I got a 23 on RC.
Passage 1 was about the link between exercise and mental health, passage 2 was about NMDA/AMPA receptors, passage 3 was about cancer and genetics. I honestly do think that I lucked out. The passages were extremely easy to read through (but I am a pretty fast reader), and most of the questions were, as you guys term it, search and destroy. Also, for each of my passages, I got a question asking "what is the appropriate ending sentence to the passage?" I finished with 10 minutes to spare.
I didn't practice RC; why? DAT achiever RC made me want to cry. My practice score was an 18, 17, 16, 17, and 15 (the last test was a confidence killer). I just told myself, screw DAT achiever. Just be calm, look for the answers, and you will be fine.
There are a lot of techniques out there for helping you through RC, and while a lot of books say that it's not necessary to be a fast reader, that's a bit inaccurate, at least that's what I think. You NEED to be a fast reader and be good at remembering where things are. Doing the whole 'writing down key ideas from each paragraph' thing that Kaplan recommends did NOT work for me today. I felt like I was eating up time, when I could be reading and understanding.
On test day, I ended up going through all the questions, gradually reading the paragraph that my answer was contained in, until I ended up basically reading the entire passage. This is a very good technique for me, because you end up doing two things at once, and you get a general feel for the passage in general.
Word of caution: the passages I got on my DAT were highly technical and fact based. Furthermore, I enjoyed reading them (-_-...science nerd). Like I said, I really lucked out. On the other very far side of the spectrum, I know first hand the kind of panic you can get from reading a paragraph of philosophical opinions about old Renaissance art and the first question is a "what can be inferred from _____". These type of passages require a different strategy. Perhaps if I had gotten that kind of a passage, I would be more inclined to write down some choice words for each paragraph.
My only conclusive advice really is to STAY CALM. You get to the first question, it's something that's not an easy find, MARK IT, and move on. I guarantee that if you are able to glean the general gist of the passage, you will be able to answer question 1 by the time you get to question 10. DO NOT let the clock scare you. I would say, as long as you can answer 17/20 of the questions in 20 minutes, you're golden. I think that after you finish the first passage, an auto-mode switches on in your brain and you're able to do passage 2 and 3 a bit faster because you're IN THE ZONE and know what to do. I'm not saying that everybody is going to have 10 minutes leftover after finishing passage 3, but even having 5 minutes left to go through the ones you weren't sure of is good enough.
I'm sorry this was so long. If anybody has any questions, please PM me; I'll be more than happy to answer any questions. 😀
