Need RC advice. Just a few days from my test

Question

Hello guys,

Well, I am retaking my test and need advice on a late strategy for reading comprehension (RC).
My test is Nov 26th 2012 (less than 4 days from today).
I have been taking timed tests from plenty of sources and doing relatively well in most sessions. However, I am averaging a 50% accuracy on RC questions (on timed environment). When I retake these tests, I usually go well. I entirely used the OG 11th/12th and usually I go relatively well when redoing these passages.

Any advice would be appreciated.
I forgot to mention that I usually go bad when the passage is about a historical situation.

Thanks!

roygush · Answer

hello rainfall,
you forgot to mention how do you tackle RC and what's your general approach to such questions.
what i think is you should follow the mapping method which is:
1. reading the first paragraph and writing the main idea of the paragraph in your own words
2. reading the first line of each paragraph and write it down in your own words
3. reading the last sentence of the last paragraph.

by doing the above you get a better understanding of the paragraph, structure and a general idea where to look in detailed questions.

after that just go through the questions and decide if you need to read more about something and if so where.

the whole purpose of RC is to fill your head with unnecessary details and confuse you.
there is no use in reading the whole passage.

in 4 days it will be a little hard to comprehend but let me know if you need more guidance.

i suggest you also look here:
how-to-destroy-reading-comprehension-passages-by-rhyme-30247.html

souvik101990 · Answer

I dont think changing your strategy in 4 days is going to make things better, and it just make it worse.
Just try to have a good sleep and do a couple of official problems over gmatclub.
Make sure you get primary purpose questions and have a good night's sleep.
you DO NOT want to obsess over anything 4 days before the test.
Chill out and post a debrief after you are done!
:-)

(some thursdays with ron with breakfast might be a double whammy)

(some thursdays with ron with breakfast might be a double whammy)

rainfall · Answer

Hi roygush

thank you so much for your reply.
I was actually losing hopes for any reply.
Well, I use the "read the entire passage throughly" strategy and then go to the questions. I tried this strategy by rhyme before. However, I could not make much use of it, as I had to re-read the passage. It actually took more time to do this than to "really" read the passage. 
For long passages, I take about 4mins to read. In short passages I usually take 3mins

After reading, I use 30-90 seconds to answer the questions (if I notice I am taking too long, I just choose one).

EDIT: I don't want to change my strategy in less than 3 days (time is ticking hehehe). Any general tip for this specific strategy would help.

After the test, I will certainly debrief in forum!

souvik101990 · Answer

Here is a video with your strategy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmWAyIk37

souvik101990 · Answer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmWAyIk37do&feature=plcp

rainfall · Answer

Thanks man! Kudos for that!
My strategy looks like this one. Let's see if I am missing something.
I'll let you guys know what happens next Monday (test day)

VerbalBot · Answer

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Need RC advice. Just a few days from my test

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