RC section= The death for me

[Ferferi]

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I need some suggestions over here about RC section.
English is my second language and I've moved to the U.S 6 months ago. So you can imagine my speed in reading stuff.
I took two tests of Topscore and I got 21 and 22 on RC by seeking and destroy. But I cannot use this method for CDP, I need to read the whole paragraphs to get the concept and author's opinion as long as most of the questions are like that: "What would be authors opinion?" or " where would this article most likely appear?" my scores on CDP readings are 16-17.
So for you guys who took DAT, how is the RC part like? Do you think I can count on S and D method?

 

[predent2301]

The RC section in CDP is not indicative of the real RC on the DAT. The RC on Topscore is much closer to what you will see on test day. You are doing fine on the Topscore tests so i would say you have nothing to worry about. Keep practicing. I used the S and D method and it worked fine.

 

[Ferferi]

Thank God!
Guess I saw in some threads people saying RC is much harder than Topscore.

 

[ROCOCO8]

Thank God!
Guess I saw in some threads people saying RC is much harder than Topscore.

I've heard this too... But every test is different, for some tests I think you'd have to read the whole story. If you don't want to take any chances I'd keep practicing RC with CDP. When i first started i think i got around an 18/19... but after a couple tests I've gotten up to a 23/24.

 

[Ferferi]

You're right. I need to practice more with CDP. Thanks guys

 

[dentaloldguy]

Hi all,

What is CDP? 😛

Thanks!

 

[Ferferi]

Crack DAT PAT software

 

[thejamespark]

damn.... RC is the worst for me and i'm at 17.
I'm trying to aim for 20 but did u improve on reading towards the end of the CDR(Test #8~10)? [assuming you got the 10 test CDR package]

Whats your strategy and timing like? [ie. read entire article(xx minutes) and answer questions?] or [skim through each paragraph (xx minutes) and answer] , etc.

I've heard this too... But every test is different, for some tests I think you'd have to read the whole story. If you don't want to take any chances I'd keep practicing RC with CDP. When i first started i think i got around an 18/19... but after a couple tests I've gotten up to a 23/24.

 

[thejamespark]

I can't say for certain but I think it really comes down to what kind of article you get and the number of inference types questions you get.
I've heard mixed answers between S&D worked (assuming they were lucky for those kinds of article) or S&D screwed them up because of inference type questions...

I need some suggestions over here about RC section.
English is my second language and I've moved to the U.S 6 months ago. So you can imagine my speed in reading stuff.
I took two tests of Topscore and I got 21 and 22 on RC by seeking and destroy. But I cannot use this method for CDP, I need to read the whole paragraphs to get the concept and author's opinion as long as most of the questions are like that: "What would be authors opinion?" or " where would this article most likely appear?" my scores on CDP readings are 16-17.
So for you guys who took DAT, how is the RC part like? Do you think I can count on S and D method?

 

[ROCOCO8]

damn.... RC is the worst for me and i'm at 17.
I'm trying to aim for 20 but did u improve on reading towards the end of the CDR(Test #8~10)? [assuming you got the 10 test CDR package]

Whats your strategy and timing like? [ie. read entire article(xx minutes) and answer questions?] or [skim through each paragraph (xx minutes) and answer] , etc.

I give myself 10 min to read and 10 min to answer but i think ideally it should be around 8-9 min reading 11-12 answering (which is what I'm still working on). I was actually terrible at reading on all the ACT's/ SAT's in highschool. I'd never focus and would keep reading the same line over and over again. Honestly, this sounds cheesy but it's the mood that really determines it for me. When I'm passive I score around 18/19, but when I'm in the mood "to fight" I'm much more focused and I do 3 or 4 points better on RC. I know this is probably not what you want to hear, i never understood it until it happened to me but i really believe confidence makes a big difference.

I hate the outlining technique, i tried it out and i guess i'm just bad at picking key words bc i would waste a whole bunch of time writing down key words that I thought was important only to find out that hardly any of the questions referred to them. I usually read the whole thing and then do S&D for any of the non-inference questions. I think i got 18/19's on the first 4 CDR's and have gotten 21 or above on all the rest.


(Oh and when i wrote CDP earlier, I meant CDR- Crack Dat Reading)

 

[kevinrho]

I can't say for certain but I think it really comes down to what kind of article you get and the number of inference types questions you get.
I've heard mixed answers between S&D worked (assuming they were lucky for those kinds of article) or S&D screwed them up because of inference type questions...

got it spot on jamespark... really depends on what version you have. I felt like I had simple and easy passages the first time i took it and got a 21 didn't do SnD at all and had more than a couple of inference type of questions. the second time i took it, the passages were harder and got a 19. did both reading for the first two passages which were pretty long and dense, SnD for the last passage (pretty positive SnD saved my score for the last passage because it felt like i found all the answers).

I give myself 10 min to read and 10 min to answer but i think ideally it should be around 8-9 min reading 11-12 answering (which is what I'm still working on). I was actually terrible at reading on all the ACT's/ SAT's in highschool. I'd never focus and would keep reading the same line over and over again. Honestly, this sounds cheesy but it's the mood that really determines it for me. When I'm passive I score around 18/19, but when I'm in the mood "to fight" I'm much more focused and I do 3 or 4 points better on RC. I know this is probably not what you want to hear, i never understood it until it happened to me but i really believe confidence makes a big difference.

I hate the outlining technique, i tried it out and i guess i'm just bad at picking key words bc i would waste a whole bunch of time writing down key words that I thought was important only to find out that hardly any of the questions referred to them. I usually read the whole thing and then do S&D for any of the non-inference questions. I think i got 18/19's on the first 4 CDR's and have gotten 21 or above on all the rest.


(Oh and when i wrote CDP earlier, I meant CDR- Crack Dat Reading)

this method is what I used. I'm sure you'll do better than I did. if you get the strategy down perfectly you will be fine. goodluck

 

[thejamespark]

I give myself 10 min to read and 10 min to answer but i think ideally it should be around 8-9 min reading 11-12 answering (which is what I'm still working on). I was actually terrible at reading on all the ACT's/ SAT's in highschool. I'd never focus and would keep reading the same line over and over again. Honestly, this sounds cheesy but it's the mood that really determines it for me. When I'm passive I score around 18/19, but when I'm in the mood "to fight" I'm much more focused and I do 3 or 4 points better on RC. I know this is probably not what you want to hear, i never understood it until it happened to me but i really believe confidence makes a big difference.

I hate the outlining technique, i tried it out and i guess i'm just bad at picking key words bc i would waste a whole bunch of time writing down key words that I thought was important only to find out that hardly any of the questions referred to them. I usually read the whole thing and then do S&D for any of the non-inference questions. I think i got 18/19's on the first 4 CDR's and have gotten 21 or above on all the rest.


(Oh and when i wrote CDP earlier, I meant CDR- Crack Dat Reading)

nono i totally agree confidence definitely makes a difference. I feel the same way but I'm just having a hard time scoring 19+'s on reading and I see the mistakes I am doing but it really kills me with the time because I usually finish the article reading by 7~9 mins(depending on the article length. average reading: 8mins) but then I go to the questions and I spend so much time that I go overboard on the first article and finish at like 22 mins.
Outlining technique NEVER works for me too because i too waste time reading and picking out keywords for that body paragraph.
Oh yeah, you know how the CDR questions generally go down the paragraph meaning, the questions for the most part answers questions as you are going down each paragraph. you think that is the same case for the REAL DAT?
also, when you go from one question to the next but you have the article scrolled down, do u think the article stays in the same position or it resets to the very top...
I'm wondering...

thanks for your comment and encouraging words, I too want to get a reading score like yours.
I will see if I can.... thanks...

 

[thejamespark]

got it spot on jamespark... really depends on what version you have. I felt like I had simple and easy passages the first time i took it and got a 21 didn't do SnD at all and had more than a couple of inference type of questions. the second time i took it, the passages were harder and got a 19. did both reading for the first two passages which were pretty long and dense, SnD for the last passage (pretty positive SnD saved my score for the last passage because it felt like i found all the answers).




this method is what I used. I'm sure you'll do better than I did. if you get the strategy down perfectly you will be fine. goodluck

hey as the questions progressed, generally speaking/for the most part, did you feel the questions were going down as you went from one question to the next?
ie. Question 4 answer is in paragraph 5, Question 5, 6 is a little passed paragraph 5 but not always. CDP seems to have this trend but not always and I don't know if thats a good thing. @_@

 

[Tangymoose]

For my DAT, I got 3 science based passages & I used Search and Destory method for most of the questions. To be honest, I felt like this was the best, least time consuming method in comparison to making an outline or wasting 10-15 minutes reading & re-reading the passage.

My method during the test was: search and destroy any detail questions or any questions that directly reference the passage. Skip the inference ones until the end.
The DAT tended to ask questions that references 1-2 passages at most per question and very rarely asked questions about the passage as a whole.

On Crack DAT's reading, I usually got 19-22. On the actual DAT, I ended up with a 26...even though English is my weakest point. 🙂

 

[Brostie]

More practice will bring your grade up. Its just a matter of getting used to that stile of RC testing.

 

[thejamespark]

For my DAT, I got 3 science based passages & I used Search and Destory method for most of the questions. To be honest, I felt like this was the best, least time consuming method in comparison to making an outline or wasting 10-15 minutes reading & re-reading the passage.

My method during the test was: search and destroy any detail questions or any questions that directly reference the passage. Skip the inference ones until the end.
The DAT tended to ask questions that references 1-2 passages at most per question and very rarely asked questions about the passage as a whole.

On Crack DAT's reading, I usually got 19-22. On the actual DAT, I ended up with a 26...even though English is my weakest point. 🙂

thanks for the reply!
did u read/skim the passage first before answering the questions or did u just go straight to the questions and S&D?
i'm struggling with this part of the test

 

[Tangymoose]

thanks for the reply!
did u read/skim the passage first before answering the questions or did u just go straight to the questions and S&D?
i'm struggling with this part of the test

I read the 1st & 2nd passage just to get the general gist of passage and dived straight into the first set of questions. If I couldn't answer the question in 1-2 minutes or if I couldn't find the place it was referencing, I would pick an answer that sounded about right & come back to it later.

I'm not sure about the passages in general but for 2 of my passages, I didn't even had to read the passage to answer most of the questions.

Ex. one of this was like
"What is recombinant DNA?"

 

[dentalexcel]

I read the 1st & 2nd passage just to get the general gist of passage and dived straight into the first set of questions. If I couldn't answer the question in 1-2 minutes or if I couldn't find the place it was referencing, I would pick an answer that sounded about right & come back to it later.

I'm not sure about the passages in general but for 2 of my passages, I didn't even had to read the passage to answer most of the questions.

Ex. one of this was like
"What is recombinant DNA?"

I do the same, by skimming the articles first to get the gist of the article. I don't spend too much time trying to understand the article. I just make sure when I get to answering the questions, I have and idea of where the answers are located in the article.

But yeah sometimes you can also get away without having to rely on the article. esp if you have knowledge in the subject.

 

[thejamespark]

I read the 1st & 2nd passage just to get the general gist of passage and dived straight into the first set of questions. If I couldn't answer the question in 1-2 minutes or if I couldn't find the place it was referencing, I would pick an answer that sounded about right & come back to it later.

I'm not sure about the passages in general but for 2 of my passages, I didn't even had to read the passage to answer most of the questions.

Ex. one of this was like
"What is recombinant DNA?"

mmm.. thanks so much for the response. I am working on that note because reading the article and going to the question always screwed me over because of time. I would have suffer 2 extra minutes over and screw me up for that second passage.
Thats why i'm trying to devote my time more on the questions than the article.
I've been scoring pretty low on RC on the Achiever and its destroying my confidence on the RC section.

I have been practicing the skimming the article / get an idea of what the subjects about and going straight into the question and I have been more calm because of the "extra" time. I
I just hope that I do well on this part because its my WEAKEST.
when you started on this kind of method, did you progressively get better at answering the questions (reading speed, answer speed, etc.)

I hope that this strategy will get better as I practice on it more. Thanks tangymoose and dentalexcel. =) for letting me know that there is hope.

 

[Tangymoose]

I'm not really sure I'm the best person to ask for this mostly because I'm a super fast reader & finishing a reading test early has never been an issue for me. My average scores on all of my practice tests (Kaplan, Crack the DAT) were roughly the same (80-90%) and ranged mostly based on the type of questions they asked for. I'm really bad with "what did the author think" or "what was not stated in the passage" questions but really good with detail questions.

My best advice would be to just practice your pacing and never be afraid to make an educated guess if possible & skip the question if you feel frustrated with a question.
I think reason my real DAT score was much higher than my practice ones was that I finished all the passages with 7 minutes to spare, which I used to answer all the marked questions/questions that required more thought.

Base your strategy on the 2007 ADA reading test. I feel like this passage is more similar to the real DAT's test than Crack the DAT.

 

[thejamespark]

I'm not really sure I'm the best person to ask for this mostly because I'm a super fast reader & finishing a reading test early has never been an issue for me. My average scores on all of my practice tests (Kaplan, Crack the DAT) were roughly the same (80-90%) and ranged mostly based on the type of questions they asked for. I'm really bad with "what did the author think" or "what was not stated in the passage" questions but really good with detail questions.

My best advice would be to just practice your pacing and never be afraid to make an educated guess if possible & skip the question if you feel frustrated with a question.
I think reason my real DAT score was much higher than my practice ones was that I finished all the passages with 7 minutes to spare, which I used to answer all the marked questions/questions that required more thought.

Base your strategy on the 2007 ADA reading test. I feel like this passage is more similar to the real DAT's test than Crack the DAT.

it really helps to hear out other peoples strategies and can pick up ideas to help myself.
but my question is... when u S&D, are you looking throughout the passage from the beginning or did u already know a gist of WHERE to already look for. as in...
(example: What does enzyme A inhibit?)
do you look for the word "enzyme A" from the beginning of the article or did you already get an idea from skimming in the beginning where to start looking for that word (start from body paragraph 5+ and look for the word)..
Also, I tend to scan a paragraph for that word up-down-up-down motion for each body paragraph to locate a word rather than side-side-side because I feel like it takes a little more time scanning it that way...
any thoughts...?

 

[thejamespark]

I'm not really sure I'm the best person to ask for this mostly because I'm a super fast reader & finishing a reading test early has never been an issue for me. My average scores on all of my practice tests (Kaplan, Crack the DAT) were roughly the same (80-90%) and ranged mostly based on the type of questions they asked for. I'm really bad with "what did the author think" or "what was not stated in the passage" questions but really good with detail questions.

My best advice would be to just practice your pacing and never be afraid to make an educated guess if possible & skip the question if you feel frustrated with a question.
I think reason my real DAT score was much higher than my practice ones was that I finished all the passages with 7 minutes to spare, which I used to answer all the marked questions/questions that required more thought.

Base your strategy on the 2007 ADA reading test. I feel like this passage is more similar to the real DAT's test than Crack the DAT.

i just did a practice CDR with a more open mind and just quickly skimming the article reading like 1~2 sentences for each body paragraph.
I am EXTREMELY happy right now because it seems to have changed EVERYTHING.
It's a lot simpler than I had presumed without having to bash my head after the exam.
thank you so much for your help... I'm just really happy and wanted to thank you for encouraging me with your words. 👍😍

but i would still like to hear your comments for the above if u dont mind >_<!

 

[jmscx]

I scored a 19 (52.2 percentile) in the RC on the real DAT, and had a 97.6th percentile 'overall' score (avg. TS, AA, and PAT), so take my perspective as you wish.

Reading (speedwise) has never been my strength, and English is my first language. I knew RC would be my low score, so I searched all over SDN for 'what is most accurate.' Sounds like you're scoring a point or so higher on Topscore than I did (and I scored lower on CDR than Topscore...). Real DAT, I scored my Topscore average. My RC consisted of mostly Seek and Destroy questions, with maybe three "in the last two paragraphs, the author is trying to say..." and maybe one general inference/tone question (of course, I obviously got plenty wrong, so...).

My technique was to read the first two questions, and then start skimming through the passages. This way, I was "speed reading" to get the main idea while seeking and (not quite) destroying. Most practice tests, I ended up running low on time so I just had to read the last few questions and take my best guess. On the real DAT, I had about 2 minutes left over and was even periodically thinking "this is going pretty well (by my RC standards)."

All in all, my DAT score = my highest CDR score (unless my highest CDR score was an 18... can't remember) and my average Topscore. Sounds like you are going to do just fine. If all your other scores are great, a lesser score in one section should go relatively unnoticed.

Good luck

 

[thejamespark]

I scored a 19 (52.2 percentile) in the RC on the real DAT, and had a 97.6th percentile 'overall' score (avg. TS, AA, and PAT), so take my perspective as you wish.

Reading (speedwise) has never been my strength, and English is my first language. I knew RC would be my low score, so I searched all over SDN for 'what is most accurate.' Sounds like you're scoring a point or so higher on Topscore than I did (and I scored lower on CDR than Topscore...). Real DAT, I scored my Topscore average. My RC consisted of mostly Seek and Destroy questions, with maybe three "in the last two paragraphs, the author is trying to say..." and maybe one general inference/tone question (of course, I obviously got plenty wrong, so...).

My technique was to read the first two questions, and then start skimming through the passages. This way, I was "speed reading" to get the main idea while seeking and (not quite) destroying. Most practice tests, I ended up running low on time so I just had to read the last few questions and take my best guess. On the real DAT, I had about 2 minutes left over and was even periodically thinking "this is going pretty well (by my RC standards)."

All in all, my DAT score = my highest CDR score (unless my highest CDR score was an 18... can't remember) and my average Topscore. Sounds like you are going to do just fine. If all your other scores are great, a lesser score in one section should go relatively unnoticed.

Good luck

was wondering if you think the level of hardness for the RC on CDR is about the same as the real DAT RC or the level of hardness compared to Topscore.
Because i usually don't do well on the Achiever RC and do 17~20 on the CDR program.
If you could let me know. I'd appreciate it. thanks...
i do the S&D method now because it typically gives me more time on the questions than having to read the article.