Hey there,
What you have heard is true for both versions of the exam. S&D used to be an extremely effective strategy for the RC section, however, it has since fallen out of favor due to its shortcomings concerning overall comprehension. This has come with the incorporation of more application and critical-thinking questions which are not conducive to the traditional S&D strategy.
If you are having a tough time reading the passage in full and answering questions afterwards, chances are that the other effective strategies such as the Modified-S&D will not yield positive results either.
I would simply focus on building up your reading speed with daily articles. As for a strategy, I would recommend you to familiarize yourself with the first couple of questions prior to reading the passage. Once you have come across the information needed to answer the questions, you can go back and read the next couple of questions and continue to read where you left off. This strategy has the benefit of allowing you to answer questions accurately as the information presents itself. However, I would not say it speeds up the overall process as you are still responsible to read the passage in its entirety.
Nothing beats forming an understanding of the entire passage and this cannot be achieved by skimming or utilizing the S&D technique. If you want to score highly on the RC section, you must be able to accurately answer the application/critical-thinking questions. Doing so requires full comprehension of the presented passage.
At the end of the day, practice is everything! Best of luck and I hope this helped.
