Reading comprehension practice?

[tcc6115]

Hi,

I've searched through the forum about reading comprehension on DAT, and I came up with numerous helpful advices on strategies and such. However, there isn't much information on practice materials for DAT RC section. Therefore, I am wondering if any of you know of any good practice RC material out there (with both passages and questions) beside passages from the standard DAT prep material such as Topscore. Thank you very much!

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[Broncos85]

Ive been told by various people to use the exam crackers MCAT Verbal reading workbook as practice as well as the Princeton Mcat verbal review book and kaplan material. I hope this helps.. good luck

 

[Nasem]

I am not sure if MCAT's verbal is anywhere close to the RC of the DAT...

When I looked at the DAT's RC... it was as different from verbal as day is to night.

MCAT's verbal... I would say 80% of the questions are all about what you "got outta the passage".... the feeling / tone of the author and in my opinion, the questions are very difficult to analyse.
whereas in DAT's RC, 80% of the questions are just about you finding the answers in the passage itself

The RC of the DAT is different, its mostly about what is directly writen in the passage itself.... the challege is to fish for the information from a long 1500 word passage....

 

[nze82]

As you probably know by now, there aren't many useful practice exams for RC out there. Personally, I used all three practice exams from KAPLAN's blue book, and I went over them 3-4 times, and tried to improve my time management strategy each time. After getting a hold of those, I took their full length exams, which provided me with three more passages. Finally, I went over the RC section of topscore. Again, I went over each passage 3-4 times, each time trying to improve my paste. This provided me with 9 different passages to practice with. Also, I purchased a book (Any book would do. It doesn't even have to be a scientific book) and every night, I tried to ready as many pages as possible over a 1 hour period. This helped me tremendously to improve my speed, and learn how to summarize paragraphs in my head without writting down a single word.
Overall, this worked for me beautifully, and I managed to get a 23 on the real exam, which I'm very happy about.
Good Luck

 

[hilrdh2dds]

I'd recommend using Crest's Professional continuing education resources for dental professionals. You can find it at:http://www.dentalcare.com/soap/conteduc/index.htm

They provide a quiz and test at the end of each article. This provides a pretty good sense of the professional-level reading that the DAT encompasses. I ended up with a 27 on RC (99.6 percentile).

 

[Emmie]

I'd recommend using Crest's Professional continuing education resources for dental professionals. You can find it at:http://www.dentalcare.com/soap/conteduc/index.htm

They provide a quiz and test at the end of each article. This provides a pretty good sense of the professional-level reading that the DAT encompasses. I ended up with a 27 on RC (99.6 percentile).

Don't you need to have a paid membership in order to see the articles?

 

[hilrdh2dds]

Nope, all free!!

 

[DiscoBalls]

Listen to NPR. They talk alot about the crap you end up having to read about so you are better able to grapple with the randomness.

 

[hilrdh2dds]

Ok, so to improve a reading comprehension score, you're recommending listening to the radio?? Ummm.....and just what was your RC score using this method?

While I agree the passages are somewhat random, how random would it be that something you happened to listen to on the radio is actually a passage on the DAT?

OP, if you really need to improve your RC score, READ, don't listen to the radio. Read academic and professional level writing because that is what you will have to do for the real deal. Any information you need to know will be included in the passage and any that you don't know, such as tone or inference questions, you should be able to deduce from the tens of thousands of dollars worth of education that you've gotten to date.

I'm just trying to be realistic.....

Listen to NPR. They talk alot about the crap you end up having to read about so you are better able to grapple with the randomness.

 

[DiscoBalls]

I guess people in this field just aren't ready to think outside the box. Go on, keep on driving around listening to soulja boy all day and then take your RC exam and see what happens.

 

[Emmie]

Ok, so to improve a reading comprehension score, you're recommending listening to the radio?? Ummm.....and just what was your RC score using this method?

While I agree the passages are somewhat random, how random would it be that something you happened to listen to on the radio is actually a passage on the DAT?

OP, if you really need to improve your RC score, READ, don't listen to the radio. Read academic and professional level writing because that is what you will have to do for the real deal. Any information you need to know will be included in the passage and any that you don't know, such as tone or inference questions, you should be able to deduce from the tens of thousands of dollars worth of education that you've gotten to date.

I'm just trying to be realistic.....

one problem tho, how do you know if you actually understand the passage without having to do some MC questions from the passage?

 

[hilrdh2dds]

one problem tho, how do you know if you actually understand the passage without having to do some MC questions from the passage?

Well, on my DAT Saturday, I skimmed the passage to get a general idea of what the topic was and the tone of the passage. Then I went straight to the questions. Read the questions and answer them based on the passages...it's not that hard. You'll know if you understood the passage if you find the correct answer. Also your score will give it away, too. I got a 27 in RC (99.6 percentile). I didn't listen to NPR or Soulja Boy to prepare.

 

[nze82]

one problem tho, how do you know if you actually understand the passage without having to do some MC questions from the passage?

It's really not about understanding the passage or learning the topic. It's about understanding the structure of the passage. By that I mean remembering the location of the paragraphs that talk about different topics. Read the text, try to memorize a brief summary of each paragraph and the main topic of each paragraph, and finally the location of the paragraph (Whether it's at the beginning of the text, middle, or the end). Try to come up with a visual image of how the text is organized. When you do this, by the time you read each question, you have a clear idea of where in the text you can find the answer. Then it's just the matter of quickly moving to that paragraph and reviewing it for your answer!

 

[Nasem]

when I used to be pre-dental...

I did a few RC passages... what works for me is usually read the question first... and fish for the answer

If its a tone type question... leave it till the end... when ur done with all ur regular question... u can do ur best with the tone based on what you've read from the passage.

I am not saying ur gonna end up with a 25+ with this but... you should be able to land 18+ (which is about what... 60% correct)

good luck