<p>Hey,
I've been doing the Kaplan and red books, and I'm having big problems on the reading section.
My scores actually aren't terrible - 28-30 - but I can't finish the section. Ever.</p>
<p>I just read the section as quickly as I can without getting stuck on things I don't get, and try the questions.
I've learned to just go in this order: social science, natural science, humanities, prose. </p>
<p>I have a TON of trouble on the prose section, and some on the humanities section. My sciences reading subscore is almost perfect, but my fiction subscore is ridiculously low. </p>
<p>Any tips on how to read faster...? and comprehend more on prose/humanities?? Tips on what to look for?... I'm not sure what to do...</p>
<p>What i did was i'd put a stopwatch on for 8:45 b/c that's the time you have for each section and i'd do one section at a time.
Read as fast as you can but make sure you're FOCUSED
you're wasting time if you have to go back and don't skip any parts. It takes me like 5-6 minutes reading them and for the last 2-4 minutes i just zoom through the questions and skip them if i need to go back. I answer the questions i can first and then go back to the others.</p>
<p>1)look for key words in the questions (names, dates, the important stuff) and underline them</p>
<p>2)look into the passage and underline these words</p>
<p>3)SKIM the passages quickly (jot down a couple of words for the main idea in the margins) </p>
<p>4)answer the questions</p>
<p>I use this method (plus, it's the one that PR teaches) and I've been able to get consistent 35's on the Red Book/PR reading tests. the key is skimming quickly and not getting hung up on certain phrases or words that you think are confusing...usually when you get back to the questions, you can figure out what they're getting at.</p>
<p>this is what I do for reading that helped me out (it worked for me [got me from a 23 to a 34 on reading], but not for everyone.. just keep that in mind):</p>
<p>read the passages as fast as i can and NOT try to comprehend everything.. if i missed one or two sentences, i'd just blitz over them b/c chances are they aren't needed... also.. by just reading it and NOT TRYING to comprehend it, you remember a lot more than you think... on the first three tests, i tried to comprehend it... average score was a 23 (25, 21, 23) on reading.... on the last 2, i didn't try to comprehend it, and my average jumped 10 whole points to a 33 on reading (32 and 34)... that's the strategy for me that works on both science and reading... on science, i read even faster and really skim it because the questions usually refer you to where you need to go if you look carefully... but on reading i take a little more time to read it without going over the time limit</p>
<p>remember, it's not reading fast without understanding -- it's reading fast without TRYING to understand. If you sit there and constantly think about what you're reading, you'll slow down and you can get confused. If you just read it without thinking about what your reading, you'll retain a lot more information than when you think. It's a weird concept, and it took me a while to grasp. But, when you eventually get it down, it really pumps your reading score up (from 25, 21, and 23 up to a 32 and 34 for me). When did this, I was able to answer 4 of the 10 questions of each passage without even going back to the passage (all in my memory). I then answered 2 to 3 by looking at the passage to make sure I had the right choice (i thought I knew the answer, but I wasn't totally sure). And, I answered the remaining 3 to 4 questions by searching the passage b/c i didn't know the answers. Because I did this, my timing got a lot better (I still had moments where I got behind on time, but some passages just naturally take longer than others for me). But I always finished under this method, whether it was at home or those 2 times i took the test and got a composite of 34 with the 32 in reading and a composite of 35 with the 34 in reading</p>
<p>that helped me.. there are many other strategies out there, but your problem and the problem i had with reading a little while back are pretty identical.. so try this out for a while and see if it works (it takes a little time, practice, and patience, but it'll work out)... took me a few months, but i eventually got the hang of it</p>
<p>thanks guys. im going to try a hybrid of all of your suggestions. quickly scanning questions for key parts... reading quickly while not trying to comprehend... and having a watch timer... hopefully i can speed it up and still have some clue what i am reading</p>
<p>I feel that with social and natural science passages which talk about facts mainly, you want to stop in the middle because of how much better you'll retain some of the information. With Humanities and Prose, I guess read the whole thing but underline key words throughout. I dont' get it though, so you read it quickly(kind of like skimming) and you comprehend more and can answer almost half questions without even looking back? </p>
<p>What about looking at questions before? It wouldn't hurt AT ALL if one of the questions asks what is the point of the 3rd paragraph or something and you know beforehand to do that instead of reading through the 3rd paragraph again or skimming it.</p>
<p>yeah... i didnt finish reading on the test today. did most of the prose, but still couldn't finish. it def. helps to look at the questions on humanities, social studies, and science first, then go for the reading. look for key phrases like "what does x mean" or "lines x-x" or "paragraph x"</p>
<p>omg the bats one I finished so easily though expert readers would finish it in like 5 minutes it took me like less than 7.5 minutes which is great for me. Then the highway one just got annoying and the piano one had debatable questions for a couple and then I only had 6 minutes for prose. Probably high 20s, maybe low 30s.</p>