- Joined
- Jul 29, 2013
- Messages
- 49
- Reaction score
- 9
I've finished every passage in the EK 101 book (except for the last one, test 14), I've reviewed every wrong answer, and I have improved by approximately 3 points (I score about 11 now). But I am VERY inconsistent and not confident in my VR abilities! Some passages I get about 3 wrong, some I get none wrong, and some I get only one correct. I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. ((PLEASE tell me what I should do, the EK tips aren't sufficient for me.))
Here's my method that I use for every passage:
1.) I do all passages in the exact order they are in.
2.) I read the entire passage as thoroughly as I can with the following in mind: what is this author trying to tell me? What does he/she believe? Are there any contradictions/discrepancies? If there are comparisons made in the passage, what are the differences? (I spend more time reading the passage, so approx. 5 min on reading)
3.) I begin the questions in the exact order they are in and emphasize not looking back at the psg unless absolutely necessary (ie. "which one of the following is not elaborated on with an example?"). I've noticed that the answers for most questions tend to be variations of whatever the main idea is. So I won't look back at a psg just because the question happened to refer to lines X-Z (because going to those lines is sometimes not helpful and wastes precious time).
4.) About 80% of the time I can narrow down the choices to 2 answers and I pick the one that is most relevant to the thesis.
5.) If I happen to have an extra minute or 30 sec, I will go over a question I was unsure of and will return to the psg for textual support.
My Problems:
1.) Some passages are dense, boring, or simply have so much circumlocution that I can't figure out the thesis! After reading I will think "Okay, I think this passage was about China's government... but maybe it was about their government's economic spending plan, or maybe about political insecurity, oh my god, I don't know!" And BOOM, I get 2 correct out of 6 questions, and those 2 were lucky guesses. What should I do!?
2.) The worst of the worst. These are the passages I successfully fool myself into thinking I understand, but I don't. They're the sucker punches to my morale and I don't feel it until after I check the answer key (after which I find my whopping one or zero correct and consider a career change). Perhaps I focused too much on one paragraph that threw off my perception of the passage as a whole?
3.) Questions such as "What is implicit to this passage?", "What assumptions can be made"? I often get these wrong since the answers usually aren't textual references.
4.) Questions such as "Which of the following would the author be most discrepant with? Or the author would disagree with all of the following EXCEPT..?"
Please offer any insight as to what you do because I'm taking this monster of a test on August 21st so I need to become more consistent.
Here's my method that I use for every passage:
1.) I do all passages in the exact order they are in.
2.) I read the entire passage as thoroughly as I can with the following in mind: what is this author trying to tell me? What does he/she believe? Are there any contradictions/discrepancies? If there are comparisons made in the passage, what are the differences? (I spend more time reading the passage, so approx. 5 min on reading)
3.) I begin the questions in the exact order they are in and emphasize not looking back at the psg unless absolutely necessary (ie. "which one of the following is not elaborated on with an example?"). I've noticed that the answers for most questions tend to be variations of whatever the main idea is. So I won't look back at a psg just because the question happened to refer to lines X-Z (because going to those lines is sometimes not helpful and wastes precious time).
4.) About 80% of the time I can narrow down the choices to 2 answers and I pick the one that is most relevant to the thesis.
5.) If I happen to have an extra minute or 30 sec, I will go over a question I was unsure of and will return to the psg for textual support.
My Problems:
1.) Some passages are dense, boring, or simply have so much circumlocution that I can't figure out the thesis! After reading I will think "Okay, I think this passage was about China's government... but maybe it was about their government's economic spending plan, or maybe about political insecurity, oh my god, I don't know!" And BOOM, I get 2 correct out of 6 questions, and those 2 were lucky guesses. What should I do!?
2.) The worst of the worst. These are the passages I successfully fool myself into thinking I understand, but I don't. They're the sucker punches to my morale and I don't feel it until after I check the answer key (after which I find my whopping one or zero correct and consider a career change). Perhaps I focused too much on one paragraph that threw off my perception of the passage as a whole?
3.) Questions such as "What is implicit to this passage?", "What assumptions can be made"? I often get these wrong since the answers usually aren't textual references.
4.) Questions such as "Which of the following would the author be most discrepant with? Or the author would disagree with all of the following EXCEPT..?"
Please offer any insight as to what you do because I'm taking this monster of a test on August 21st so I need to become more consistent.