Reading Comprehension - pls help!

[Meas]

I heard that reading scientific journals & New York Times can help us improve our reading skills. I personally am very very weak in reading comprehension. The recent Topscore that I bought has 3 RC practice tests & the Kaplan book has 2 RC practice tests, each containing 3 passages. I don't think this will be enough practice for me though! I want to try out all types of passages so that I will be fully prepared on test day. Can anyone suggest any other reading comprehension study materials?

Any responses will be appreciated! Thanks a lot!🙂

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[bennijai]

First thing is to devise a strategy. Read for comprehension rather than simply keywords. Some passages have lots of them and it would be a waste of time to write each one down as you might not even get tested for it. Instead try to take a mental note and create an outline in your head or paper. Thus when questions come along you can easily refer back to the passage without furiously looking for answers.

If you're able to get yourself to comprehend the passages your RC score should greatly shoot up, especially when questions come up and you can recall it being somewhere along a certain paragraph and confirm the answer. You can try the search and destroy method but it won't work for every passage.

 

[nze82]

I heard that reading scientific journals & New York Times can help us improve our reading skills. I personally am very very weak in reading comprehension. The recent Topscore that I bought has 3 RC practice tests & the Kaplan book has 2 RC practice tests, each containing 3 passages. I don't think this will be enough practice for me though! I want to try out all types of passages so that I will be fully prepared on test day. Can anyone suggest any other reading comprehension study materials?

Any responses will be appreciated! Thanks a lot!🙂

Unlike what many believe I don't think reading scientific journals would help you that much, unless you know how to approach this section of the exam. Why do I think people wouldn't benefit much from reading the journals?
Well, there aren't any questions associated with the text you're reading. So, you'll put in 20 minutes and you'll read an entire article, what next? Are there any questions being asked regarding what you just read?
Practicing with journals and scientific articles will only help you in one way. You can use them to increase your reading speed. Otherwise, I think the best way is to stick with what you alread have (KAPLAN, TopScore, etc.) and do the practice RC questions over and over again. Read an article this week and try to answer the questions; then, read the same article next week and try to answer the same question. You might think you'll remember all the answers, but that's not really the case. You'll benefit greatly even if you practice with the same material over and over again. I did the same thing and I ended up with a 23.

 

[Meas]

Thanks for all your quick replies!

bennijai, can you please expand on what you meant by the "search & destroy method"?

nze82, I will definitely try out re-reading the passages again! I am wondering if Topscore, DAT Achiever, Kaplan, & DAT Destroyer (the only one with no reading comprehension practice) the 4 key resources for accessing DAT practice exams?

 

[t00thoblitr8tor]

I agree with the abovee posters. Although I consider myself quite strong in casual reading (reading on the toilet), I'm always trying to hone and polish my skills to conquer this part of the test. It's a completely different ballgame. My friend recently took the exam and he said the reading comprehension section was more challenging than he thought and he was crunched for time. He said there were a few tone and inference questions that completely threw him off as he was unprepared. He got a 16 and it lowered his AA score. He was totally bummed out cuz all his other scores were very high. I recently got Crack DAT Reading which has 15 reading comprehension passages. So far I really like it!! Although I'm not able to use the serach and destroy method like Kaplan teaches, it's definitely helping me devise strategies on how to tackle this section. I definitely recommend it and I hope it'll bump my RC score up a point or two. I like topscore as wel for reading comprehension where the search and destroy technique works but it only has 3 tests. Crack dat reading has lots of passages and questions that I can practice on and their analysis is good at identifying my weaknesses. Basically, I'm going to try to use everything and anything I can to obliterate this section from Topscore, Achiever to Crack DAT Reading. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any advice too!

 

[prsndwg]

Can you tell me more about CDR.. I was consider buying it.. is it worth it? Are they like 5 test with each having 3 passages?

I agree with the abovee posters. Although I consider myself quite strong in casual reading (reading on the toilet), I'm always trying to hone and polish my skills to conquer this part of the test. It's a completely different ballgame. My friend recently took the exam and he said the reading comprehension section was more challenging than he thought and he was crunched for time. He said there were a few tone and inference questions that completely threw him off as he was unprepared. He got a 16 and it lowered his AA score. He was totally bummed out cuz all his other scores were very high. I recently got Crack DAT Reading which has 15 reading comprehension passages. So far I really like it!! Although I'm not able to use the serach and destroy method like Kaplan teaches, it's definitely helping me devise strategies on how to tackle this section. I definitely recommend it and I hope it'll bump my RC score up a point or two. I like topscore as wel for reading comprehension where the search and destroy technique works but it only has 3 tests. Crack dat reading has lots of passages and questions that I can practice on and their analysis is good at identifying my weaknesses. Basically, I'm going to try to use everything and anything I can to obliterate this section from Topscore, Achiever to Crack DAT Reading. I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any advice too!

 

[ozzie33]

Pick up an AP English book. That test was mostly tone/inference questions, from what I remember. In my opinion, reading scientific journals won't make you better at interpreting tone, reading opinion pieces and then the comments following them online, or reading passages in an AP english book and reading their commentary on them will help though.

 

[ethanyoo726]

Yea i don't believe reading outside sources will help you that much. I tried reading Scientific America for about a month. I didn't feel any improvement.

I agree with bennijai, you have to develop a strategy on how you want to tackle your RC. Stick with one.

Best of luck to you.

 

[MTD52]

I don't know if this is going to help you at all, but I don't really have a strategy. This is my strategy - read fast.

I read the passage in 5-6 minutes, and if it's longer than I mostly skim, but still read. I don't take it all in, but I remember what information was where, so it's a quick find when I need it. That leaves me with a good 45-60 seconds per question. Should be more than enough. My most recent scores were topscore 21 and 23, so I must be doing something right.