RC Strategy Forum

[bmathers]

RC is easily my worst section - I am fairly happy if I get a -7 or -8 on that section. I circle words that indicate a turn in opinion, write a couple words by some paragraphs to summarize them, ID the topic, etc (although, I still struggle with specifically ID'ing the scope of each passage).

Does anyone have any tips on this section?

Thanks

[Mikey]

I'm not an RC expert, BY ANY MEANS, but I've seen improvement using 7sage's memory method. It takes lots of practice but it does work. I don't really mark the passage, except whenever I see a name I feel obligated to circle it (my own twist to the memory method). So no advice on what to mark up or not.

[RamTitan]

RC requires a TON of practice to start seeing any improvements. I went through several different notation systems (my favorite that did help me begin to understand RC better was writing brief summaries next to each paragraph) but I didn't start scoring at my current level until I stopped notating.

My biggest piece of advice is to redo passages over and over again. I've done some passages 5 or 6x. But it wasn't until I really deconstructed a good amount of these that I understood the patterns of RC passages (they're almost all the same), and you'll realize that certain questions almost always have the answers located in the same places.

[Csta5315]

RC requires a TON of practice to start seeing any improvements. I went through several different notation systems (my favorite that did help me begin to understand RC better was writing brief summaries next to each paragraph) but I didn't start scoring at my current level until I stopped notating.

My biggest piece of advice is to redo passages over and over again. I've done some passages 5 or 6x. But it wasn't until I really deconstructed a good amount of these that I understood the patterns of RC passages (they're almost all the same), and you'll realize that certain questions almost always have the answers located in the same places.

I'm going to start doing this, because RC is bogging me down as well, BIG TIME! I really like how mentioned you studied it to see the overall pattern of the passages. I find that my success of the other sections is due to the patterns I've picked up on, i just didn't think it applied for RC!!

Also, I'm aiming for 170+. Missing 7-8 on a "good" RC section makes the margin for error for all of the other sections too slim.

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to do this ^^^

[RamTitan]

RC requires a TON of practice to start seeing any improvements. I went through several different notation systems (my favorite that did help me begin to understand RC better was writing brief summaries next to each paragraph) but I didn't start scoring at my current level until I stopped notating.

My biggest piece of advice is to redo passages over and over again. I've done some passages 5 or 6x. But it wasn't until I really deconstructed a good amount of these that I understood the patterns of RC passages (they're almost all the same), and you'll realize that certain questions almost always have the answers located in the same places.

I'm going to start doing this, because RC is bogging me down as well, BIG TIME! I really like how mentioned you studied it to see the overall pattern of the passages. I find that my success of the other sections is due to the patterns I've picked up on, i just didn't think it applied for RC!!

Also, I'm aiming for 170+. Missing 7-8 on a "good" RC section makes the margin for error for all of the other sections too slim.

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to do this ^^^

Treat RC questions like LR questions, and I think you'll see an improvement as well

[tskela]

RC requires a TON of practice to start seeing any improvements. I went through several different notation systems (my favorite that did help me begin to understand RC better was writing brief summaries next to each paragraph) but I didn't start scoring at my current level until I stopped notating.

My biggest piece of advice is to redo passages over and over again. I've done some passages 5 or 6x. But it wasn't until I really deconstructed a good amount of these that I understood the patterns of RC passages (they're almost all the same), and you'll realize that certain questions almost always have the answers located in the same places.

I'm going to start doing this, because RC is bogging me down as well, BIG TIME! I really like how mentioned you studied it to see the overall pattern of the passages. I find that my success of the other sections is due to the patterns I've picked up on, i just didn't think it applied for RC!!

Also, I'm aiming for 170+. Missing 7-8 on a "good" RC section makes the margin for error for all of the other sections too slim.

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to do this ^^^

Treat RC questions like LR questions, and I think you'll see an improvement as well

I would advise against this actually. Right answers in LR tend to be more, idk, absolutely correct than in RC, where answers tend to be relatively correct. Like if we put the sections on a spectrum, LG would obviously be more absolute, then LR and RC last. Sometimes correct answers in RC are FAR from satisfactory, but still correct in that they're just better than the wrong ones. A big issue I was having in RC was that I'd stare at the answer choices wanting one to give me that same sort of certain, "yep this is the only answer" I'd expect in LR instead of just choosing the best one. Since I started focusing on eliminating wrong answer choices rather than expecting the correct one to jump out at me, I've gotten a lot better at RC.

[RamTitan]

RC requires a TON of practice to start seeing any improvements. I went through several different notation systems (my favorite that did help me begin to understand RC better was writing brief summaries next to each paragraph) but I didn't start scoring at my current level until I stopped notating.

My biggest piece of advice is to redo passages over and over again. I've done some passages 5 or 6x. But it wasn't until I really deconstructed a good amount of these that I understood the patterns of RC passages (they're almost all the same), and you'll realize that certain questions almost always have the answers located in the same places.

I'm going to start doing this, because RC is bogging me down as well, BIG TIME! I really like how mentioned you studied it to see the overall pattern of the passages. I find that my success of the other sections is due to the patterns I've picked up on, i just didn't think it applied for RC!!

Also, I'm aiming for 170+. Missing 7-8 on a "good" RC section makes the margin for error for all of the other sections too slim.

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to do this ^^^

Treat RC questions like LR questions, and I think you'll see an improvement as well

I would advise against this actually. Right answers in LR tend to be more, idk, absolutely correct than in RC, where answers tend to be relatively correct. Like if we put the sections on a spectrum, LG would obviously be more absolute, then LR and RC last. Sometimes correct answers in RC are FAR from satisfactory, but still correct in that they're just better than the wrong ones. A big issue I was having in RC was that I'd stare at the answer choices wanting one to give me that same sort of certain, "yep this is the only answer" I'd expect in LR instead of just choosing the best one. Since I started focusing on eliminating wrong answer choices rather than expecting the correct one to jump out at me, I've gotten a lot better at RC.

The skills are essentially the same though. Sure, the right answer may not always jump out at you (thought more than often than not it will, and if this isn't happening then you probably need to practice RC more), but at then end of the day there is one right answer that can either be found directly in the passage or is an inference that can easily be made, while the other four are most definitely wrong. There is no scale of correctness; there's only one right answer, and four wrong ones.

[tskela]

RC requires a TON of practice to start seeing any improvements. I went through several different notation systems (my favorite that did help me begin to understand RC better was writing brief summaries next to each paragraph) but I didn't start scoring at my current level until I stopped notating.

My biggest piece of advice is to redo passages over and over again. I've done some passages 5 or 6x. But it wasn't until I really deconstructed a good amount of these that I understood the patterns of RC passages (they're almost all the same), and you'll realize that certain questions almost always have the answers located in the same places.

I'm going to start doing this, because RC is bogging me down as well, BIG TIME! I really like how mentioned you studied it to see the overall pattern of the passages. I find that my success of the other sections is due to the patterns I've picked up on, i just didn't think it applied for RC!!

Also, I'm aiming for 170+. Missing 7-8 on a "good" RC section makes the margin for error for all of the other sections too slim.

Thanks for your advice. I'm going to do this ^^^

Treat RC questions like LR questions, and I think you'll see an improvement as well

I would advise against this actually. Right answers in LR tend to be more, idk, absolutely correct than in RC, where answers tend to be relatively correct. Like if we put the sections on a spectrum, LG would obviously be more absolute, then LR and RC last. Sometimes correct answers in RC are FAR from satisfactory, but still correct in that they're just better than the wrong ones. A big issue I was having in RC was that I'd stare at the answer choices wanting one to give me that same sort of certain, "yep this is the only answer" I'd expect in LR instead of just choosing the best one. Since I started focusing on eliminating wrong answer choices rather than expecting the correct one to jump out at me, I've gotten a lot better at RC.

The skills are essentially the same though. Sure, the right answer may not always jump out at you (thought more than often than not it will, and if this isn't happening then you probably need to practice RC more), but at then end of the day there is one right answer that can either be found directly in the passage or is an inference that can easily be made, while the other four are most definitely wrong. There is no scale of correctness; there's only one right answer, and four wrong ones.

I just mean you can't hold RC answer choices up to the same standards as you would hold LR choices and expect them to be perfect and airtight. There are always four wrong answer choices and one right one, but IMO, the right one can still be pretty bad. Once I stopped obsessing over an answer not being perfect, I went from -3/4 to -0/1 and shaved off several minutes. YMMV.