So time isn’t really an issue for me on math and writing but it is for me on the CR. (The passage based questions are the problem not really the sentence completion questions) I can answer them with pretty good accuracy but my problem is that I’m not quick enough at answering them. I try to do all the shortcut strategies like read the questions first and look for relevant portions of the text or skim read and then try to answers but I really just can’t find a quick strategy that seems to work for me the best and it is effecting how I perform on the CR section because I’m not able to finish all the questions in time. Do you guys have any advice?
How quickly do you solve sentcoms? For example, if there are 8 sentcoms, does it take you more than 2 minutes to solve them? If it does, then that’s the easiest way to speed up: lock down your vocab so sentcoms take no more than 15 seconds each.
Sentence completion questions are not my problem. It’s the passage based reading that I’m really slow on.
So you take no more than 15-20 sec. to solve a sentcom? Because if so, you have tons of extra time for passages…
It could help to just practice reading that kind of passage as fast as you can. Give yourself a time limit, and try to complete the passage within that limit.
I’m sure this doesn’t work for everyone, but I find that it helps a lot to read straight through the passage without skipping around. If I read the questions first and just scan the passage for answers, I find it much less efficient.
@marvin100 I would say a little bit more than that. If I were to average how long it takes me to solve a sentcom I would say around 25-30 seconds. On my first SAT I missed only 2 on the 19 sentcoms, I missed 9 passage based reading questions. When I got my score report almost all the passage based reading questions I missed were near the end of sections probably because I had to rush to finish on time at that point.
The point is though that I can’t even come close to doing the passage based reading questions on time unless I rush the hell out of it. Even if I was able to do sentence completion questions more quickly that would only help my situation a little bit. I would still have to go faster than I feel comfortable going in order to finish on time. If I want accuracy on answering them right I have to sacrifice speed, If I want speed I have to sacrifice accuracy. I’m trying to get the best of both worlds and I can’t figure out how to approach theses questions. Do I read the passage first, do I read the questions first, do I skim or speed read? I feel like every guide I read always says figure out what works best for you but I have been unable to figure that out.