Have any of you noticed......

[Dental786]

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... that on reading comp practice tests the last two passages go by much quicker in terms of finding answers than the first?

I've taken bootcamp's RC tests and I am halfway through Qvaults RC tests and I have noticed this in every practice exam I've taken. Or is this just in my head?

For those of you who have taken the DAT -
do you find that your first passage always takes longer than your last two? Would it be a good idea to skip the first passage and start from the last two?


Any feedback is appreciated 🙂

 

[flossiraptor863]

In the few RC practice tests I've taken, I've been slower in my first ones as well. However, my first articles have consistently been biomedical articles as well. I'm not a bio major so that may be it too.

 

[kadify]

I just took the test yesterday and I can say 100% the first passage was not only longer, but denser, duller, and had more questions than the other 2 passages. I started out actually reading the first, since I read quickly I didn't think I would have a problem, but still had a problem finding all of the answers and ended up sinking over 25 minutes on just that one passage=/ It really hindered me for the other 2.

 

[Dental786]

I just took the test yesterday and I can say 100% the first passage was not only longer, but denser, duller, and had more questions than the other 2 passages. I started out actually reading the first, since I read quickly I didn't think I would have a problem, but still had a problem finding all of the answers and ended up sinking over 25 minutes on just that one passage=/ It really hindered me for the other 2.

Thanks for the response! How did you end up doing overall? My test is on the 18th so I'm trying to figure out if I should skip to the second/third passages because on all of my practice tests its just been that way. How was QR btw??

 

[kadify]

I did alright. I got a 21 rc and 22 qr. Nothing fancy. I think the QR wasn't too hard but I got stumped on a few questions. During all of the practice tests I always had a problem with figuring out whether an answer should be negative or positive when it depended on the question phrasing and I think that really tripped me on a few questions thinking back on it. Plus some questions were just straight up weird. Like questions I had no idea how to do, and I've taken quite a lot of math.


I have to admit I didn't even try reading the other 2 passages, which stinks because skimming through them I actually thought they were interesting. I just didn't have enough time so I did the search and destroy method, figured out where things were relative to the passage number and just going through the questions.

 

[shaidester]

My first two passages were pretty easy but the last one was a killer. Not just length-wise, but the jargon made little sense.