How to improve Reading Comprehension?

[Guest smooth operater]

Hello guys,

 

I Got 16 on Reading comprehension section without spending too much on it since people have told me there isn't any way to study for it other than reading articles during spare time.

 

As for those people who did bad on RC on the first try and improved on 2nd try, do you have any tips on improving the score of this section?

 

For people did well on this section on first try, what preparation did you make (other than reading articles)?

 

Thanks!

[Guest Labby Labberson]

Don't try to memorize the passage first time through, what you should aim for is to know right away where to go in the passage to find the answer, so just underline key paragraphs, descriptions, definitions ect. as you go. You practice by doing sample tests like IQ publications have and noting what the questions ask about the passage you just read. then you can know what are "key" parts and what aren't

[Guest power2005]

I got a 21 on RC and I hadn't done any practicing before hand. I was quite nervous about this section because I thought it would be my worst (because I hadn't practiced and I tend to be a slow reader in terms of speed).

 

My best advice is to just stay calm. Read the passage thoroughly, but don't go out of your tree trying to remember everything.

 

Also, what I did, don't know if this works for everyone, but when I got stuck on a question, I just skipped it and went back to it at the END...after I had read all three passages and attempted all 50 or so questions. Don't get caught up on a question about the 1st passage and spend like 5 minutes trying to figure it out.

[Guest cyclone14]

RC was my best section when I wrote the DAT- 28. I would read through the answers first, looking for key words. I then skimmed through the passage, underlining the parts where the words I remembered were, or directly answering them as I was going through. This worked for the bulk of the questions. The ones that require more interpretation (like 'what's an appropriate subtitle for the article?' or 'what is the tone of the article') I would deal with after all the others for that section- if I couldn't answer them from what I had done already, I would then read the passage from the beginning, especially the parts that didn't have answers to other questions in it. I agree with power's advice to skip things- if you don't know it, your better off working on the ones you do know and, if need be, guessing at the end. Since timing is an issue for a lot of people in this section, I think its really important to look at the questions/answers first.