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Time for another long writeup 😛
If any of you have read my breakdown, I recently took my DAT and, to my surprise, scored the highest on my RC (26). Explained below are some tips/pointers/procedure I used to practice with RC.
Disclaimer:
This method may or may not work for you. Every student is tailored to a different reading, studying, and practice strategies. Take what you will from my (and from any) advice given, as the provided methods may not work to your learning style. Tailor advice from multiple sources and use the technique that most fits yourself.
So, a bit of background:
The two review books I've used were Barrons (old from 2010) and a Princeton Review book (from last month). I honestly do not recall at all if PR gave any RC advice, simply because I skipped it lol.
Barron's gave an interesting approach, using what they called "key words". Basically, you read the entire article in detail, and write down "key words" you think are crucial to the point of the excerpt. You draw lines between each paragraph, and try to fit concisely as possible what each paragraph is talking about. The idea is when key words in the questions match what you've written down, you can immediately look at which paragraph it was mentioned, then search the paragraph for details/answers.
Few key problems to this in my opinion:
1. There are a LOT of keywords in every paragraph; writing them all down is a serious waste of time.
2. What's considered "key" or not really depends on the reader. What you write down may not match key words stated in the questions (I found this issue most prevalent in my practice tests before giving up the method). Barron's said to list down the "most 'key' words", but again, that is hugely subjective.
3. Keywords pop up multiple times in a whole passage, so reviewing multiple paragraphs once you identified the keyword in a question is tedious. Also a waste of time.
Barron's also gave an interesting spiel about how "looking at questions first" and/or "skimming" doesn't work. I believe both however can be used to a minor degree (explained later).
For me, after some practice I found I could only really "get" a passage if I was fully engaged and interested in the topic. I'll tell you right now, pathology of microbes is interesting to me, but the molecular functions of osteoblasts and osteoclasts bore the crap out of me (ironic, because I'll probably be learning the latter in dental school LOL). If I'm engaged in the passage, I can better understand the concepts, the overall flow, and the detailed messages.
So, without further ado, the process:
(Before I list everything out, do note that each question and the passage are displayed on the screen at the same time. This helps with the technique as well.)
1. Read the passage in it's entirely, first word to last word. While you're beginning to read the passage, look at the first question, and note any keywords and/or questions that the question addresses/asks for.
2. While reading the passage, try to keep those keywords in the first question in the back of your mind. If you happen to see a keyword and/or paragraph that could possibly answer this question, immediately search for the answer and fill it out for the question.
3. Click "Next", and repeat for the next question. You'll notice your scroll progress switching from question to question will reset, so simply scroll to whichever last paragraph you were reading, and go on. Again, remember keywords from the second question, and see if you can spot them in the passage.
4. While reading, try to be able to "summarize" the main points of the paragraph. For example, if a passage is discussing the biology of sharks, summarize each paragraph's main point, such as method of reproduction, predation patterns, migration patterns, and so on. This will help in temporary memory recall if a future question contains keywords that match the paragraph's summary - you can immediately then jump back to that paragraph and answer the question.
5. Essentially, repeat #2 and #3 for the rest of the passage. By the end of the passage, you will hopefully get the general gist of the passage, a good idea what each paragraph talks about, and (ideally) about 1/2-1/3 of your questions done. At this point, progress through the questions, and keep matching keywords/main points with what you read through the paragraphs.
6. For inference/critical thinking questions, you'll have to rely on the main paragraph ideas. Sometimes keywords are not mentioned in the question, however if the main idea of the question matches the main idea of a paragraph, you're very likely to find the answer there.
7. Make sure you mark questions that you cannot find the answer to within a span of 1 minute or so. You can come back to these later.
Both Barron's and PR state that the answer, no matter what, will be found within the passage - a majority of answers will be directly stated in the passage, while the other minority will be those inference-type "which one of this group does not belong" questions. There are also those type of questions that include "is the first/second statement correct/incorrect" as well as "is this statement/reason correct/incorrect".
It's a good idea to limit yourself to about 16-18 minutes per passage; although the total time allows for 20 minutes per passage, it's a good idea to leave yourself 6-8 minutes in the end to go over all your marked questions and find the answers to those. Hopefully, if everything went smoothly and you understand the content/message of the passages, you'll be able to finish all the questions.
This method is definitely not foolproof. Every test taker's opinion on an easy-to-read or easy-to-understand passage is different, so your full understanding of a passage may or may not immediately come to you during the real DAT. Don't panic; if you find yourself struggling with one particular passage, I suggest you move onto another passage and come back later (provided you divide your time adequately on the two other passages).
I will say for my test, I felt the RC was the easiest section. The passages were very easy to read and understand, and a good 70% of questions were straightforward information written word for word. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to disclose the topic of these passages, but they were presented in what felt like an easy to read scientific review paper that wasn't flooded with scientific terms. I'm positive, however, that this is not reflected comparing different tests - two friends who took the DAT back in July had very difficult times with their RC portions.
So take what advice you will from my process. It may or may not suit your style of learning/test-taking, but I hope at least some part of it will help you improve your RC score and your overall ease of reading.
If any of you have read my breakdown, I recently took my DAT and, to my surprise, scored the highest on my RC (26). Explained below are some tips/pointers/procedure I used to practice with RC.
Disclaimer:
This method may or may not work for you. Every student is tailored to a different reading, studying, and practice strategies. Take what you will from my (and from any) advice given, as the provided methods may not work to your learning style. Tailor advice from multiple sources and use the technique that most fits yourself.
So, a bit of background:
The two review books I've used were Barrons (old from 2010) and a Princeton Review book (from last month). I honestly do not recall at all if PR gave any RC advice, simply because I skipped it lol.
Barron's gave an interesting approach, using what they called "key words". Basically, you read the entire article in detail, and write down "key words" you think are crucial to the point of the excerpt. You draw lines between each paragraph, and try to fit concisely as possible what each paragraph is talking about. The idea is when key words in the questions match what you've written down, you can immediately look at which paragraph it was mentioned, then search the paragraph for details/answers.
Few key problems to this in my opinion:
1. There are a LOT of keywords in every paragraph; writing them all down is a serious waste of time.
2. What's considered "key" or not really depends on the reader. What you write down may not match key words stated in the questions (I found this issue most prevalent in my practice tests before giving up the method). Barron's said to list down the "most 'key' words", but again, that is hugely subjective.
3. Keywords pop up multiple times in a whole passage, so reviewing multiple paragraphs once you identified the keyword in a question is tedious. Also a waste of time.
Barron's also gave an interesting spiel about how "looking at questions first" and/or "skimming" doesn't work. I believe both however can be used to a minor degree (explained later).
For me, after some practice I found I could only really "get" a passage if I was fully engaged and interested in the topic. I'll tell you right now, pathology of microbes is interesting to me, but the molecular functions of osteoblasts and osteoclasts bore the crap out of me (ironic, because I'll probably be learning the latter in dental school LOL). If I'm engaged in the passage, I can better understand the concepts, the overall flow, and the detailed messages.
So, without further ado, the process:
(Before I list everything out, do note that each question and the passage are displayed on the screen at the same time. This helps with the technique as well.)
1. Read the passage in it's entirely, first word to last word. While you're beginning to read the passage, look at the first question, and note any keywords and/or questions that the question addresses/asks for.
2. While reading the passage, try to keep those keywords in the first question in the back of your mind. If you happen to see a keyword and/or paragraph that could possibly answer this question, immediately search for the answer and fill it out for the question.
3. Click "Next", and repeat for the next question. You'll notice your scroll progress switching from question to question will reset, so simply scroll to whichever last paragraph you were reading, and go on. Again, remember keywords from the second question, and see if you can spot them in the passage.
4. While reading, try to be able to "summarize" the main points of the paragraph. For example, if a passage is discussing the biology of sharks, summarize each paragraph's main point, such as method of reproduction, predation patterns, migration patterns, and so on. This will help in temporary memory recall if a future question contains keywords that match the paragraph's summary - you can immediately then jump back to that paragraph and answer the question.
5. Essentially, repeat #2 and #3 for the rest of the passage. By the end of the passage, you will hopefully get the general gist of the passage, a good idea what each paragraph talks about, and (ideally) about 1/2-1/3 of your questions done. At this point, progress through the questions, and keep matching keywords/main points with what you read through the paragraphs.
6. For inference/critical thinking questions, you'll have to rely on the main paragraph ideas. Sometimes keywords are not mentioned in the question, however if the main idea of the question matches the main idea of a paragraph, you're very likely to find the answer there.
7. Make sure you mark questions that you cannot find the answer to within a span of 1 minute or so. You can come back to these later.
Both Barron's and PR state that the answer, no matter what, will be found within the passage - a majority of answers will be directly stated in the passage, while the other minority will be those inference-type "which one of this group does not belong" questions. There are also those type of questions that include "is the first/second statement correct/incorrect" as well as "is this statement/reason correct/incorrect".
It's a good idea to limit yourself to about 16-18 minutes per passage; although the total time allows for 20 minutes per passage, it's a good idea to leave yourself 6-8 minutes in the end to go over all your marked questions and find the answers to those. Hopefully, if everything went smoothly and you understand the content/message of the passages, you'll be able to finish all the questions.
This method is definitely not foolproof. Every test taker's opinion on an easy-to-read or easy-to-understand passage is different, so your full understanding of a passage may or may not immediately come to you during the real DAT. Don't panic; if you find yourself struggling with one particular passage, I suggest you move onto another passage and come back later (provided you divide your time adequately on the two other passages).
I will say for my test, I felt the RC was the easiest section. The passages were very easy to read and understand, and a good 70% of questions were straightforward information written word for word. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to disclose the topic of these passages, but they were presented in what felt like an easy to read scientific review paper that wasn't flooded with scientific terms. I'm positive, however, that this is not reflected comparing different tests - two friends who took the DAT back in July had very difficult times with their RC portions.
So take what advice you will from my process. It may or may not suit your style of learning/test-taking, but I hope at least some part of it will help you improve your RC score and your overall ease of reading.
