how accurate in terms of diffculty is topscore's reading section?

[spoog74]

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how accurate? I seem to be doing well, although it might have something to do with the gd frey test prep ive been practicing on ( which is a nightmare) ...

Also, what is the average # of paragraphs in the reading passages on the DAT?


Thanks all. gd bless.

 

[herkulease]

I found TS to be too easy. It was purely search and destroy.

I never tried godfrey. I have CDR. I averaged 23 on it, and got 23 on the actual exam.

it was mix of tone and S&D in about 13 or so "paragraphs" some where just 1 to 2 sentences, others were big blocks.

Plus Top score, screws with your eyes. the font size is ridiculously small.

 

[NguyenDDS]

Topscore is 10x easier 🙂 In Topscore, I did not have to read the passage at all.
On the real DAT, I needed to read the passages or at least skim it. The real DAT does not have questions in order of the passage. The real DAT also has more tone/inference questions.

 

[casper22]

Topscore is 10x easier 🙂 In Topscore, I did not have to read the passage at all.
On the real DAT, I needed to read the passages or at least skim it. The real DAT does not have questions in order of the passage. The real DAT also has more tone/inference questions.

How would you suggest I should practice then for the test in 6 days...

I am already praying..

Shoot, I should get off the forum and study..

 

[NguyenDDS]

How would you suggest I should practice then for the test in 6 days...

I am already praying..

Shoot, I should get off the forum and study..

For RC, I liked using Crack Dat Reading 🙂 Reading has always been my worse subject and my biggest worry on ANY test. I am happy I was able to pull an 18. I thank Crack Dat Reading for that. TopScore RC did nothing for me. On TopScore, I always got a 21 in Rc. If you only used Topscore for reading, I would recommend trying something else to make sure you are okay with RC. Everyone will have their own method for RC, but in my opinion... relying on ONLY search and destroy is setting yourself up for a big risk and a score that isn't as good as it can be. Six days may sound like it's not a lot of time, but a lot can be done in 6 days if you use it wisely 🙂 Good luck!

 

[casper22]

For RC, I liked using Crack Dat Reading 🙂 Reading has always been my worse subject and my biggest worry on ANY test. I am happy I was able to pull an 18. I thank Crack Dat Reading for that. TopScore RC did nothing for me. On TopScore, I always got a 21 in Rc. If you only used Topscore for reading, I would recommend trying something else to make sure you are okay with RC. Everyone will have their own method for RC, but in my opinion... relying on ONLY search and destroy is setting yourself up for a big risk and a score that isn't as good as it can be. Six days may sound like it's not a lot of time, but a lot can be done in 6 days if you use it wisely 🙂 Good luck!

Thanks man...I think I will try to get my hands on something else...

I did have a RC strategy that worked last time to get a 19 but I need to do few tough passages to make sure that works...

 

[destinedsirius]

I found TS to be too easy. It was purely search and destroy.

I never tried godfrey. I have CDR. I averaged 23 on it, and got 23 on the actual exam.

it was mix of tone and S&D in about 13 or so "paragraphs" some where just 1 to 2 sentences, others were big blocks.

Plus Top score, screws with your eyes. the font size is ridiculously small.

For CDR, I took the tests and feel like they were interesting to read and I actually enjoyed reading them. Almost half of the passages on CDR are nonscience. The questions on CDR cannot really be searched and destoryed because you have to have really read the passage to answer them. When I took topscore and achiever rc, I could not read the sentences for the life of me because they are dense and boring. I haven't taken the DAT yet, so I don't really know how interesting the real passages are.

Herkulease, how would you compare CDR's passages to real DAT? I can't really use search and destroy on CDR. So for the real DAT, did you just read the whole passage and then answer?

 

[reely989]

I didn't reel like topscores RC was THAT much easier than the real DAT. It is definitely a bit easier, but depending on how quickly you read, I still don't really think it is necessary to read the passage before starting on the questions of the real DAT.

 

[herkulease]

For CDR, I took the tests and feel like they were interesting to read and I actually enjoyed reading them. Almost half of the passages on CDR are nonscience. The questions on CDR cannot really be searched and destoryed because you have to have really read the passage to answer them. When I took topscore and achiever rc, I could not read the sentences for the life of me because they are dense and boring. I haven't taken the DAT yet, so I don't really know how interesting the real passages are.

Herkulease, how would you compare CDR's passages to real DAT? I can't really use search and destroy on CDR. So for the real DAT, did you just read the whole passage and then answer?

this is my strategy. It works for me. It may or may not work for you.

for each passage, I skim through the questions to see what they are looking for. I don't read the whole question just part of it to get an idea of what they are expecting me to do with this passage. Is it something factual or something that I have to think and infer from the passage.

I then read the passage and make mental notes of things that come up as I read that have a feeling could be asked where they are in the passage. beginning/middle/end. Chances are if they spit out a person's name, time, place, some statistic. There's a good chance you will be asked about it whether its a factual question or something that makes you think.

I then tackle the questions. I try to answer as best I could from memory if not based on keywords in the question refer to the passage and try and re-read if necessary. most of the time I knew the answers. i think I had maybe at least 1/4 to 1/3 of total questions that I could use search and destroy on.

In terms of the types of passage, I found the ones I got it to be the same as CDR, they were all interesting to read. None of them though reminded of of a tv show. Like one of the CDR passage on the andrea doria. I instantly thought of Seinfeld. Its possible that someone who gets my same set of passage will think its crazy difficult so I think don't think much weight can be put on this part.

It possible my background helped me. I'm a non traditional. i was a poli sci major with a focus in law. I often had to read court decisions that were full on legalese. They were ridiculously dry and more often than not have them go on for paragraphs over the most minute detail to justify their reasoning and application of some law.

So with science passage there was some "action" going on. That alone makes them interesting.

 

[NguyenDDS]

For CDR, I took the tests and feel like they were interesting to read and I actually enjoyed reading them. Almost half of the passages on CDR are nonscience. The questions on CDR cannot really be searched and destoryed because you have to have really read the passage to answer them. When I took topscore and achiever rc, I could not read the sentences for the life of me because they are dense and boring. I haven't taken the DAT yet, so I don't really know how interesting the real passages are.

Herkulease, how would you compare CDR's passages to real DAT? I can't really use search and destroy on CDR. So for the real DAT, did you just read the whole passage and then answer?

I'm not Heruklease (obviously, lol) but I can tell you what I think. I agree that CDR passages were on the more interesting side, but regardless if it's interesting or not, you have to be able to understand the author in order to answer CDR questions. On the real DAT, there will be a several questions where you will also need to understand the author. I had several questions that asked something like "The authors tone in this passage is what?" And then it lists absurd and ridiculously big adjective words. LOL. They were big words to me... I did not understand the vocabulary words of the answer choices. In the end, the real RC questions were harder than both. But if I can choose between Topscore and CDR, CDR wins by far.

Topscore, on the other hand, you don't even need to read the passage. It's ridiculously easy and it's all search and destroy questions (which were mostly in order of the passage). I had 2 science passages on the real RC.... which weren't very interesting to me. The third passage, however, was about exercising and I thought that was interesting. The font of RC passages on the real DAT is also BIGGER than Topscore.

 

[destinedsirius]

I'm not Heruklease (obviously, lol) but I can tell you what I think. I agree that CDR passages were on the more interesting side, but regardless if it's interesting or not, you have to be able to understand the author in order to answer CDR questions. On the real DAT, there will be a several questions where you will also need to understand the author. I had several questions that asked something like "The authors tone in this passage is what?" And then it lists absurd and ridiculously big adjective words. LOL. They were big words to me... I did not understand the vocabulary words of the answer choices. In the end, the real RC questions were harder than both. But if I can choose between Topscore and CDR, CDR wins by far.

Topscore, on the other hand, you don't even need to read the passage. It's ridiculously easy and it's all search and destroy questions (which were mostly in order of the passage). I had 2 science passages on the real RC.... which weren't very interesting to me. The third passage, however, was about exercising and I thought that was interesting. The font of RC passages on the real DAT is also BIGGER than Topscore.

It seems like search and destroy is choice for most people, but I actually do worse when I practice with search and destroy because I usually have a hard time finding words. For the first 2 science passages, did you search and destroy?

RC is the section I am scared for the most. I'm basically retaking the DAT because I got pianoed the first time and got 16.

 

[NguyenDDS]

It seems like search and destroy is choice for most people, but I actually do worse when I practice with search and destroy because I usually have a hard time finding words. For the first 2 science passages, did you search and destroy?

RC is the section I am scared for the most. I'm basically retaking the DAT because I got pianoed the first time and got 16.

For all the passages on the real DAT, I read the passages first. I had to time myself. There are 3 passages in RC... with 20 minutes per passage. I'm a really slow reader with a short attention span... so I gave myself AT MOST 10 minutes to read the passage... always aiming for 6-8 minutes. Whatever time I have left of the 20 minutes, I answer the questions in order. If I need to go back and search and destroyer, I would do that really quickly all while keeping note of the time. I had somewhat of a mental map in my head of where certain things might be. For instance, if I was given a passage about a disease and the question mentions symptoms, I would naturally remember the paragraph about symptoms and if it was in the beginning, middle, or towards the end of the passage.

For the tone/inference questions, you either know it or you don't ...all based on what you read. This is why you read the passage... you can't really make an educated guess on these questions if you didn't read the passage.

I'm like you, I, too, do worse if I only rely on search and destroy. It's risky and unreliable by itself.

 

[dantemac]

I liked Achiever for RC. Plus, their software is a spot on match to the real DAt software. I would suggest it. They also give you tone/inference practice.

 

[herkulease]

It seems like search and destroy is choice for most people, but I actually do worse when I practice with search and destroy because I usually have a hard time finding words. For the first 2 science passages, did you search and destroy?

RC is the section I am scared for the most. I'm basically retaking the DAT because I got pianoed the first time and got 16.

My best suggestion is to stick to whatever working for you right now. There is no full proof method.

I wouldn't be surprise if the test makers catch on to the whole search and destroy deal and some people will be caught off guard thinking they can search and destroy their whole way through.

Just like line counting deal with TFE on the pat. It supposedly worked almost every time. Now it just helps narrow the choices down.

 

[destinedsirius]

I liked Achiever for RC. Plus, their software is a spot on match to the real DAt software. I would suggest it. They also give you tone/inference practice.

For the 3 Achiever RC, I got 12, 17, and 14. So I hope Achiever is not TOO spot on. 🙁

For the 3 Topscore RC, I got 18-21.

CDR 18-19

I try reading the passages first and then maybe a quarter of the way through I realize it's too hard for me to remember so I switch methods and use search and destroy. Maybe for 5-6 questions I end up not being able to find the answers.

My test is this friday. I'm praying for at least a 19 rc.