How to improve Reading Comprehension?

[Smooth Operater]

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Hello guys,

I Got 16 on Reading comprehension section without spending too much on it since people have told me there isn't any way to study for it other than reading articles during spare time.

As for those people who did bad on RC on the first try and improved on 2nd try, do you have any tips on improving the score of this section?

For people did well on this section on first try, what preparation did you make (other than reading articles)?

Thanks! 😉

 

[teefie]

i did ok on it nothing great 19 but i just tried to do as many practice test as possible to find my best way of going about it. I found that tackling the questions right away and doing some extreme skiming worked out the best for me especially time wise. You can also try if you havent already the kaplan mapping strategy, where you write keywords from ea of the paragraphs.

 

[jmick101]

Hello guys,

I Got 16 on Reading comprehension section without spending too much on it since people have told me there isn't any way to study for it other than reading articles during spare time.

As for those people who did bad on RC on the first try and improved on 2nd try, do you have any tips on improving the score of this section?

For people did well on this section on first try, what preparation did you make (other than reading articles)?

Thanks! 😉

I dont know if this helps, I do this for my practice test and I do pretty well (21 on Topscore). When I read the passage (I read the whole thing first) I "trace" under the line with my finger. This is rudimentary speed reading stuff, but here is the way it works. Your brain sees every word and stops at every one. This slows you down. You dont need to look at every single word to understand the content; your brain can pick information up really quickly.

After you finish a paragraph, write a few key words that kind of sum up what the paragraph was about. I do this for the whole thing, and it usually takes me around 7 minutes to read and make my key words for the whole passage. The rest of the time is spent answering the questions one by one refering most of the time to your list and then shooting to the paragraph to pick out the answer. Try it. The tracing or scanning technique is fairly easy once you get the hang of it, but it does take some getting used to.

 

[organichemistry]

here's my approach (keep in mind im a a pretty poor reader, actually... i was getting 14-15 on practice test but got my scores up to 18-20 doing this)

(for me, this works for the denser, less interesting stuff)
i read the first 2 paragraphs or so and jot down a keyword or two from each one. i then read the questions very quickly. if the question can be answered from those paragraphs, then i answer them, if not i keep reading the questions.

then ill read 2 more paragraphs and do the same thing; and, since i've already read the questions once i know what keywords to look for in the passage.

i do this till i finish the article. usually there's 1-2 questions i can't answer. i give it my best guess or try to find the answer one last time and then move on.

i should note that i still usually run out of time if i'm trying to do 3 passages in this manner. hopefully, i'll luck out and get 1 non-science passage that isn't quite as dense (maybe something about psychology, or history, or immigration, or ANYTHING besides amino acids and teeth when i get a passage where i don't feel the material is as dense (ie... not a bunch of new science terms that all run together) then i am able to read the whole passage and really follow the passage pretty clearly. then, i usually have no trouble answering all the questions.

 

[bkwash]

Scan the passage (first and last sentence and any words that stick out) and then go straight to the questions.

During your scan you should have gotten an idea of how the passage is organized so when you see a question you know where to go. Move quickly and come back to questions that will take longer.

I didn't take notes on the passage as I felt it slowed me down, but try different things and find out what works for you. Luckily that was never a weak section for me, but I assume practice can help you with it, speed reading is NOT the key just learning how to search the passage.

 

[Smooth Operater]

yeah, my problem is not finish reading on time. I could answer all questions correctly from 1st reading section, but I always end up having not enough time for other sections.

I guess comphrensive (understand the concept of passage) is not as almost search for answers.

 

[KOM]

Very quick skim of the passage...i.e - 1-2 minutes tops and then go straight to the questions. Often times the questions are phrased such that you have to read thru an entire paragraph to eliminate all the different possibilities. In this case, unless you have a photographic memory, why would you read thru it all one time when you know you're just going to have to go back and read it again? I scored a 21 and by the time I was done with each of them I had no idea what the heck I had just read. LOL. Why they call it reading "comprehension" is a mystery to me. Instead of practicing reading a bunch of boring passages...try doing some of those word find puzzles.

 

[vaio]

a person on these forums gave me the following advice : "dont read the passages, waste of time, just start looking for answers"
It worked for him, and worked for me; i got a 23 on RC