CARS Basics Question

[jmu29]

My last practice was 511 130/122/130/129. I have to be missing something in the basics of CARS. I have been studying since march and been doing ALOT of CARS the past week especially. I have not moved from 121-123 at my best and its not a movement up. Ex ill go from 122 to 123 to 122 to 121 to 123 to 121 to 122 etc

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[jmu29]

P.S I have tried every technique I saw and watched all the videos. Mapping, deep breath, summarizing, slow reading, fast reading, all of them. And im not going into it with a “bad attitude” I have been staying positive just no results.

 

[lumya]

Do you see any trends in the type of questions you miss in CARS? For example, I generally get the concrete ones (“What does the author mean when they use X in this paragraph?”) but struggle more with abstract ones (“Which of the follow would the author most likely agree with?”). If you look at the ones you miss often you might be able to figure out if you’re missing questions due to not reading the passage properly or if you’re not interpreting what you read properly.

When is your test date? I didn’t study for CARS specifically but I did read a lot leading up to my tests especially things that I wasn’t familiar with (like old classical literature and scientific articles in fields I wasn’t familiar with). I know that’s not really helpful but that was the best way I found to prepare. I wish you the best of luck, your other subsections look great and hopefully you can raise your CARS section too.

 

[jmu29]

Do you see any trends in the type of questions you miss in CARS? For example, I generally get the concrete ones (“What does the author mean when they use X in this paragraph?”) but struggle more with abstract ones (“Which of the follow would the author most likely agree with?”). If you look at the ones you miss often you might be able to figure out if you’re missing questions due to not reading the passage properly or if you’re not interpreting what you read properly.

When is your test date? I didn’t study for CARS specifically but I did read a lot leading up to my tests especially things that I wasn’t familiar with (like old classical literature and scientific articles in fields I wasn’t familiar with). I know that’s not really helpful but that was the best way I found to prepare. I wish you the best of luck, your other subsections look great and hopefully you can raise your CARS section too.

thanks for the advice! Throughout my life I generally was not a reader, I literals never read for fun. However, the last year/2 years I have been reading a variety of books. Pertaining to the questions I get right/wrong THIS IS THE MOST FRUSTERING part because there is no trend...... here and there I get 100% right sometimes I get 3/5, 0/7, 5/7, 6/7. 2/5, 4/5, 2/5, and the type of questions its the same thing. It is totally 1000% random so I can't even zone in on one question type. The reading isn't the real problem, I can finish a passage (depending on difficulty) anywhere between 3-5.5mins and either way I get the same understanding of it.

 

[JimKimSlim]

In that case, the easiest way to earn points is by getting the foundation of passage problems right, since you can answer those as long as you understand the thesis of the passage. Start with KA CARS videos on foundation problems, follow their rationale, and then start doing their problems. In my case, that helped me significantly and never lost more than a few points on foundation problems since then.

 

[lumya]

thanks for the advice! Throughout my life I generally was not a reader, I literals never read for fun. However, the last year/2 years I have been reading a variety of books. Pertaining to the questions I get right/wrong THIS IS THE MOST FRUSTERING part because there is no trend...... here and there I get 100% right sometimes I get 3/5, 0/7, 5/7, 6/7. 2/5, 4/5, 2/5, and the type of questions its the same thing. It is totally 1000% random so I can't even zone in on one question type. The reading isn't the real problem, I can finish a passage (depending on difficulty) anywhere between 3-5.5mins and either way I get the same understanding of it.

Your frustration is totally understandable! I feel that how well you do on CARS is sometimes random depending on the type of passages you get. There are just some topics no matter how many times I read it, it just completely skips over my mind.

My personal method of doing CARS (honestly would not recommend because there’s really no methodology to it, but it’s worked out for me) is I go through, read each passage, answer each question based on my first instinct, and mark the ones that don’t come to me instantly. This would take me about 45 minutes. Then go through through it again and do the same thing and flag anything that differed my second time reading through it. My last 20 or so minutes I spend reviewing flagged items. Once again, not really something I suggest because I’m surprised it works for me, but I’m wondering if some of the questions you get wrong are because you second guess yourself? Do you have questions where you go through and you’ve changed your answer from the right choice?

 

[jmu29]

Your frustration is totally understandable! I feel that how well you do on CARS is sometimes random depending on the type of passages you get. There are just some topics no matter how many times I read it, it just completely skips over my mind.

My personal method of doing CARS (honestly would not recommend because there’s really no methodology to it, but it’s worked out for me) is I go through, read each passage, answer each question based on my first instinct, and mark the ones that don’t come to me instantly. This would take me about 45 minutes. Then go through through it again and do the same thing and flag anything that differed my second time reading through it. My last 20 or so minutes I spend reviewing flagged items. Once again, not really something I suggest because I’m surprised it works for me, but I’m wondering if some of the questions you get wrong are because you second guess yourself? Do you have questions where you go through and you’ve changed your answer from the right choice?

Something new! Ill try it. Ehh sometimes not very often but it definitely happens.

 

[smol9877]

I recommend trying the Khan Academy CARS sections. Doing those got me up a couple points.


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