Hi, does anyone want to share how they studied for the reading comprehension test? Also, do you have any tips for this section when you're actually taking it on the exam? Thanks.
Reading comprehension
- Thread starter eyes12
- Start date
when i took the test, it was really helpful to write a FEW words down after skimming each paragraph so when i came to a question about it, i knew which paragraph to go to. I literally only wrote 3-5 words for each paragraph. i never fully read any passage; i just skimmed. i never had to search through the entire passage when looking for the answer to a question because i knew what each paragraph was about. I ended up getting a 340 on RC which i was pleased with.
I'm curious as well! Does that work on the real test? I've gotten frustrated during practice exams when I couldn't find answers and would have to catch myself from using ctrlF to quickly find a keyword. Also, I'm not a fast reader and resort to the search-and-find technique during the section. Therefore, doing the skimming Lrp15 mentioned probably wouldn't work for me because I would get too tied down to trying to comprehend the material. Any tips about speed reading or ways to skim without reading? Ha, I know that last part sounds like an oxymoron.
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2008
- Messages
- 477
- Reaction score
- 3
someone in the DAT forum said that it shuts the test down. 
As far as the original question is concerned, here is what worked for me. I read the questions first so that I could get a good understanding of what I was actually looking for in the passage. Then I read the passage and I would skim over parts that I could tell were not involved in the questions I had read earlier. The biggest thing for me though was just to really clear my mind and get into what I was reading no matter how dull the material may be. Having to re-read makes it a lot more difficult to get done in time. I am NOT a fast reader and I was able to complete every passage and score a 390. Best of luck. Don't let this section get you down. It can actually be the section that brings up your average!!
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2010
- Messages
- 66
- Reaction score
- 0
This is what I've been doing so far. Haven't taken the test yet, but for the practice passages in the Kaplan book, I look through the questions first - not necessarily all the answers, but just the questions, so I know what to look for - and then I read through the passage. If, during my reading, I see something that I know was a question, I'll go find the question, mark the answer, and then go back to reading. Then, I go back through and answer those questions I didn't immediately spot the first time. So far, I've been doing well on that section (which is more than I can say for QR!)
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2007
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 2
Nice thinking guys... NO it doesn't work.
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2007
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 2
Why are you guys so bent on trying to find an easy way out of an exam designed to test your READING COMPREHENSION? If you guys thought of this idea, what makes you think that the creators of the exam haven't? I thought about it during the exam sure, but honestly I had more confidence in myself. Can we just stick with our integrity? That aside, I still don't believe that it would work because the computer base system has been up for several years now, examining 1,000s of test takers (not even mentioning those taking other exams such as the DAT, MCAT and so on). if a person tried it, it is a sinch it didnt work; because it would be all over these boards. And if it has never been atempted, then what does that say?
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2009
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 1
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2010
- Messages
- 18
- Reaction score
- 0
Back when I took it you had to read 3 passages, and you were given 50 minutes to answer 40 questions. Basically what you needed to do is finish each passage in 16.6 minutes. Here is how I got a 400.
This is what I did but it might not work for everyone. I went immediately to the first question. Read it, then I spent roughly 2.5-3 minutes reading the passage. If I found the answer along the way I would pick my answer and move on to #2. I would then read #2 and keep reading the passage and if I found the answer along the way I would move onto #3. Etc etc.
But of course if I finished reading the whole passage and somehow missed the answer to #1, I would just fish around for the answer some more until I found it. If I couldn't find the answer in about 30 seconds I would just literally bubble C and come back to it later if I had time. I would do this frequently, if I couldn't find the answer immediately after 30 seconds or so I would make the best guess I could and move on. The key is to not get flustered even if you end up skipping a lot in a row =). It will only slow you down if you get flustered and panicky.
When I was taking practice tests I tried at first just to go STRAIGHT to the questions and fish around for each one, one at a time. It worked out terribly for me because since if I didn't read/at least skimmed the whole passage, I would be looking all over the place and waste more time then if I had just devoted the 2.5-3 minutes to read the passage and understand the gist of it. Also the OAT doesn't exactly ask the questions in chronological order so if question 3 asks a question that is contained in the last 2 paragraphs, I would be fishing all the way down until I finally found it.
I ended up finishing the reading comp section in about 43 minutes. Which left me 7 minutes to just go back and hammer out the ones I wasn't sure about and that I had semi-guessed on. Reading comprehension section of the OAT is great in that EVERYTHING you need to know is somewhere in the passage. The only real challenge is the time constraint but if you keep your cool and skip the ones that give you trouble, you should be able to finish within the time limit.
Because I finished with 7 minutes left I was able to go over the ones I wasn't as confident about (which was like 5-6) and thoroughly look through the passage for my answer.
Good luck!
This is what I did but it might not work for everyone. I went immediately to the first question. Read it, then I spent roughly 2.5-3 minutes reading the passage. If I found the answer along the way I would pick my answer and move on to #2. I would then read #2 and keep reading the passage and if I found the answer along the way I would move onto #3. Etc etc.
But of course if I finished reading the whole passage and somehow missed the answer to #1, I would just fish around for the answer some more until I found it. If I couldn't find the answer in about 30 seconds I would just literally bubble C and come back to it later if I had time. I would do this frequently, if I couldn't find the answer immediately after 30 seconds or so I would make the best guess I could and move on. The key is to not get flustered even if you end up skipping a lot in a row =). It will only slow you down if you get flustered and panicky.
When I was taking practice tests I tried at first just to go STRAIGHT to the questions and fish around for each one, one at a time. It worked out terribly for me because since if I didn't read/at least skimmed the whole passage, I would be looking all over the place and waste more time then if I had just devoted the 2.5-3 minutes to read the passage and understand the gist of it. Also the OAT doesn't exactly ask the questions in chronological order so if question 3 asks a question that is contained in the last 2 paragraphs, I would be fishing all the way down until I finally found it.
I ended up finishing the reading comp section in about 43 minutes. Which left me 7 minutes to just go back and hammer out the ones I wasn't sure about and that I had semi-guessed on. Reading comprehension section of the OAT is great in that EVERYTHING you need to know is somewhere in the passage. The only real challenge is the time constraint but if you keep your cool and skip the ones that give you trouble, you should be able to finish within the time limit.
Because I finished with 7 minutes left I was able to go over the ones I wasn't as confident about (which was like 5-6) and thoroughly look through the passage for my answer.
Good luck!
Last edited:
