I want to start pulling my hair out. I have my test scheduled for Aug 20 and I've been trying to take an RC test once a week. I've taken 5 tests from crack DAT and scored 17, 15, 16, 17, 18 then I moved to bootcamp and got an 18 last week and less than 15 today. WHATTTT!!!!? granted I did feel like I was doing really crappy while taking the test but I did not expect this. I tried reading half the passage and then answering questions, I also tried mapping and even reading the whole thing and well long story short I am freaking out. Any advice!?
Bootcamp RC- NEED HELP!
- Thread starter teenteen
- Start date
- Joined
- May 17, 2008
- Messages
- 3,023
- Reaction score
- 3,619
What's the issue? Speed, not being able to finish passages/questions, tone or inference questions, small errors? You should be getting above a 15 just by finding answers in the passage.
I can read half the passage within 5 minutes without much of a problem and I understand it as I am reading too but for some reason once I go to answer the questions after reading the first half I either can't remember anything or even if I think I know the answer it ends up being wrong. So by the time I have 3 minutes left I'm still there with 7 questions left and I end up going back to the passage to look for answers but I'm too panicked and can't function
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2005
- Messages
- 5,525
- Reaction score
- 3,521
In general do you consider yourself a strong reader, meaning good speed and comprehension skills?
I wouldn't say that reading is my strongest suit but if I were to read a paragraph and immediately explain what was discussed in it I would be able to. When I was reading the passages I tried to summarize them in my head but once I got to the questions I had a hard time grasping the question. I don't know if I'm over analyzing the questions or what but I don't think I understand what's being asked of me. I remember gists of the passage but I don't remember details which seems to me is what's being asked. So I spend the first five minutes reading, but I still end up going back to the passage for answers because I can't remember for certain the details of the passage and eventually I run out of time.
Btw I appreciate all you trying to help!
Hey, try to relax. I understand why you'd be super stressed about scoring so low on RC, but remember that RC is one of the sections that requires lots of focus and concentration to succeed on. Lack of confidence alone can lower your score.
Here's a suggestion that I think could benefit you. As practice, try spending 10 minutes reading a passage from one of the RC tests you previously took (that way you save future practice tests for after you are more prepared to take them). So, for example, you could start with Crack DAT RC #1. Start the exam and rather than taking it like a normal practice test, set an alarm/timer on your phone to go off in 10 minutes. Then, begin reading the passage at a normal reading pace (whatever that may be for you). After the timer goes off, write down somewhere how far you were able to read (i.e. I read 10 of 14 paragraphs in 10 minutes). Try practicing this for 3 passages a day without actually answering any of the questions. It is crucial that you do this every single day to build your skills (would only take 30 minutes a day).
As you read, I encourage you to....
1) Be sincerely interested in whatever you are reading. Try to learn something new. This is really important because it will help you stay focused.
2) Don't panic if you aren't able to read the whole passage in 10 minutes your first few attempts! That is why you practice.
3) Try to map out the passage in your head. What do I mean? Basically, try to understand that there is structure in every passage you read. Every passage is organized. Perhaps its a story, or maybe a list of experiments, but just try to have a basic idea of where each main idea is talked about.
This may seem kind of silly, but I think it will help you be more comfortable by realizing that 10 minutes is actually a fair bit of time to read 75%-100% of a passage, and it allow you to improve your reading speed and comprehension. Make sure you add this as part of a schedule (i.e. do this everyday from 10-10:30am for a six days). You could do this for longer if you feel you are still not able to get at least ~75% of the passage read in 10 minutes.
Once you feel fairly confident in reading almost the entire passage in 10 minutes, try taking another full length test. Remember you are going to give yourself 20 minutes per passage TOTAL. That means 10 minutes of reading (stop after 10 minutes no matter how far you get), and then immediately go to answering questions for 10 minutes. This will be hard to adjust to, but just keep trying! I promise you that if you commit to doing a RC test everyday or every other day until your exam, you WILL improve. Also, there are lots of other strategies besides the one I provided here. You can test those out too. I have just found that actually reading the passage is most successful for me, and searching for answers puts me in panic mode. Best of luck to you!
Edit: Also, I just noticed you posted that you have to go back to the passage when you answer questions even after you've read it. This is normal. I highly encourage you to go back to the passage to find the answer after having read it. The point of reading it is to know where the answer is faster than if you hadn't read it 🙂
Here's a suggestion that I think could benefit you. As practice, try spending 10 minutes reading a passage from one of the RC tests you previously took (that way you save future practice tests for after you are more prepared to take them). So, for example, you could start with Crack DAT RC #1. Start the exam and rather than taking it like a normal practice test, set an alarm/timer on your phone to go off in 10 minutes. Then, begin reading the passage at a normal reading pace (whatever that may be for you). After the timer goes off, write down somewhere how far you were able to read (i.e. I read 10 of 14 paragraphs in 10 minutes). Try practicing this for 3 passages a day without actually answering any of the questions. It is crucial that you do this every single day to build your skills (would only take 30 minutes a day).
As you read, I encourage you to....
1) Be sincerely interested in whatever you are reading. Try to learn something new. This is really important because it will help you stay focused.
2) Don't panic if you aren't able to read the whole passage in 10 minutes your first few attempts! That is why you practice.
3) Try to map out the passage in your head. What do I mean? Basically, try to understand that there is structure in every passage you read. Every passage is organized. Perhaps its a story, or maybe a list of experiments, but just try to have a basic idea of where each main idea is talked about.
This may seem kind of silly, but I think it will help you be more comfortable by realizing that 10 minutes is actually a fair bit of time to read 75%-100% of a passage, and it allow you to improve your reading speed and comprehension. Make sure you add this as part of a schedule (i.e. do this everyday from 10-10:30am for a six days). You could do this for longer if you feel you are still not able to get at least ~75% of the passage read in 10 minutes.
Once you feel fairly confident in reading almost the entire passage in 10 minutes, try taking another full length test. Remember you are going to give yourself 20 minutes per passage TOTAL. That means 10 minutes of reading (stop after 10 minutes no matter how far you get), and then immediately go to answering questions for 10 minutes. This will be hard to adjust to, but just keep trying! I promise you that if you commit to doing a RC test everyday or every other day until your exam, you WILL improve. Also, there are lots of other strategies besides the one I provided here. You can test those out too. I have just found that actually reading the passage is most successful for me, and searching for answers puts me in panic mode. Best of luck to you!
Edit: Also, I just noticed you posted that you have to go back to the passage when you answer questions even after you've read it. This is normal. I highly encourage you to go back to the passage to find the answer after having read it. The point of reading it is to know where the answer is faster than if you hadn't read it 🙂
Thanks for the advice. I will definitely give it a try. I mean I can't think of anything else to do at this point other than practice reading and try out different methods. Hopefully, I'll get it together by test day!
Yeah, just keep practicing! You really have so much time. For me, the key to improving RC was daily practicing. I did a full RC practice test everyday for 10 days and felt way more comfortable with RC. Good luck and let us know how everything is going in a couple weeks 🙂
