Canadian DAT most time-efficient RC method

[noneed2live]

There are several thread out there with RC strategies for the 60 minute American DAT RC section. 

That said, there isn't much discussion regarding what strategy to use to account for the reduced time in the Canadian DAT RC section.

so Far, I've used Search and Destroy, passage mapping, and the vanilla method (just reading and answering), but all seem to make it tough to complete a passage in 15-17 minutes

What do you guys recommend? 

Also, are the passages for the Canadian DAT RC section shorter than those for the American DAT RC section?

[Dentistry101]

IMO, just do the vanilla method. Practice enough and you'll be able to finish a passage in 16 minutes with all its questions. Do lots of tests online, and try doing some on paper since it's easier to go back and forth between passage and questions on paper. Also, with practice you'll start to become proficient at recognizing important information in a passage, and on paper you'd be able to underline all the information that you think is important which makes it even easier to go back and forth when double checking your answer. I don't recommend Search and Destroy only because the questions are not chronological with the passage, you'll get screwed big time. I remember on the Feb dat, the last question came from the first paragraph. If you assume the first few questions come from the first few paragraphs when they're not, then you'd panic and re-read those paragraphs thinking you missed the answer somewhere, when in reality you haven't read it because it's in like the last few paragraphs. So like I said, you got lots of time. Practice again and again, and then your timing will get better and comprehension as well. Hope this helps. 

And to answer your latter question, they're the same length roughly. Cheers.

[noneed2live]

2 hours ago, Dentistry101 said:

IMO, just do the vanilla method. Practice enough and you'll be able to finish a passage in 16 minutes with all its questions. Do lots of tests online, and try doing some on paper since it's easier to go back and forth between passage and questions on paper. Also, with practice you'll start to become proficient at recognizing important information in a passage, and on paper you'd be able to underline all the information that you think is important which makes it even easier to go back and forth when double checking your answer. I don't recommend Search and Destroy only because the questions are not chronological with the passage, you'll get screwed big time. I remember on the Feb dat, the last question came from the first paragraph. If you assume the first few questions come from the first few paragraphs when they're not, then you'd panic and re-read those paragraphs thinking you missed the answer somewhere, when in reality you haven't read it because it's in like the last few paragraphs. So like I said, you got lots of time. Practice again and again, and then your timing will get better and comprehension as well. Hope this helps. 

And to answer your latter question, they're the same length roughly. Cheers.

So I used Vanilla method today and was able to get 16/17 questions correct for one of my passages on DATbootcamp within a time of 18 minutes! 

I think I'm just gonna stick with it to be honest. 

 

Also, when you say a lot of practice, what do you mean? Is it enough to do just one passage a day or would you recommend doing more? (as of now, I'm solely using the DATbootcamp RC tests. What other test prep company would you recommend to practice RC with?)

[Dentistry101]

so far, you have the 5 or 10 from datbootcamp i believe, you could also try datprimer.com, they have 3 free practice tests you could do last time i checked. And every other website for DAT practice gives you access to one free RCT test so you have those. I think all of those will be sufficient. No need to spend more money, unless you're still not feeling ready. one a day is also perfectly fine. It all depends on you in the end. 

[hopefuldentist22]

5 hours ago, Dentistry101 said:

IMO, just do the vanilla method. Practice enough and you'll be able to finish a passage in 16 minutes with all its questions. Do lots of tests online, and try doing some on paper since it's easier to go back and forth between passage and questions on paper. Also, with practice you'll start to become proficient at recognizing important information in a passage, and on paper you'd be able to underline all the information that you think is important which makes it even easier to go back and forth when double checking your answer. I don't recommend Search and Destroy only because the questions are not chronological with the passage, you'll get screwed big time. I remember on the Feb dat, the last question came from the first paragraph. If you assume the first few questions come from the first few paragraphs when they're not, then you'd panic and re-read those paragraphs thinking you missed the answer somewhere, when in reality you haven't read it because it's in like the last few paragraphs. So like I said, you got lots of time. Practice again and again, and then your timing will get better and comprehension as well. Hope this helps. 

And to answer your latter question, they're the same length roughly. Cheers.

I so agree with this! I wrote the February DAT thinking I could use search and destroy but it didn't really work. Vanilla method is way better, and luckily I quickly realized that while I wrote the DAT and ended up with a good score on the section. 

[Super Nova]

You could try the "Modified Search and destroy". It pretty much encapsulates both the search and destroy and the vanilla method into one! this is how to implement it.

1. Read the first question (and the second if you are comfortable)

2. Read the passage until you find the answer (this is different from search and destroy in that you are actually reading the passage instead of simply scanning. In doing so, you actually understand the content)

3. Answer the question and read the following question

4. Read the passage until you find the answer.

5. repeat!

I know many people who used this method and did great. For me personally, it was very difficult to read the entire passage (vanilla method as you call it), and remember everything when i went to answer the questions. This method makes it easier because i am essentailly splitting up the passage into different segments which makes it easier to recall and remember the content. The beautiful thing is that if you come to a question that was in a paragraph you already read, you will know the answer because you actually read the passage instead of just scanning. Try it!

And in terms of practice, i agree with dentistry101, since you already have bootcamp, just keep using those and then hit up the free exams on all the other sites. i heard poor things about datprimer from two of my friends though so i don't recommend purchasing that resource but definitely make use of their free tests! I believe datqvault, datcrusher, and crackthedat also have free exams available although it may just be one. 

[Askmeanything]

I like to read the passage and circle/highlight important words. Halfway through the passage I start answering the questions. If I get stuck and can no longer answer the questions, I go back to finish reading the passage, making notes as before. I got 27 in my RC by using this method. But ultimately, just try all method and find what works best for you. 

[risaac]

@Super Nova How would you deal with a case when the first question's answer is towards the end of the passage? I wrote the american DAT recently and scored 23 AA but 18 in RC. RC is my nemesis no doubt. I tried to use this method that you are mentioning (which is credited to a youtube vid by andrewood), and on my first passage I found the answer to my first question literally in the last paragraph. It seems that this strat where you look at a question, read until you find the answer and repeat truly works only if the questions were relatively parallel to the passage order i.e. first question is towards the beginning and so forth. Any thoughts?

[Super Nova]

Hey risaac, yeah usually this is not the case but this is why i mentioned you can look at the first couple of questions if you are more comfortable. This gives you more chance of catching the answer. I am not sure who andrewood is and the video you are mentioning, i simply took a "search and destroy" method and modified it to my liking. It has seemed to work well with others too though so i am not surprised. 

[risaac]

@Super Nova This is the video I mentioned. Either way, I'm gonna be writing the cDAT this coming Saturday. Lately what I've been trying to do is look at the first 3-4 questions (20 seconds), and read through my passage until I find an answer in which case I go knock out the question, look at next question and continue reading. But also I've been stopping when at half point or just over half point and try to answer as many questions as  possible (i.e. I peak at all of the questions given). Once unable to answer questions, I finish off the passage and the rest of the questions. Still, I've been tight on time and finishing each passage in about 17 minutes (and averaging 14/17 ish), while rushing a couple questions. I got DAT crusher for extra practice and imo it's too easy, questions are more or less in order and mostly recall with few tone/inference (i average 21 on crusher). I know it's important to find a strat that works for YOU, but do you have any suggestions on expediting the process? sorry for the lengthy post. 

[Super Nova]

No worries! always happy to help. Okay so what you are currently doing seems to be working for the most part but you are still finding that you could use a bit more time. Personally for me, i had trouble keeping multiple questions in my mind, well, i had trouble keeping a lot of organized information in my short term memory in general! That is why i would read the first couple of questions and then read the passage until i found it. Usually i found the answer to these questions within the first couple of paragraphs. But if i realized that i had not, i would become suspicious that the first two questions i read were indeed found later on so i would go back to the questions and read a couple more questions, then id go back to where i left off and start reading. I never ran into a scenario where i could not find an answer to the first 3-4 questions anywhere in the first few paragraphs. I agree with you that crusher is a little too easy and they said they are changing that for next cycle but for the most part, the DAT is in order but they do try to mix it around once in a while. The inference and tone questions have been a relatively new thing and you should expect to see a couple but recall type questions will be the majority of the exam. Now, a place where you can save some time is this mid-stop point you are referring to. Personally, reading all the remaining questions given for me would be a loss of valuable time because i know i wouldn't be able to remember the context when i went back to the passage. What if you just continue the way you have and not do the mid-point stop. Has this not worked either?

[risaac]

First off, I really appreciate you taking the time to help. As for my midpoint pause, I am doing it because I am assuming the questions WON'T be in order. All of bootcamp passages have questions in relatively random order with the exception of test 5 if I recall correctly. Furthermore, I'm also using DATready, and the questions are sometimes in order for certain passages and sometimes they're a little more random. I was able to snipe a couple questions from the end of the question count solely based on reading the first 2/3 part of the passage. I only stop half way and try to answer questions when I suspect the question order to be random (which is the case for most of my practices with the exception of crusher) so that I can 'search and destroy' questions more efficiently by having less info 'memorized'. i.e. for crusher I continued all the way through with no pause because I realized everything was mostly in order and scored 45/50 raw with 4 minutes to spare on my most recent test (Essentially using your method to the T, but again I think Crusher is easier/shorter passage length than the real deal). To summarize, I wrote the canadian DAT last November, and went with a pure SnD mindset and expecting the questions to be in order BUT for the first passage the questions were not only jumbled up, but also had a bunch of inference so that, right off the bat knocked me off my feet, and I didn't even get a good look at the second half of the exam. I think for me it's best to go in expecting and preparing for the worst (random order with a bunch of inference), and I could easily eliminate that mid-pause if I notice that the questions are relatively in order. I really like your idea of looking at the first couple question and only if suspicious of random order, then you can look at the next couple. I'll try to implement that and hopefully be able to increase my efficiency/speed by a few more seconds come test day haha.

Cheers brother.

[Super Nova]

yeah i would do exactly as you said. be prepared to see what you faced last time you wrote the test and hope for the best. Honestly with RC, there is also luck involved. You can end up getting a passage that you knew a lot about already which can make the read so much easier, or you can get a couple passages that are absolutely foreign which will make it a nightmare. With the DAT coming up next weekend, i think the best thing you can do is just keep practicing the way you have been and remain cool and calm on exam day. Because nothing takes away more time than being anxious, reading something, realizing that you didn't understand or remember a thing you just read, and having to read it again haha (this happens to me all the time). Can't wait to see how you do man. 

[hopeful42]

From those I have talked to and personal experience I don't think any one method is better than another (one happens to be better suited to a given passage than another but of course it is luck of the draw as to passage type that you get). Therefore it's all about quantity of practice to gather momentum and speed - the more passages I worked on the faster I got - I photocopied every one I could get my hands on from the library, even used mcat practices just for garnering reading speed.

[Super Nova]

Yeah speed is a big part of it but also luck like you mentioned. Sometimes you will hit the jackpot and get a passage that you are very knowledgeable on and it makes it an incredibly easy read.