I need help with RC

[joonkimdds]

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I just started to study for RC and have a big problem.
I wanted to use search and destroy method that most people are talking about but it's not working well.

And when a question asks "the greatest increase in eruption rate was achieved by"
and then it makes me find all 5 choices in the passage and compare to find the greatest one out of all 5 choices. So this is not like I can just find one word and read the sentence that includes that key word.


Maybe I didn't understand this search-and-destroy method correctly but could someone give me a better way to use this method or a different approach?

 

[whc235]

Well i haven't taken the actual exam yet... but from my first practice RC (17 -Kaplan) to my consistent (21 - on both achiever exams)... i learned to better use the search and destroy method.. It takes real focus to skim thru the passages quickly without skipping what u're looking for... whenever i dont find the answer after spending some time on it.. i tend to just press mark and skip it for now.. sometimes when i approach the next 1-2 questions.. i run into the exact answer i missed earlier.. i will take note.. write down the keyword that stood out earlier and write down the number of the passage.. towards the end when i have time to go over the exam.. i just have to go back to fill in the blank. Also, whenever i see the questions.. "which of the follow is NOT mentioned" or "which of the following is CORRECT"... towards the beginning of the questions for that specific passage.. i skip also. The more questions u do.. the more u read.. then u go back to those EXCEPT, NOT CORRECT questions... so much easier.

 

[Vicviper]

A standard search and destroy doesn't work for questions like that - this the inherent risk of using SnD, but I feel the benefits outweigh the risks. Just be sure to note any large ranking you're noticing in the passage. If you get a series of numbers in separate paragraphs, jot a quick note down, or if you ever see the words "smallest" or "largest" in relation to some list of things that they've been talking about, just make a quick note of where it was.

Good luck!

 

[joonkimdds]

I don't know why but SnD method doesn't seem to work for me. I tried it with 6 passages in kaplan blue book and 3 passages in Barrons. It makes me skim the passage 16~17 times because I have to look for the keyword and this makes me skim everything all again.

Sometimes, it has the keyword in every paragraph so I end up reading every paragraph to see which one actually has the answer to the questions.

So far, reading 1 paragraph twice then read 16~17 questions and see if any of the questions can be answered from the paragraph that I just read and repeating for the 2nd paragraph works better than SnD but this one also is time consuming method.

hm..

 

[Sublimation]

Wat i found useful in RC is to read arrogantly. However, with the DAT i find that if u just read the passage and make a note of how the author walks you throuhg watever it is he is conveying youll havemost of the questions in the bag. One thing you might want to avoid. Inference questions, DONT EVER LOOK BACK TO THE PASSAGE. Think about it. When they make the question they write down the righ answer and then to make up some appealing answers that are wrong they go back to the passage. My strategy works for me. U just gotta do wat works for u, it almost becomes an art. I would practice RC alot if u feel like ur weak in it. I find it helpful to read the passage. Wat i do is read say 1/3rd then id quickly skim the questions if i see something familiar ill answer it and it will be fresh in my mind, and i would have less to go through. Then i read on till i hit 2/3rd and so on. It works well for me.