DAT Reading Section

[r0entgen]

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Hey guys, so I was trying to get myself acquainted to the types of questions asked in the REading section, so I did a practise passage from the Kaplan Blue book...

Do many of you actually READ the passage? Or do you just do you just skim the passage for the answers? I tried doing that with the passage in the Kaplan blue book, and it worked just fine, since most of the answers are word-for-word in the passage...but then I popped in Kaplan's CD and looked at the format of the reading, and the passage is in this little window that you need to scroll down to view the rest of the passage, so you can't see the entire passage at once...this makes it a bit hard to skim for the answer if we have to constatnly scroll.

Is it like this during the real DAT? Any tips on how to overcome this annoying problem? I almost wish they gave us a paper copy of the passages so we can see it all at once...as opposed to only seeing one portion at a time.. 🙁

 

[IcemanDDS]

I havnt taken the real thing yet, but from what I've seen the real DAT reading section is a scrolling text box like you described. It shouldnt be too difficult to skim on the computer, just be savvy with that mouse scroll wheel!

 

[r0entgen]

I havnt taken the real thing yet, but from what I've seen the real DAT reading section is a scrolling text box like you described. It shouldnt be too difficult to skim on the computer, just be savvy with that mouse scroll wheel!

yeah, that option would be nice, but in the Kaplan practise, the mouse scroll wheel doesn't work...does it work on the real DAT? that would be nice...

anyone who has taken the DAT know?

 

[xxJuiceDxx]

I actually did not read the passages on the DAT. I read the question, and immediately searched for the answer. I also read two novels prior to the DAT, for my own enjoyment, which I found to help me somewhat on this portion of the exam. Best of luck!

 

[TX Hopeful]

I did not read the passages! The layout of the DAT RC is exactly the same as TopScore (which I think is a bit easier than Kaplan). I read the first question, and I immediately started to skim for the answer. While skimming along the way, I was able to recognize and remember where key topics came up. That way, if that topic came up in a future question then I was able to go back to where I remembered the topic to be. I will tell you this: I was scoring well on Kaplan, TopScore, AcetheDAT, etc (i.e. 23+) but then I thought I completely bombed the actual DAT RC. I was very frustrated. When my score came up at the end of the exam, I scored a 20 which I'm happy with.

 

[Dentist 2 be]

I did not read the passages! The layout of the DAT RC is exactly the same as TopScore (which I think is a bit easier than Kaplan). I read the first question, and I immediately started to skim for the answer. While skimming along the way, I was able to recognize and remember where key topics came up. That way, if that topic came up in a future question then I was able to go back to where I remembered the topic to be. I will tell you this: I was scoring well on Kaplan, TopScore, AcetheDAT, etc (i.e. 23+) but then I thought I completely bombed the actual DAT RC. I was very frustrated. When my score came up at the end of the exam, I scored a 20 which I'm happy with.

I completely agree with your post. That's exactly what I did for the Reading Comprehension section and oddly enough I received the same score, 20. 🙂