Reading and timing

[Awuah29]

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Hey guys,
I pretty much know how to approach the reading section, (kaplan's mapping strategy, reading questions and hunting ) but I still struggle with interference questions like whats the tone of the author . What do you guys suggest?? Also , whats the best thing to do when you get stuck on a question in the reading section. I mean I hunt for answers, but with the clock running , it seems that I also feel pressured and nervous when I don't find the answer right away. Honestly , I usally have to guess on the last 15 or 20 questions. Whats wrong with me ??? I feel so embarrased because it seems that many people here do well on the reading section.

I have noticed that when I do not find the answer right away, I tend to reread the passage again, loosing thereby time.

Can the SDN family help me out here please !!!😱 🙁

 

[washingtonDAT]

Examkrackers RC is good for learning how to reason answers. I found it very helpful in my DAT prep. Nice verse dude!

 

[Awuah29]

Examkrackers RC is good for learning how to reason answers. I found it very helpful in my DAT prep. Nice verse dude!

dude, don't know about examkrackers if its the right thing to go with?

 

[washingtonDAT]

I just took my DAT and I can say for sure that it definitely helped me. I would still do the achiever RC tests but the problem with them is they don't ask many thinking questions.

 

[pudz]

So i've also been hearing about exam krackers for the reading -- and i'm sure kaplan must have some good stuff. what else is even out there for reading comp? do you time yourself when you do the reading? i'm thiinking that's the only way to not stress... but i havn't really started on the reading yet so i dunno.. is it like a gre where you can pick out certain key words in questions and hone in on answers? those reading sec. are so long and tedious. i wonder is it better to read it once thru and concentrate real hard or to just skim and concentrate on the answers. i hear what your saying about tone tho, i feel like in these questions it's usually a case of 'which is the BEST answer' not which is the right/wrong answer? no?

dude, don't know about examkrackers if its the right thing to go with?

pudz

 

[Awuah29]

So i've also been hearing about exam krackers for the reading -- and i'm sure kaplan must have some good stuff. what else is even out there for reading comp? do you time yourself when you do the reading? i'm thiinking that's the only way to not stress... but i havn't really started on the reading yet so i dunno.. is it like a gre where you can pick out certain key words in questions and hone in on answers? those reading sec. are so long and tedious. i wonder is it better to read it once thru and concentrate real hard or to just skim and concentrate on the answers. i hear what your saying about tone tho, i feel like in these questions it's usually a case of 'which is the BEST answer' not which is the right/wrong answer? no?



pudz

anyone have a thought regarding timing, not to stress and guess on last 15-20 questions???

 

[Visceral]

I find reading comprehension to be a really personal thing as to how you approach it. The "hunting" technique is very risky in my opinion and I decided not to even bother with it. Instead, I read the passge and noted key terms and summarized each paragraph.

I tried to pace myself a minute per question, since the Canadian DAT is written by hand so we get 50 minutes for 50 questions. This translated to about 17 minutes per reading, or 20 minutes per reading for the American DAT. I found at the beginning I was spending 10 minutes reading each passage, and 7 minutes doing the questions, however, this was not enough and I was rushing at the end.

I gradually increased my reading speed to what I found optimal, which was about 7 minutes per reading. This left 10 minutes for questions and it worked very well for me on the real thing. I found I was going back to verify my answers anyways, so I could afford to skip some small details while reading it quickly because I would be going back anyways. This was the biggest flaw with me taking 10 minutes to read the passage, I was going back and rereading it while answering questions, and that caused me to rush at the end.

Ultimately, it's really personal and experiment with reading times and whatnot to what works best for you.