Tips to improve RC score?

Question

Hi everyone,
I have practiced over 130+ RC passages, mostly from RC99, and seems like I have hit a plateau in terms of progress in RC. During my first 50 passages which were on easy to medium side, I had an accuracy level of nearly 80-100%. Since last couple of passages I haven’t been able to achieve any accuracy level above 50%.
Any tips or strategies to improve?

nightblade354 · Answer

Read my guide: mod-nightblade-s-quick-guide-to-rc-301219.html#p2325769

GmatKnightTutor · Answer

Becoming familiar with how inference questions work may help a bit. Searching for/working on a reading methodology that promotes absorption could also be helpful. The method I teach doesn't require note-taking per se but perhaps you find it useful. Ultimately, you may put your spin on any method you use as a base.

3 RC tips

3 RC tips

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi Saitama1629,

There are a few things to keep in mind here:
 1.  Number of passages: Is the drop in only 2 passages? That may not really be significant.

2.  Are you working through a collection of official passages? I ask because there's a lot of low-quality verbal content out there, and that could also be a reason for the drop in accuracy. Basically, when we see a non-official high difficulty question, that question may not really be a hard question (it may just be a bad question).

bb · Answer

Some passages are just too hard to expect a 75% or higher accuracy or impractical. There are absolutely passages where I lose myself but I figured it was not worth the effort. The key is to understand your limits and benchmark these with the OG/GMAT Prep. How are you doing on the GMAT Prep?

Carcass · Answer

This is a great point. Students think too often the contrary: you need to nail every passage, every single question no matter what.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Hi Saitama1629,

When you are incorrectly answering Reading Comprehension questions, it’s partly because you do not truly understand what you have just read, right? To understand what you are reading, you likely have to slow down in order to (eventually) speed up. You have to learn to comprehend what you read, keep it all straight, and use what you are reading to arrive at correct answers. At this point, your best bet is to focus on getting the correct answers to questions, taking as much time as you need to see key details and understand the logic of what you are reading. If you don't understand something, go back and read it one sentence at a time, even one word at a time, not moving on until you understand what you have just read. There is no way around this work. Your goal should be to take all the time you need to understand exactly what is being said and arrive at the correct answer. If you can learn to get answers taking your time, you can learn to speed up. Answering questions is like any task: The more times you do it carefully and successfully, the faster you become at doing it carefully and successfully.

Another component to understanding what you are reading is being “present” when reading. Don’t worry about how things are going at work, or what you will eat for dinner, or even how long you’re taking to read through the passage. Just focus on what is in front of you, word by word, line by line. Furthermore, try to make reading fun. For example, even if you are reading about a topic that bores you, pretend that you are the person making the argument. By doing so, you will make the passage more relatable to YOU, and ultimately you should be able to read with greater focus.

One final component of Reading Comprehension that may be tripping you up is that RC questions contain one or more trap answers that seem to answer the question but don't really. So, a key part of training to correctly answer RC questions is learning to notice the differences between trap answers and correct answers. You have to learn to see how trap answers seem to follow from what the passages say, but don't really, while correct answers fit what the passages say exactly. Of course, the better you become at noticing the differences between trap answer choices and correct answers, the faster you will answer RC questions.

Here is an article with additional advice:
 GMAT Reading Comprehension Tips: Top 8 DOs and DON’Ts

If you have any further questions, feel free to reach out. Good luck!

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