RC in Topscore and Achiever is too long like 14~17 paragraphs.
I cannot solve every problem.
What about the real DAT?
Is that very long?
I cannot solve every problem.
What about the real DAT?
Is that very long?
RC on the real DAT
- Thread starter Maxtor
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It is that long and from my experience the writing on the real DAT was less clear than the practice test. Paragraph to paragraph seemed more disjointed thematically.
In my opinion, I think that Topscore is much easier than Kaplan's RC. Topscore may have about 12-14 paragraphs but they're on average about 4-6 sentences long. Not like the huge passages in Kaplan. Is the real RC more like kaplan or TC?
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I hear the real DAT RC is much harder than our practice. I'm scoring 19-20's on achiever and 17-19 on topscore and expect 16-18 on the real thing. That's just my prediction from comparing everyone else's practice scores vs. real scores.
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Anyone?
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I just took the DAT a week ago and I thought that the RC was much much easier than the practice tests on topscore.
When I was using topscore, I couldn't ever finish the RC on time. Topscore passages were longer, more detail oriented, complex, and were usually on topics I was totally unfamiliar with. I would run out of time and have to guess on most of the questions in the last passage. I never scored higher than like a 20 or 21..and that's with cheating by extending time.
I don't know what everyone else is talking about but I swear I thought the passages on the real thing were only a step above an article you might see in TIME magazine. The passages are comparable to topscore in the NUMBER of paragraphs, but all the paragraphs are short and some are only one or two sentances, meaning the passages are shorter overall. The other perk is that the topics are familiar and don't contain a ton of unfamiliar jargon. I had one on antibiotic resistance, one on cardiovascular disease, and I don't remember what the other one was about, but you get the picture, nothing as complicated as three passages on weird diseases affecting specific parts of the mouth and body that you've never heard of.
My advice is to READ and understand the entire passage since a lot of the questions are theme based, but to write down one or two keywords from each paragraph AFTER you finish reading each paragraph since some of the questions WILL require you to go back and hunt down the answer with in a passage. Just reading and understanding the passage will probably allow you to answer 60% of the questions without looking back. There were a few questions on the real thing that could have been answered with common sense even if I had never read the passage in the first place. This is the strategy I used and I scored a 22 RC on the real thing.
One last thing. Most people don't realize that although RC does test your reading ability to a certain extent, what it's meant to measure is your ability to learn and absorb NEW material on the fly. So although topscore is all about hunting down the dang answer in the passage, the real test has a lot more emphasis on whether you understand the point the author is trying to make (the big picture) and not so much on the nit-pickety stuff. If in the past you've scored well on passaged based portions of the ACT/SAT/ITBS/ITED then you'll do fine here. If you don't usually do well on those types of tests, this probably won't be an exception unless you practice.
GOOD LUCK 😍 and I hope this helps!
When I was using topscore, I couldn't ever finish the RC on time. Topscore passages were longer, more detail oriented, complex, and were usually on topics I was totally unfamiliar with. I would run out of time and have to guess on most of the questions in the last passage. I never scored higher than like a 20 or 21..and that's with cheating by extending time.
I don't know what everyone else is talking about but I swear I thought the passages on the real thing were only a step above an article you might see in TIME magazine. The passages are comparable to topscore in the NUMBER of paragraphs, but all the paragraphs are short and some are only one or two sentances, meaning the passages are shorter overall. The other perk is that the topics are familiar and don't contain a ton of unfamiliar jargon. I had one on antibiotic resistance, one on cardiovascular disease, and I don't remember what the other one was about, but you get the picture, nothing as complicated as three passages on weird diseases affecting specific parts of the mouth and body that you've never heard of.
My advice is to READ and understand the entire passage since a lot of the questions are theme based, but to write down one or two keywords from each paragraph AFTER you finish reading each paragraph since some of the questions WILL require you to go back and hunt down the answer with in a passage. Just reading and understanding the passage will probably allow you to answer 60% of the questions without looking back. There were a few questions on the real thing that could have been answered with common sense even if I had never read the passage in the first place. This is the strategy I used and I scored a 22 RC on the real thing.
One last thing. Most people don't realize that although RC does test your reading ability to a certain extent, what it's meant to measure is your ability to learn and absorb NEW material on the fly. So although topscore is all about hunting down the dang answer in the passage, the real test has a lot more emphasis on whether you understand the point the author is trying to make (the big picture) and not so much on the nit-pickety stuff. If in the past you've scored well on passaged based portions of the ACT/SAT/ITBS/ITED then you'll do fine here. If you don't usually do well on those types of tests, this probably won't be an exception unless you practice.
GOOD LUCK 😍 and I hope this helps!
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The real RC are longer than any of my practice test, and answers are not very clear in the passage. Well, maybe because english is not my 1st language, so it appears very hard for me.
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