Reading Comprehension IQ publication

[shimmer2006]

So, I got this book and did two practice exams today. I got 33/50 and 29/50, which are 18 and 16, respectively (as converted on the estimated scale provided by the American Dental Association website). I am definitely worried now because I kept running out of time and my past DAT, I got an 17. My tried strategies are:

 

1-Read the entire passage, jot notes and mapping it. Using this, I usually get about 13/17 right per passage so this one works but I always have to guess on the last few ones.

 

2-Skim, skim, skim for over 5 minutes and the remaining 12 minutes on answering/finding answers. Mind you, by the end of this strategy, I still don't have any clue what the passage is about. Although, I get about 13-14 right depending on the type of passage.

 

I have done umpteen practice tests but this reading comp score is not going anywhere near a 19. I just want that!!!

 

Any help from someone who may have done IQ for Reading comp, is the real DAT as hard as this? I have taken the DAT before and I found it to be harder but I dont know.

 

Thank you.

[dgundy9]

Hey Shimmer,

I found tried the read thoroughly (quickly of course) and take notes method the first few times I practiced and I didn't do very well. When I wrote the DAT in November I completely abandoned that strategy in the heat of the moment and quickly skimmed before leaving most of my time to identify and search strategy. That seemed to work a lot better for me. I was able to get a 21 which was a lot higher than the practice tests I did. I don't know if I even skimmed for 5 minutes. I almost started with the questions and worked my way back. I hope this helps. Good luck!! My problem was my soap. I only got a 17 and I know that it is definitely low for the U of Alberta. I sure hope that I get an interview.......this whole predent thing can be a little unnerving sometimes eh?

[dentalhopeful]

Does anyone recommend looking at the questions first then looking for the answers, and not even reading the passage? Maybe looking at the first 3 or 4 questions then looking for the answers for them, then going and looking at the next 3 or 4 then looking for those answers- or is that way ineffective? I ask this because I only have a couple of practice passages therefore I want to know what strategy to use before I practice seeing that I don't have many passages to try out....

But I've heard that the questions are not in order along the passage so I'm afraid that this way will take too much time...suggestions?

[dgundy9]

Hey Dentalhopeful,

I would definitely do a brief skim. Althought the questions may not follow an ordered format, the readings do, and if you can get a sense of the flow of the passage you will be better prepared to locate the information when you start reading the questions. Mentally break the passage up into sections and know where the authors talk about different ideas so that you know where to go with particular questions. When I wrote the DAT, this method seemed to allow me adequate time to fully consider each question. Another bit of advice that I can offer is that you save some energy for that last hour. The written portion is at the end of an already grueling morning. I think that I made mental mistakes on the reading even though I had located the right information. Be sure to read the questions correctly. I'm sure that I answered a couple of questions incorrectly because I failed to correctly decifer a double negative like "least unlikely" or something like that. Good luck and stay focused......maybe pack a Red Bull just in case.

[Bill E Rubin]

My strategy was a little bit different. I liked reading the questions first, so I knew what they were looking for, but I couldn't remember all 15-17 questions for the passage. So, I would read the first 5, read the passage until I answered some of them, and then went back to read 3 or 4 more questions after that. Most of the questions were given in the same order that the passage gave information, so this seemed to work quite well. For the questions that weren't in order I could usually remember where to find them in the passage after reading the whole passage. At the end of the Nov DAT I had about 5mins to spare, and ended up getting a 25. During practice tests doing the strategy of reading the entire passage before answering questions I usually got 18or19 and never had enough time. And taking notes while reading the passage - forget about it, I wouldn't even get to read the last passage.

[dentalhopeful]

Do you think it's a good idea to skip questions (even if it's 3 or 4 per passage) that you don't know and hope that you have a few minutes at the end to go back and try to find them or just do them all in order? i'm finding that I can't get above a 17 in my practice tests because I always run out of time and I'm thinking that it may be because I spend too much time on trying to find certain questions.