Man, F8ck RC

[HannibalLecter]

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This has to got to be the most hated section of the DAT.

I am literally throwing every strategy at it but to no avail. I need to turn to something else:

This week I'll be starting meditation to improve my concentration. I'll think of it as 1 hour a day RC practice. FML.

What are some of your extracurricular strategies that help you train for this section?

 

[yappy]

Go to pubmed and practice reading and understanding full text peer reviewed papers. My general rc (not my dat score) went through the roof when I started researching with a lab and having to read tons of these. It taught me to think alot about what I'm reading and linking ideas together.

We'll see if this works towards a better DAT... but as a life skill I think it has been a very good thing to do.

 

[UCF FINatic]

This has to got to be the most hated section of the DAT.

I am literally throwing every strategy at it but to no avail. I need to turn to something else:

This week I'll be starting meditation to improve my concentration. I'll think of it as 1 hour a day RC practice. FML.

What are some of your extracurricular strategies that help you train for this section?

I didn't really study for this section, but what I did seemed really effective. If you practice with this method I am sure you can improve your score a lot. Basically read each paragraph and then jot down keywords, dates, names anything that could be relavent next to that paragraphs number. Basically for a paragraph like this:

"1.)The University of Central Florida Knights are going to end the 2012 season ranked. They has a sophomore sensation at Quarterback that lead them to a C-USA Championship and Bowl Game with over the Georgia Bulldogs. Their defense returns a couple stars in the secondary and two incoming JUCO Defensive Ends that had over 20 scholarship offers apiece."

I would write:
1.) UCF, ranked, QB, Champ-Bowl, Defense, Secondary, DEs


You break each paragraph down like that that way when you get to the questions you can have a obscure one like. "What year is UCF's QB?", "When was UCF ranked?", "How many scholarship offers did each UCF DE hold?", etc.
You can easily look at your notes, find which paragraph it is in and quickly find your answer.

Additionally when you get tone or inference questions you have read the passage so you don't just have to guess. I tried to spend 10 minutes reading each passage and then 10 minutes answer the 17 questions. Hope this helps 👍

 

[LetsGo2DSchool]

I didn't really study for this section, but what I did seemed really effective. If you practice with this method I am sure you can improve your score a lot. Basically read each paragraph and then jot down keywords, dates, names anything that could be relavent next to that paragraphs number. Basically for a paragraph like this:

"1.)The University of Central Florida Knights are going to end the 2012 season ranked. They has a sophomore sensation at Quarterback that lead them to a C-USA Championship and Bowl Game with over the Georgia Bulldogs. Their defense returns a couple stars in the secondary and two incoming JUCO Defensive Ends that had over 20 scholarship offers apiece."

I would write:
1.) UCF, ranked, QB, Champ-Bowl, Defense, Secondary, DEs


You break each paragraph down like that that way when you get to the questions you can have a obscure one like. "What year is UCF's QB?", "When was UCF ranked?", "How many scholarship offers did each UCF DE hold?", etc.
You can easily look at your notes, find which paragraph it is in and quickly find your answer.

Additionally when you get tone or inference questions you have read the passage so you don't just have to guess. I tried to spend 10 minutes reading each passage and then 10 minutes answer the 17 questions. Hope this helps 👍

This is Kaplan's Roadmap strategy. However, with most strategies taught by Kaplan, it's not practical. This method won't work because it takes too long to write down the notes, not to mention not having enough space on your dry erase board using a thicker tipped marker to write down everything for 16-22 paragraph passage.

 

[Polk]

This is Kaplan's Roadmap strategy. However, with most strategies taught by Kaplan, it's not practical. This method won't work because it takes too long to write down the notes, not to mention not having enough space on your dry erase board using a thicker tipped marker to write down everything for 16-22 paragraph passage.

The markers I had at the DAT were super fine tip, thank God.

 

[wizi]

The markers I had at the DAT were super fine tip, thank God.

Mine looked like a thin one but turned out to be a fat marker. 🙄

 

[Tyrangiel]

My best advice on RC tone and inference questions would be to go with your gut. Your first instinct is first for a reason, usually something about a certain answer choice will seem familiar and that should mean something.

 

[gtk06]

i just took the day RC wasn't that bad. you just have to be calm and like someone mention for tone question go with you gut. for the other ones use your own strategy that works. good luck

 

[YakovY]

This is Kaplan's Roadmap strategy. However, with most strategies taught by Kaplan, it's not practical. This method won't work because it takes too long to write down the notes, not to mention not having enough space on your dry erase board using a thicker tipped marker to write down everything for 16-22 paragraph passage.

Agreed that most of Kaplan's strategies are impractical.

However, this one worked perfectly for me.

 

[wthareuserious]

This has to got to be the most hated section of the DAT.

I am literally throwing every strategy at it but to no avail. I need to turn to something else:

This week I'll be starting meditation to improve my concentration. I'll think of it as 1 hour a day RC practice. FML.

What are some of your extracurricular strategies that help you train for this section?

I was so scared for this section because like you, nothing was working for me. I just ended up giving up on this section while studying and focused on everything else. On test day this is what i did: I gave myself 10 min to read the passage...i wrote down the 2 or 3 most important words for each paragraph and then i gave myself 10 min to answer the questions....it ended up that the words i jotted down were what the questions asked about...and since i read the passage i was able to answer the tone questions easily...i made sure to have all the questions answered after each passage before the 10 min mark.....I was able to read all 3 passages entirely and answer all the questions...and ended up with a 21...yeah thats not the best score...but i was pretty happy considering i didnt really use a "strategy" and study for it........the key with this section is FOCUS...just stay focused...and don't even attempt search and destroy..its too much of a gamble

 

[rp37]

234567

 

[CJS]

This has to got to be the most hated section of the DAT.

I am literally throwing every strategy at it but to no avail. I need to turn to something else:

This week I'll be starting meditation to improve my concentration. I'll think of it as 1 hour a day RC practice. FML.

What are some of your extracurricular strategies that help you train for this section?

No "extracurricular" strategies, per se. Have you tried just reading the questions first and then looking for the answers in the passages? It's worked for me

 

[Polk]

,...

 

[HannibalLecter]

Honestly reading all your guys' input on this was wonderful.

One strategy that did catch my eye which I thought was extremely dangerous and I don't mean anything by this but stupid was the one where you focused all of your time on just two essays and not the other. I highly suggest against this man just read the passage and answer to your fullest capabilities at least. Just don't guess on like 13-16 of the questions for the last paragraph. I understand English is not your first language but you don't need it to be your first to be able to understand and make sense of the gist of the paragraphs and essay. I am sorry about the "stupid" comment but I believe it puts emphasis on the idea that you should not use this strategy.

As for my original question I was actually asking about extracurricular as I mean extracurricular strategies like running, yoga, meditation, these are all techniques used to improve one's concentration like eating Fish Oil tablets, drinking Ginsing.

As for my strategy that I "might" stick with is the one where you read the questions first, write down keywords in questions, skim the paragraph, when you come across given word, read 1-2 sentences above and below it and quickly go to the question and answer. I don't wait until the paragraph is over because:
1) Waste too much time when you don't need to
2) Information is the freshest after reading each sentence
After reading the entire essay, I will answer theme/idea questions.

Hopefully something clicks in my head after 16-20 minutes on it.

Good luck guys and thank you for all your responses.

P.S. The extracurricular strategies don't necessarily have to apply for the RC section but the whole DAT in general. I have a very hard time focusing on what is in front of me because I am constantly thinking about something else. I felt like I needed to improve this for the RC section because I am a natural Aquarius who is always thinking.

 

[Jackson-Ave-Dental]

When you S&D don't forget to skim the ~2 sentences above and below where you found the keyword.

When you've found the keyword and you are skimming above and below it, make sure that it actually answers the question that you are looking for. I've found that sometimes keywords appear more than once and you might go like wtf after skimming it because it doesn't quite answer the question... Whenever you have those moments, re-skim for the keyword in the correct context.

Also, do not S&D the entire passage like a brainless dolt. While you are S&Ding the entire passage, you should've had the chance to 'read' the damn thing ~5x over. Try to grasp the main idea of what the author is trying to convey and have a vague mental map of how the passage is laid out.