However, when I do refer back to the passage, I try to skim whatever section I am looking at.