passage first vs. questions first

lawyer

1.which one should we follow, to read passage first or questions first?

2. whether to choose which passage to read in the first place? for example, the easier ones, the more familiar ones, the one which more questions? Or just follow the order.

3. to read three passages real good and sort of skim and scan the last passage to take a chance or to average the time in each passage to about 8.5 minutes?

thx.

forestsky

It depends on your ability of reading and comprehension of complex texts with accuracy and insights. Personally, I am still right now reading the whole stuff first, and then answer the question. I will try other sequences later. You should also do some experiments and find out by yourself which one is suitable for you.

chelseayang

I would definitely recommend that you read the passage first.reading the question first would distract you when you go on to the passage, and I don't think you still remember much of the question when you go through the dense passage. as i know, Powerscore and Testmasters also recommend so. And Cracking the LSAT used to advise on scanning the qeustions first, which is still under attack from TM and PS.

to set you own order of priority in choosing which passage to do first is most people would advise you to do, if you have time issue in RC.

As to your third question, my personal preference is to make sure that i get a good accuracy with the first three passages, and see what i can do with the last one. if you set a strict time limit of 8 mints for each of the passages , you would very likely end up with messing up all the passages if the best you can do is to finish one passage in 10 minutes.

lawyer

thanks for your advice,chelseayang and forestsky. in the past one month, i tried every means possible and saw my improvement along the time.You are right, Chelseayang, go for reading first. i read every passage first before i go to the questions. right now i can keep my every passage reading within 2.5 to 3 minutes without sacrificing my understanding and memorization. if i do the questions with great care, i have to use up to 9 minutes for each passage which leaves me around 7 minutes for the last passage.(that is not bad, eh?) well, i can still finish the last one but of course without much composure. right now i am still experimenting out the best way to balance the four passages.

i came across a new question though. reading really depends a lot on the nature of the passage. my average mistakes right now are 6 but it is not uncommon to go up to 8. though i am quite confident in my LR and Game, I still can't stand 8 mistakes to ensure 170. i think it is because i haven't exhausted the exploration of all topics. i just need more time, i reckon.

thanks again and i hope there will be more exchange of ideas and more posts in reading section. seems to me that people are avoiding the most difficult section.

jeremyang

1.passages first



2.the 1st one is the easiest. For the rest,normally which one has fewest questions is the hardest one.  



3Time is usually an issue of RC for non-English test takers.



If you read too fast, you will have a hard time to recall the exact
location of those detail questions even though you probably can get a
good picture of the whole article.



If you read within a lower speed and try to understand everything, you
will have limited time to finish the questions and sometimes it will
confuse the understanding of the whole article.



I agree with chelsea's advice. Take you time with the the first 3 articles and try to finish in 28-30 minutes without wrongs.



And for the last one, maybe you can think of another way to attack it 'cause you dont have enough time to read.



Use a quicker speed than normal to read the article and try to know
MP/orgnization/tone.  Then do the preceding questions first.
For the rest do it as much as you can or just guess it.



Just my 0.02.