Kaplan RC strategy

[BTtheman777]

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Hey Guys, for those who have taken the Kaplan course and know what I am talking about, has it helped? I just learned it a few days ago and I am struggling on time management. I take roughly around 23 to 25 minutes to do the passage while employing this strategy. Does anyone know of a better strategy? Any remarks would be appreciated.

 

[doc1986]

Is the kaplan RC strategy just mapping?

 

[ethanyoo726]

I use the Kaplan strategy. Basically you need to be able to "speed read" the passage while jotting down key words or phrases from each paragraph. You should be able to get through each passage in 8-10 minutes.

While speed reading, you get a sense of the author's tone and what the overall article is about. The key words and phrases that you write down are important when answering questions because the questions (if you get good at Kaplan Method) use the same key words that you write down. So, all you have to do is find which paragraph that key word is located from your notes. Then find that paragraph and read for the answer. Almost 95% of the time, the answer will be right there word for word.

BTtheman777, you need to cut down your reading time. It seems to me you are either reading too slow or writing too many notes....or both. Just keep praciticing and you will get it down.

I suggest first mastering what key words to look for in each paragraph. Don't time yourself. Just read the passage as quickly as possible to your own pace and write down what you think are important key words. Then answer the questions based on your notes. If you find that you are consistently doing well with questions with your notes, then you are good to go with timing yourself. If you find that you are not doing well, you need too reanalyze ways to make your notes shorter, concise, and maybe even train yourself to look for other important key words.

Now i understand all passages are not the same. However, there are always recurring themes of notes that you should be looking for. Here are some: NAMES, DATES, PLACES, COMPANIES, ORGANIZATIONS, NEW TERMS & DEFINITIONS, ITALICIZED WORDS, QUOTED WORDS, ORGANISMS, SYMPTOMS, etc.

I feel like search and destroy is a lot more work and tedious, because you haven't even read the passage and you're basically walking around lost in a maze without a map. Kaplan Method especially helps with tone questions or indirect questions, because again, you've already read the passage.

It just takes practice. I spent about 10 minutes on harder passages because those extra 2 minutes definitely help out when it comes to the questions. Around 8 minutes is average. I consistenly got +20s with this method, I got a 19 on my real thing because I got the Piano passage, and even then the reading wasn't hard, it's just that it had some obscure questions i had never even run into during my practice exams. My last two passages were really easy with the Kaplan Method.

Hope this helps and best of luck to you.

 

[BTtheman777]

I use the Kaplan strategy. Basically you need to be able to "speed read" the passage while jotting down key words or phrases from each paragraph. You should be able to get through each passage in 8-10 minutes.

While speed reading, you get a sense of the author's tone and what the overall article is about. The key words and phrases that you write down are important when answering questions because the questions (if you get good at Kaplan Method) use the same key words that you write down. So, all you have to do is find which paragraph that key word is located from your notes. Then find that paragraph and read for the answer. Almost 95% of the time, the answer will be right there word for word.

BTtheman777, you need to cut down your reading time. It seems to me you are either reading too slow or writing too many notes....or both. Just keep praciticing and you will get it down.

I suggest first mastering what key words to look for in each paragraph. Don't time yourself. Just read the passage as quickly as possible to your own pace and write down what you think are important key words. Then answer the questions based on your notes. If you find that you are consistently doing well with questions with your notes, then you are good to go with timing yourself. If you find that you are not doing well, you need too reanalyze ways to make your notes shorter, concise, and maybe even train yourself to look for other important key words.

Now i understand all passages are not the same. However, there are always recurring themes of notes that you should be looking for. Here are some: NAMES, DATES, PLACES, COMPANIES, ORGANIZATIONS, NEW TERMS & DEFINITIONS, ITALICIZED WORDS, QUOTED WORDS, ORGANISMS, SYMPTOMS, etc.

I feel like search and destroy is a lot more work and tedious, because you haven't even read the passage and you're basically walking around lost in a maze without a map. Kaplan Method especially helps with tone questions or indirect questions, because again, you've already read the passage.

It just takes practice. I spent about 10 minutes on harder passages because those extra 2 minutes definitely help out when it comes to the questions. Around 8 minutes is average. I consistenly got +20s with this method, I got a 19 on my real thing because I got the Piano passage, and even then the reading wasn't hard, it's just that it had some obscure questions i had never even run into during my practice exams. My last two passages were really easy with the Kaplan Method.

Hope this helps and best of luck to you.

You are exactly right. Its not that I am reading too slow, its the fact that I write down more than I need to. I always feel that I need to note a specific keyword when in fact it never even shows up on the questions. I guess practice makes perfect.

Also, with dense passages containing a lot of scientific information. How do you tackle that? Precisely, how do you know what keyword is important and which one you should skip over? I was doing a Kaplan practice passage on tooth structure and I swear every sentence had a word that I didnt know. This is also why I am struggling with this method.

Thanks for the insight!

 

[suhshi]

thanks for the help

 

[ethanyoo726]

With dense passages with a lot of scientific terms, or definitions, or locations, or symptoms, or just a lot of information in general...obviously, you're do not need to waste your time writing down each and every single item. You need to be able to write something down that summarizes and lets you know that you need to look back at a certain paragraph for the rest of the information.

For example, when I use the Kaplan Method and I come across a dense passage that talks about the symptoms of (let's say) diabetes. I would really quickly glance over the symptoms to see if there were any weird symptoms that i didn't know about. Then i would write "symp. of diabetes" and i would put a + sign with a circle around it, letting me know that there were stuff within that phrase that i could find in the passage. Or if it was a really long definition of a new word...i would just right the term and add "def". If it were talking about lots of locations where something could be found, i would write down something like "locations of blah blah blah" (+ circle)

Basically anything that helps you break down your notes into much smaller components is what you're trying to go for. This is why i suggest not timing yourself until you come up with your own method before timing yourself on the real thing.