Those of you who score high on RC, do you go into questions with a 100% understanding of the passage? Forum

[roranoa]

It takes me about 2 minutes to read the whole passage without skipping or skimming. Even then on some passages (science ugh) I don't fully understand the passage. Does this ever happen even to those who score high on RC? If so, how do you go about it? how do you overcome that uncertainty when going into the questions?

[kapenak]

It depends. RC used to be my weakest section but I have made some significant improvements lately and usually go -2/-3 on PT's. My approach is to quickly decide if it is possible for me to gain a complete understanding of the passage at the beginning. Passage difficulty varies greatly, so the easy passages (whether easy is in the difficulty of the actual writing or the degree to which I can relate to the passage or have an interest in it) I usually read more carefully and gain a 100% understanding of before moving on to the questions. This way, I have to go back to the passage minimally. The harder passages that I feel I will not be able to understand 100% anyways, I read superficially but make sure to wholly understand the flow of it as well as mark key words/ideas. This way when I move on to the questions I will know where to go to get the information necessary, and don't waste too much time trying to decipher a passage that I probably wouldn't have gotten a complete grasp on anyways if I had spent more time on.

Anyways a somewhat unconventional approach I use, but it has been getting me results!

[cbbinnyc]

I'm not sure having a 100% understanding is what you're going for. There are certain elements you need to understand to do well on the questions. Focus on getting the main ideas - what is the focus of the passage, and what is the viewpoint of the author (and any alternative or similar viewpoints mentioned in the package). You're not going to get all the details on a first read. You'll have to go back for detail oriented questions. But it's crucial that you understand the overall thesis of the author (the first question is almost always about that).

2 minutes reading a passage sounds too fast. That means you're leaving 6+ minutes for the questions, which is more than you should need. If you've gotten a good understanding of the main ideas and viewpoints presented in the passage, the questions should go pretty quickly. I would recommend that you invest more time in reading and annotating and less time in answering the questions.

[appind]

It depends. RC used to be my weakest section but I have made some significant improvements lately and usually go -2/-3 on PT's. My approach is to quickly decide if it is possible for me to gain a complete understanding of the passage at the beginning. Passage difficulty varies greatly, so the easy passages (whether easy is in the difficulty of the actual writing or the degree to which I can relate to the passage or have an interest in it) I usually read more carefully and gain a 100% understanding of before moving on to the questions. This way, I have to go back to the passage minimally. The harder passages that I feel I will not be able to understand 100% anyways, I read superficially but make sure to wholly understand the flow of it as well as mark key words/ideas. This way when I move on to the questions I will know where to go to get the information necessary, and don't waste too much time trying to decipher a passage that I probably wouldn't have gotten a complete grasp on anyways if I had spent more time on.

Anyways a somewhat unconventional approach I use, but it has been getting me results!

is your scores on new 60s/70s PTs or older PTs?

[Hikikomorist]

It takes me about 2 minutes to read the whole passage without skipping or skimming. Even then on some passages (science ugh) I don't fully understand the passage. Does this ever happen even to those who score high on RC? If so, how do you go about it? how do you overcome that uncertainty when going into the questions?

I spent about 1-2 minutes on each passage, and I rarely felt I had full comprehension when starting the questions. It really didn't matter, and I'd usually find that I remembered more than I thought. If you're not happy with your scores, then think about changing your formula; otherwise, why bother?

[roranoa]

I spent about 1-2 minutes on each passage, and I rarely felt I had full comprehension when starting the questions. It really didn't matter, and I'd usually find that I remembered more than I thought. If you're not happy with your scores, then think about changing your formula; otherwise, why bother?

So you still do well without full comprehension? Don't you have trouble doing detail questions when you don't have full comprehension? No trouble finding where to look and all?

[Hikikomorist]

I spent about 1-2 minutes on each passage, and I rarely felt I had full comprehension when starting the questions. It really didn't matter, and I'd usually find that I remembered more than I thought. If you're not happy with your scores, then think about changing your formula; otherwise, why bother?

So you still do well without full comprehension? Don't you have trouble doing detail questions when you don't have full comprehension? No trouble finding where to look and all?

The passages aren't that long. I just skim again until I see the part relevant to the question.

[kapenak]

It depends. RC used to be my weakest section but I have made some significant improvements lately and usually go -2/-3 on PT's. My approach is to quickly decide if it is possible for me to gain a complete understanding of the passage at the beginning. Passage difficulty varies greatly, so the easy passages (whether easy is in the difficulty of the actual writing or the degree to which I can relate to the passage or have an interest in it) I usually read more carefully and gain a 100% understanding of before moving on to the questions. This way, I have to go back to the passage minimally. The harder passages that I feel I will not be able to understand 100% anyways, I read superficially but make sure to wholly understand the flow of it as well as mark key words/ideas. This way when I move on to the questions I will know where to go to get the information necessary, and don't waste too much time trying to decipher a passage that I probably wouldn't have gotten a complete grasp on anyways if I had spent more time on.

Anyways a somewhat unconventional approach I use, but it has been getting me results!

is your scores on new 60s/70s PTs or older PTs?

I've yet to take PT's 65+ but have seen significant improvement from the 40's and 50's PT. I would say that this is because before I focused too much on getting on all the detail but learned that this isn't the best approach. For me the best approach is not understanding the passage fully, but having a good idea of the author's ideas but also being able to know where in the passage the ideas come from. This way I can knock out the general questions like main point, but when confronted with a detail-oriented question I don't rely on memory of the material but where in the passage that idea was brought up. Then I look back at that section for ~30 seconds, find out what exactly is going on, and then answer the question. This is the approach that I have found is the best for me.

[Petrichor]

Hey man I scored -2/June and -1/Oct. I usually (~85%) understand the passage in its entirety the first time I read it. The ones that gave me the most trouble are those that explain a detailed and complex process (like a biochemical process) since there are a lot of parts to keep track off, I usually mark that portion and move on, the rest of the passage usually hints or explicitly states the purpose/objective of that process so you still have a decent overall understanding. Move straight to questions after, and only refer back to that section when a question that refers to it appears; this is usually the most time consuming part for me since there are times I could not totally understand the process/explanation after 2-3 re-reads. Process of elimination worked wonderfully for me on both tests since there were 5-6 questions I was not sure off even after re-read.

[appind]

Hey man I scored -2/June and -1/Oct. I usually (~85%) understand the passage in its entirety the first time I read it. The ones that gave me the most trouble are those that explain a detailed and complex process (like a biochemical process) since there are a lot of parts to keep track off, I usually mark that portion and move on, the rest of the passage usually hints or explicitly states the purpose/objective of that process so you still have a decent overall understanding. Move straight to questions after, and only refer back to that section when a question that refers to it appears; this is usually the most time consuming part for me since there are times I could not totally understand the process/explanation after 2-3 re-reads. Process of elimination worked wonderfully for me on both tests since there were 5-6 questions I was not sure off even after re-read.

were you always scoring this high on rc? how much time do you spend reading the passage, on the questions and if you have any spare time at the end?

[Petrichor]

Hey man I scored -2/June and -1/Oct. I usually (~85%) understand the passage in its entirety the first time I read it. The ones that gave me the most trouble are those that explain a detailed and complex process (like a biochemical process) since there are a lot of parts to keep track off, I usually mark that portion and move on, the rest of the passage usually hints or explicitly states the purpose/objective of that process so you still have a decent overall understanding. Move straight to questions after, and only refer back to that section when a question that refers to it appears; this is usually the most time consuming part for me since there are times I could not totally understand the process/explanation after 2-3 re-reads. Process of elimination worked wonderfully for me on both tests since there were 5-6 questions I was not sure off even after re-read.

were you always scoring this high on rc? how much time do you spend reading the passage, on the questions and if you have any spare time at the end?

was not always scoring this high, my RC started off as my strongest section but I also had the most difficulty making improvements, gradually got down from -6 to -5 to -4 and was averaging about -3 on PTs eventually. Passage, usually 2-3 minutes. Questions, I've never measured directly since some questions take me 15 seconds and others take me 5 minutes but I will usually have 3-4 minutes to spare at the end of the section and gives me some time to go back and work on the 1-2 questions I wasn't sure of.

[appind]

was not always scoring this high, my RC started off as my strongest section but I also had the most difficulty making improvements, gradually got down from -6 to -5 to -4 and was averaging about -3 on PTs eventually. Passage, usually 2-3 minutes. Questions, I've never measured directly since some questions take me 15 seconds and others take me 5 minutes but I will usually have 3-4 minutes to spare at the end of the section and gives me some time to go back and work on the 1-2 questions I wasn't sure of.

do you find 2 mins enough to confidently capture main points of all passage so you can answer most questions without referring back?
i find that some passages are just tough (even though while reading they may seem easy) as the main/subtle points are disguised. e.g. medical equipoise passage in pt-75 that has two subtle things that one must notice to do well on it, which is to note that theoretical equipoise is accepted as standard but not followed in practice and that clinical equipoise requires lack of consensus. many questions in the passage hinged on these two points. i went -4 in this passage alone, so find it hard to think that people could go -0 in 8min on this passage.

what did you do to improve this rc to -6/-5 and further? were these on older tests or newer as the older rc seems easier?
how many questions per section do you usually pick the one that feels like best to you based on your initial read of the passage and without referring back and feeling confident about the pick?

[Petrichor]

was not always scoring this high, my RC started off as my strongest section but I also had the most difficulty making improvements, gradually got down from -6 to -5 to -4 and was averaging about -3 on PTs eventually. Passage, usually 2-3 minutes. Questions, I've never measured directly since some questions take me 15 seconds and others take me 5 minutes but I will usually have 3-4 minutes to spare at the end of the section and gives me some time to go back and work on the 1-2 questions I wasn't sure of.

do you find 2 mins enough to confidently capture main points of all passage so you can answer most questions without referring back?
i find that some passages are just tough (even though while reading they may seem easy) as the main/subtle points are disguised. e.g. medical equipoise passage in pt-75 that has two subtle things that one must notice to do well on it, which is to note that theoretical equipoise is accepted as standard but not followed in practice and that clinical equipoise requires lack of consensus. many questions in the passage hinged on these two points. i went -4 in this passage alone, so find it hard to think that people could go -0 in 8min on this passage.

what did you do to improve this rc to -6/-5 and further? were these on older tests or newer as the older rc seems easier?
how many questions per section do you usually pick the one that feels like best to you based on your initial read of the passage and without referring back and feeling confident about the pick?

main point questions - I can get those without referring back. If not, the 2 minutes is more than enough for me to make a mental or physical note of where things are and what I should look for. My RC started off around -4/-5 and I was improving to -2/-3 early on; but once i got past the 50s I actually got worse, sometimes I was getting -7/-8 on RC so it was frustrating trying to get back to where I was. i think if you just keep at it (read a lot of NYT & economist, check out new techniques from 7sage or other prep companies) you will be able to improve but it will take a while.

[teflondon]

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