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15 Oct 2013, 10:37
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What about is a good amount of time to spend on RC questions? Right now I'm averaging 2-3 minutes to read the passage and 1-2 minutes for questions. Is that good or too slow?
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18 Oct 2013, 14:41
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Good question.
Generally we advise students not to read the whole passage (waste of time); you want to get the general idea of the passage initially. Reading the first two sentences from each paragraph is usually sufficient to get an initial feel and to actually answer most general idea, structure, and tone/style questions. Take notes on what you read. You are simply mapping out over here and do not get caught in details.. Obviously sometimes you may need to read a bit more, so for example if you see the third sentence starts with an opposition conjunction, read this as well (ALWAYS pay attention to opposition conjunctions). Or if you see that it is an extra long paragraph or a one paragraph text then you may want to look at the third and last sentences too.
The point is do not read more than you need to. Too easy to fall into traps and waste time- taking notes actually ends up saving time for most people (in case you are wondering).
As for specific quesitons, the mapping can help you locate some of those specific questions. Generally you should not ready more than 2 or 3 sentences per each detail question.
In terms of time, of course doing an initial reading may take you a bit more than a couple of minutes but it will shave off your time when answering certain quesitons. So your times seem good for now. The more you practice technique and not reading everything the faster you will become. It is normal for the RC to take a bit longer. Doing the initial work can go a long way to making you precise and efficient.
Generally we advise students not to read the whole passage (waste of time); you want to get the general idea of the passage initially. Reading the first two sentences from each paragraph is usually sufficient to get an initial feel and to actually answer most general idea, structure, and tone/style questions. Take notes on what you read. You are simply mapping out over here and do not get caught in details.. Obviously sometimes you may need to read a bit more, so for example if you see the third sentence starts with an opposition conjunction, read this as well (ALWAYS pay attention to opposition conjunctions). Or if you see that it is an extra long paragraph or a one paragraph text then you may want to look at the third and last sentences too.
The point is do not read more than you need to. Too easy to fall into traps and waste time- taking notes actually ends up saving time for most people (in case you are wondering).
As for specific quesitons, the mapping can help you locate some of those specific questions. Generally you should not ready more than 2 or 3 sentences per each detail question.
In terms of time, of course doing an initial reading may take you a bit more than a couple of minutes but it will shave off your time when answering certain quesitons. So your times seem good for now. The more you practice technique and not reading everything the faster you will become. It is normal for the RC to take a bit longer. Doing the initial work can go a long way to making you precise and efficient.
21 Oct 2013, 11:20
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Devon
On RC, you will average 2 minutes per question but almost half of that time will be spent reading the passage. If you are talking about a short passage (2-3 paragraphs with 3 questions) you will want to spend 2-3 minutes reading and about 1 minute per question. Some questions (like the general questions) will take you less than a minute, which will allow you to spend a bit more time on harder, specific questions.
If you are working on a long RC passage (3-4 paragraphs with 4 questions), you will spend 3-4 minutes reading and about a minute per question.
I will echo some of the comments above. Your initial read needs to be focused on the structure and the overall meaning of the passage - don't get caught up in all the details. You know if you are reading at the right level of detail if you can answer all the general questions without going back to the passage and if you know where in the passage you need to look to answer specific questions.
KW
