<p>Alright so everyone here prefers to underline the lines in question before jumping straight into the reading. (This is for CR)</p>
<p>However, for a lot of these questions, the online answers provided by TCB often quote lines that come much later. Pretty much everyone here says to answer these correctly, you have to read a couple lines before and a couple lines after... but the online answers to the blue book often quote text that is about 10 lines after the text in question.</p>
<p>Soo.. should I continue with everyone's method or what?</p>
<p>EDIT: i'm being unclear. Basically, the question will be like "In lines 12-13", and TCB will justify their answer by saying "In lines 22-23, the author says x and y and z"</p>
<p>The point of underlining is just so that you know specifically what lines the question references to. Unless it’s a question that requires a definition, you should rarely take the reference literally. Instead, look back at the referenced quote and consider it in context of the entire passage. Does it really mean x, y, and z in context of the entire passage? If you still don’t like this method, don’t continously try and jump on the bandwagon. It would just be a waste of your time.</p>
<p>I tried that method and didn’t find it very successful. It wasted time and didn’t really improve anything; I lost focus. </p>
<p>What I started doing is answering questions one at a time, reading up to that part of the text and a bit past it if necessary to find the answer. This way I don’t waste time rereading the passage a bunch, but I still end up reading the entire passage (which allows me to answer the general questions after all the specific ones). I’ve found it to be a lot quicker and more effective.</p>
<p>So what you’re saying is that the only time people answer questions as they read the passage is when it’s a simple “what does this word mean in context” or a similar type question?</p>
<p>What would you guys normally classify as a question you can’t answer as you read the passage, besides for obvious theme/purpose of the passage questions?</p>
<p>I don’t know about other people, but here is my strategy for long SINGLE passages (I’m too lazy to explain all the methods for every type):
Look through all the questions and underline quotes/words referenced to in all questions.
Read entire passage
Answer the vocab questions
Start from the top of the questions and just answer them straight through, spending no more than 1-2 minutes on really difficult ones before simply circling them and going on to the next question.
Return to circled questions and make educated guesses if possible.</p>
<p>When it gives me a line reference, I box the line(s) that the question is asking for. However, I would check to read a thumbs length of lines above the box and a thumbs length of lines below the box. That should give me enough context to assess the question correctly.</p>
<p>No I’m saying I read the passage while doing the questions. For example, say there’s a question asking about what the quotes in lines 22-23 suggest. I will read up to that point, then a bit past if I need to, then answer the question. The next question I will read from the last question I answered to the line I need to answer the question, then find the answer. I do that for every question, except the general ones which I answer last. In this way I don’t read the whole passage first but I read it piece by piece, attempting to comprehend it through the questions. This allows me to stay focused rather than mindlessly reading and wasting time. At the end, when I’ve gone through the full passage and the questions I could answer, I go back to the general questions and the questions I didn’t fully understand and I can usually get them then.</p>
<p>Oh, I get it, so instead of underlining everything quickly before reading the passage, you simply read the first question and then read up to that point, answer, then read the next question, then read up to that point again?</p>
<p>I’m going to try this from now on. I’m hoping I can stick to this method because it actually is good because it tells you what to look for when you’re reading</p>
<p>Exactly. It’s way quicker than reading the passage then answering questions, it keeps me focused, and I know exactly what I’m looking for. It’s worked way better than the other method for me.</p>
<p>I treat TCB answer explanations for critical reading mostly in the same way I treat their math / writing answer explanations: long and unnecessary.</p>
<p>Just as you might have an alternative method for doing math problems, you could have an alternative for doing critical reading problems, just do whatever works for you</p>
<p>After I tried the underline before you read technique, I knew which parts of the passage I could skip or skim and focused a whole lot better. To answer questions, I read as much as I need around the underline.</p>
<p>I mark the lines specifically (just on the left side by the numbers to show where I should start paying attention) and answer the questions with specific line numbers as I read through. If I can answer a question as soon as I get to it’s line, then great. If not, I leave it and see if the answer can be found within the next few lines. If that doesn’t work, I leave it until I’ve finished all of the other questions and I peruse the lines surrounding (before and after) the specified lines until I can determine the answer. Using NtoriaPrep’s (sp?) method, with practice, for the 24 minute sections you should be able to do a first run-through of the section and have 10-6 minutes left (depending on the difficulty of the passages)
(800 CR on January)</p>