How do you stop Overanalyzing Reading Comp?

Question

Do you guys just skim the passage for the Main point, structure and tone and then go to the questions? How do you do the process of eliminations with the answers and help from being sucked in to some bate answers? I always get baited

londonluddite · Answer

i took notes on the RC, not because I would refer to them, but because the process of taking notes helps you get the gist of the passage. I think tackling RC is quite subjective though, everyone seems to have their own favourite method.

prepfortests · Answer

If you don't read through the passage carefully at least once then there is a good chance that you will miss the point of the passage and get some questions wrong.

However if you read the passage carefully on every question then it will take you too long to answer the questions.

I recommend you read through the passage carefully on the first question for each passage (taking notes if that helps you) and then on each subsequent question focus on the section of the text which is relevant to the question.

Best of luck.

nupurgupt · Answer

I read in the Kaplan book that a good strategy is to read through the RC while making a blueprint for the entire passage. Something like 1-2 sentences per paragraph

That just helps u when u have to refer to something because of a question

I have tried this approach and have experienced my accuracy going up

ColumbiaDream · Answer

Kaplan Verbal Book is great. It talks about 3 different ways of dealing with RC. The method that I chose is - I always read all of the first paragraph- Summarize it in 1-2 line- Then read the first and last line of each of the subsequent paragraphs. And of course, write a line or 2 about it. Focusing more on the intent rather than the material. THis gives you a good gist. Then, for the detail questions ( which always takes me the longest)- I go back to the paragraph and read. I think this is a good method however, I am still very slow at it. Hoping to improve

HongHu · Answer

An approach that is recommended here is called "active reading". Search the forum for this term and you would find some good advices.

axl_oz · Answer

I would have to agree that the Kaplan Strategy was a pretty good one to read actively and answer the questions.... Especially

Topic: First 3 to 4 words in the topic

Scope: A little more detailed involved

Purpose: Why is the author writing?

And then paraphrasing by reading the first 2 lines of each paragraph... Just to get an idea of what is in the paragraph..... Generally skimming through the paragraphs will give you an idea of some key words and where they are located (like scientist names or object names or any name given to a revolutionary idea etc).... So when there is a question on any of those key words, you know which paragraph to look into....

Kaplan RC was one of the few good things Kaplan produced!!!

Amardeep Sharma · Answer

Hi, IHATEMELGIBSON1

I will strongly recommend you to read " How to read faster and better" by Norman Lewis... Not only it will help you in increasing reading speed, but also, it will ameliorate your reading comprehension.

I found it great, as it helped me increasing the speed from 150wpm to 550wpm in only 20 days!!! and due to higher speed, I can able to comprehend much better than before.

regards,

Amardeep

regards, Amardeep

ywilfred · Answer

The topic 'how to tackle RC' is pretty subjective. What works for some people doesn't nescessarily work for others. I recommend this to you

- Read up some of the ways members tackle RC
- Try out different methods on some RC passages (maybe over a week or so) and see which one suits you best
- If there isn't a single one, find the one you're most comfortable with and make some modifications until you're satisfied with it
- Then practice with more passages with the method you came up with

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