long paired passages on the critical reading

<p>I seem to be doing the worst in this section of the critical reading. My general strategy is to read a couple paragraphs, then answer the corresponding questions, then read on, answer more (block reading). This strategy doesn't seem to work to well in the long paired passages because most of the passages ask for how the two passages relate, differ, or how one author would react to a statements of the other author. So do any of you have any ideas on how I should go about attacking the long paired passages? Should I read both passages and then answer the question, or should I continue block reading? </p>

<p>I know some of you will say to answer all the questions pertaining to the first passage, then answer all questions relating to the second passage next. The problem here is that most of the questions ask for relationships between both passages and this strategy doesn't work well.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Read one passage, record the main idea.
Read the other passage, record the main idea.</p>

<p>Then answers the questions.</p>

<p>Once you read them all completely, then all the line references and paragraphs aren't fresh anymore. I always read in sections.</p>

<p>If all the questions are asking about how the two passages relate to each other, then I would write the main idea next each passage because it would quickly remind me what the they are about. </p>

<p>Other than that, i would just read one passage and answer the questions that pertain to those first then read the second passage.</p>

<p>read whole p1. get main idea. elim. and/or answer ANY questions mentioning p1.</p>

<p>repeat for p2.</p>

<p>i get what you guys are saying, but the problem is this. there are specific questions pertaining to passage 1, but there are rarely ever specific questions for passage 2. there are questions such as "the author of passage 2 would react to lines 3-5 of passage 1 by". so how would i tackle this? should i read the whole second passage and then look at all these types of questions? because other than that, the questions seem as though i need to read to whole passage to find it out, not by doing block reading.</p>

<p>I've found that block reading works best in story passages, and only in story passages. </p>

<p>For Science/info. passages, I read quickly, then I use the reference lines to go back to find answers as necessary.</p>

<p>Concerning paired passages, I agree with ascend, but I usually end up using carsonne's method.</p>

<p>Still do block reading, and skip all the "mixture" or "author" questions to the end.</p>