Reading Comp troubles

[iEYEi]

Hey opto peeps. I'm having a hard time on the RC. I write down key words/dates/name paragraph by paragraph but then I have trouble finding the answer and then time is running out very quickly for me, I must be spending too much time writing things down?

I was wondering what everyone else is doing/did to improve on this section.

Also, for those of you that already took it, what were your passages on, and how did your score fair to your practice.

This section is really making me nervous as I am getting around 240 and my test is 9/22.

Thanks for any help.

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[richard86]

hey, I was scoring low on RC a while back ( I got around 270 on my 1st diagnostic). I seem to be using your same method.. I write the topic of the paragraph and then keywords-names, numbers, scientific jargon, etc.. this should take you ~5-6 mins. I have improved my score a lot by using this method..maybe you should try to do it quicker? If you are using Achiever, I believe it tells you how much time it took you for your first question, which is around the amount of time you used for jotting down the notes (assuming you didn't jump to the questions right away). Goodluck, I have my OAT soon too!

 

[niss11]

hey - im also taking my oats really soon and am a little nervous about the reading section as well. when i take the acheiver i do really well but when i test myself with topscore its terrible! is it just me or is topscore harder?

also- does anyone know which one is more similar to the actual oats topscore vs. acheiver for RC?

and one more thing- i got about 6 q's wrong and got a 310 - do they grade that harshly in this section for the actual oats as well?

 

[optoforme]

and one more thing- i got about 6 q's wrong and got a 310 - do they grade that harshly in this section for the actual oats as well?

That's weird b/c today i did RC with OAT Achiever and got 350 with 10 wrong...:s
which test did you take today?

 

[optoforme]

Hey opto peeps. I'm having a hard time on the RC. I write down key words/dates/name paragraph by paragraph but then I have trouble finding the answer and then time is running out very quickly for me, I must be spending too much time writing things down?

I was wondering what everyone else is doing/did to improve on this section.

Also, for those of you that already took it, what were your passages on, and how did your score fair to your practice.

This section is really making me nervous as I am getting around 240 and my test is 9/22.

Thanks for any help.

Kaplan really advocated the whole writing down key ideas suggestion but i'm just going with skimming and then going back to the paragraph i remember it's in... granted the passages on the actual are probably more tedious but just remember to look for key words and things that are in parentheses or quotations and such...
hey i'm taking my test 9/22 too! i'm freaking out.

 

[niss11]

hey - when i took it with topscore i got the 310 with about 6 wrong and when i took the acheiver i got a 360 with more mistakes. i dont know if i should be really happy or freaking out! do you know which way of grading is more like the oats?

 

[iEYEi]

Thanks for replies. I wish we had the option of paper test, or an extended time for computerized test because I read slower on the comp.

They say your gpa should be an indicator of your oat score, you guys think thats an accurate assumption?

 

[Jay12]

Just wrote the OAT very recently. Don't rely too heavily on your RC scores from OAT achiever for the real thing. I found it to be more difficult on the real thing than the achiever. Don't know if it was the stress of knowing that this test was for my "real scores" or what......My biggest advice would be to practice your timing, calm yourself before starting this section of the test (no need to stress or freak out), and don't start to question yourself on the answer choices that you make....Other than that, you should score fine on this section.


Hope that helps

 

[cpw]

I'm not going to be much help here. I took it back when it was paper only so I could bring a highlighter to help me find key words. I think I'd have a hard time on the computer.. I'm too visual. (no pun intended)

 

[niss11]

do you guys know if you can highlight things on the computer as you read - my friend that took the mcats told me she could?

 

[iEYEi]

do you guys know if you can highlight things on the computer as you read - my friend that took the mcats told me she could?

I believe not.