Hey! I really struggle with the chem passages. I was wondering how should I do them and like how should I improve?
Chem passages
- Thread starter lhs9696
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that seemed easier for me, how did you do the biology passages?
I don't mind the biology passages because you don't even need to read all that stuff and you can go ahead and answer the question based off of what you have already studied. The chem ones idk why they really get to me.
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If I remember correctly, most of the Chem passages only require minor information from the passage like "what happens to figure A if it reacts with reagent B" kind of questions. It's similar to the biology passages, in which you can answer the question without reading most of the passage. Also, most of the passage questions I got were OChem questions, so reviewing some of the basic OChem reactions might help.
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@lhs9696 do you find the chem passages hard to understand, or do you get what's going on but then find the questions pretty hard? Sometimes it's also a matter of timing. If they're hard to understand, can you practice reading chem passages just for the sake of understanding, without setting any time limits for yourself?
Generally there are two "classes" of passages you might see: experimental and informational. If it's experimental, try to break it down into the (1) background info; (2) purpose/hypothesis; (3) methods; (4) results; (5) figures. And 9 times out of 10 they're going to ask you about the results and figures so pay most attention to those. For figures, read the caption and then the axes because usually the x-axis is some sort of independent variable (what the experimenter is manipulating) and the y-axis is some sort of dependent variable (what's being measured, the outcome). It definitely helps to try to pick up on any main trend(s) you see in the figures before moving on.
If it's an informational passage, it's just like Critical Reading - maybe try pausing for a split second after each paragraph to figure out what the main point of that paragraph was before moving on, and then pausing again at the very end to figure out what the main point of the passage was.
Honestly, this is the kind of thing that gets better with more exposure and practice with these kinds of passages. You'll start picking up on trends and focus on what's most important so you read efficiently. Also those tricky chemical experiment set-ups will start to look familiar and seem less intimidating. Also, something that has helped me a lot is making sure I have time to go back to the passage when answering questions because you can almost always find some kind of support there that's "proof" for your answer. It can be tempting to go straight to the questions without reading the passage first, but sometimes this ends up taking more time and will definitely make it harder to answer the questions. At the end of the day, figure out whatever approach works for you and then run with it!
Generally there are two "classes" of passages you might see: experimental and informational. If it's experimental, try to break it down into the (1) background info; (2) purpose/hypothesis; (3) methods; (4) results; (5) figures. And 9 times out of 10 they're going to ask you about the results and figures so pay most attention to those. For figures, read the caption and then the axes because usually the x-axis is some sort of independent variable (what the experimenter is manipulating) and the y-axis is some sort of dependent variable (what's being measured, the outcome). It definitely helps to try to pick up on any main trend(s) you see in the figures before moving on.
If it's an informational passage, it's just like Critical Reading - maybe try pausing for a split second after each paragraph to figure out what the main point of that paragraph was before moving on, and then pausing again at the very end to figure out what the main point of the passage was.
Honestly, this is the kind of thing that gets better with more exposure and practice with these kinds of passages. You'll start picking up on trends and focus on what's most important so you read efficiently. Also those tricky chemical experiment set-ups will start to look familiar and seem less intimidating. Also, something that has helped me a lot is making sure I have time to go back to the passage when answering questions because you can almost always find some kind of support there that's "proof" for your answer. It can be tempting to go straight to the questions without reading the passage first, but sometimes this ends up taking more time and will definitely make it harder to answer the questions. At the end of the day, figure out whatever approach works for you and then run with it!
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