Reading Comprehension Harder on Real DAT

[tomdapredent]

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Hey everybody,

I was wondering if anyone has advice on how I can prepare for the RC section of the test. I took the DAT for the first time in the beginning of July, and will be retaking the test at the end of this month. I am very worried and lost when it comes to studying for the RC section, because the real test was MUCH HARDER than the practice tests. A decent amount of students I have talked to at my school also agree. To prepare, I used Bootcamp, DAT Genius, and TopScore. My practice scores were as followed:
Bootcamp: 20, 22, 21
Genius: 21, 21
TopScore: 21, 23
However, on the real test I scored a 16!! I finished every practice test with about 10-15mins to spare, and never got below a 20, but I barely had enough time to finish on the real test. I used the Search and Destroy Method which worked great on every practice test, but the strategy did not work on the real exam(due to the real test having longer passages, and a few weird questions that could only be solved using math). Does anyone have any advice, tips, tricks, etc for this section of the test?

 

[Henry Killinger]

Search and Destroy is a risky method (tone questions and big picture questions become very difficult to answer), and it sounds like you just rolled the dice and got snake eyes. Try something more reliable like the BYU4you method:

http://datbootcamp.com/reading-comprehension-strategy/byu4you-balanced-rc-strategy/

 

[8_man]

Very unfortunate, and those are good diagnostic scores. I used S&D so I don't have much to suggest for you..

 

[asdf99]

Try to find a more versatile technique, such as the passage mapping of byu4you technique.

Honestly though, you probably just got unlucky with a bad version. Personally, my real deal was a joke compared to boocamp. I never broke 18 on bootcamp.

 

[averageasian]

this guy got me a 25 on RC. my only studying was SA articles and bootcamp as well as the 2009 exam (i skipped it on the 2007 exam)

 

[Kombucha]

I'm not a big fan of DAT Achiever but I think you should at least take some of their practice tests that have been known to prepare students for the worst. Achiever's reading is notoriously hard like or perhaps harder than ADA 2009 with their long and dense passages on top of the numerous inference and tone questions. You could also try some MCAT verbal tests and tell yourself how fortunate you are that the DAT reading is still fully based on scientific topics. Just my opinions.

 

[Bersabeh]

Does anyone recommend any timed test's to take for preparing to put d timing down? I mean other than BC. I already used it and totally memorized, it would give me a false score if I take it again. tnx

 

[LuckBloodandSweat]

How'd you do on your DAT overall though? The DAT is extremely variable; it isn't as simple as "Bootcamp's RC is always harder than the real one." It annoys me when people think practice exams are definitive of how they'd really do. That being said; that's a large discrepancy and practice exams are usually a reasonable indicator.

 

[WheatLom]

My RC was like stupid easy. Like so easy I had 10 minutes left to check my answers and give myself a back massage to get fresh for my math exam

 

[averageasian]

My RC was like stupid easy. Like so easy I had 10 minutes left to check my answers and give myself a back massage to get fresh for my math exam

i quite agree. My RC scores were terrible during practice, i was surprised at how it easy my real RC section was

 

[asdf99]

i quite agree. My RC scores were terrible during practice, i was surprised at how it easy my real RC section was

Yeah it's a dice roll haha

 

[WheatLom]

i quite agree. My RC scores were terrible during practice, i was surprised at how it easy my real RC section was

My strategy could also have accounted for me having extra time as on Bootcamp
I had 3-5 minutes of time to do whatever I needed.

I would read the first 1/3- 1/2 depending on the length. answer a few q's and maybe jot a note but I used the highlight feature.
Then I would do the next 1/3 or 1/4 and answer.

By then I know where everything is or where everything isn't within the paper. And I search and destroy. I finish an article fairly quickly like that.

My questions were nothing like Bootcamp 42-44 SandD and then the rest greater thinking

 

[averageasian]

My strategy could also have accounted for me having extra time as on Bootcamp
I had 3-5 minutes of time to do whatever I needed.

I would read the first 1/3- 1/2 depending on the length. answer a few q's and maybe jot a note but I used the highlight feature.
Then I would do the next 1/3 or 1/4 and answer.

By then I know where everything is or where everything isn't within the paper. And I search and destroy. I finish an article fairly quickly like that.

My questions were nothing like Bootcamp 42-44 SandD and then the rest greater thinking

i used the same sort of strategy of reading only 1/2 first and then answering. definitely the smart way to go about it. i feel like all 3 of my passages had the questions in a somewhat chronological order . this gave me so much time to check over my answers

 

[Faefly]

To be honest this is pretty scary. To do well on your practice test and then do not as well on the real RC..
🙁
I hope you will do or did well on the retake