How fast should my reading speed be for a competitive score at the reading comprehension section?

[Faris_]

Hi,
Am taking my DAT in summer next year and I was wondering how fast should I be reading to handle the reading comprehension section adequately. English is my second language but I've been in the US for 6 years and most of my communication has been in English especially when I served in the army for 4 years but I still feel am a slow reader. I'm reading about two articles a day from SA and averaging about 163 WPM with about 95% comprehension. What did you do to prepare for this section and did reading SA actually help comes test time? What do you think is a good WPM average if you know?

Your input will be very much appreciated. Thanks!

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[doctor-strange]

What did you do to prepare for this section and did reading SA actually help comes test time?

I personally did exactly what you are doing right now! I read 2 articles a day, every day, for ~3 weeks and I found it improved my speed and ability to comprehend.

I would highly suggest trying a whole bunch of different RC strategies after you get comfortable reading those articles, though. Like the "search and destroy" method typically saves time, but lessens comprehension, while the "vanilla" method takes more time, but allows you to understand the majority of the article.

Seeing as you won't be taking the test for another year, what you're doing rn is perfectly fine.

 

[Faris_]

I personally did exactly what you are doing right now! I read 2 articles a day, every day, for ~3 weeks and I found it improved my speed and ability to comprehend.

I would highly suggest trying a whole bunch of different RC strategies after you get comfortable reading those articles, though. Like the "search and destroy" method typically saves time, but lessens comprehension, while the "vanilla" method takes more time, but allows you to understand the majority of the article.

Seeing as you won't be taking the test for another year, what you're doing rn is perfectly fine.

Am planning on reading a couple articles every day until I take the test next year. I honestly thought I was doing good but I looked at the average of the adult reading speed and according to some website its over 300 WPM and I didn't feel so hot after that. For now am aiming for vanilla method and I'll start doing practice RC exams and see where am at in a couple of weeks maybe. Thanks for the insight!

 

[bribri01]

I tried to take no more than 6 to 8 minutes to read each article on the DAT. I read the whole article before proceeding to the questions, as that worked best for me.

 

[ChemistryDentist]

Hi,
Am taking my DAT in summer next year and I was wondering how fast should I be reading to handle the reading comprehension section adequately. English is my second language but I've been in the US for 6 years and most of my communication has been in English especially when I served in the army for 4 years but I still feel am a slow reader. I'm reading about two articles a day from SA and averaging about 163 WPM with about 95% comprehension. What did you do to prepare for this section and did reading SA actually help comes test time? What do you think is a good WPM average if you know?

Your input will be very much appreciated. Thanks!

I tried to take no more than 6 to 8 minutes to read each article on the DAT. I read the whole article before proceeding to the questions, as that worked best for me.

I'm not sure of an exact amount of time I spent reading, but I figure it was about the same. I always read the passage all the way through and highlighted important information before answering the questions. Search and Destroy won't work all the time, so this was the best bet. In terms of speed, just read read read! ScienceDaily is a great resource for random articles--Dr. Romano posts them every day in his Facebook group too.

 

[Rambunctious]

I'm not sure of an exact amount of time I spent reading, but I figure it was about the same. I always read the passage all the way through and highlighted important information before answering the questions. Search and Destroy won't work all the time, so this was the best bet. In terms of speed, just read read read! ScienceDaily is a great resource for random articles--Dr. Romano posts them every day in his Facebook group too.

i agree, s&d should not be the only method used