What's the best way to review Reading Comprehension question

[ranma08]

For math questions, I can make flashcards and figure out what I did wrong and write out the process on how to solve the problem. For Vocab questions, I just make flashcards for words I don't know and the question itself.

I don't feel like I'm improving as much on RC questions because I'm not sure how to review and improve. It doesn't seem practical to make flashcards because the problems are contextual.

Any thoughts?

[tommywallach]

Hey Ranma,

Indeed, improving on RC is harder than improving elsewhere on the test. A few thoughts:

1) Make sure you are reading as much as possible in your life (not just on the test). Make sure you're reading whenever you've got free time, and also that the material you're reading is on the hard side (the kind of thing where, if you lose focus, you can't figure out what's going on).

2) Anytime you get a question wrong, figure out exactly what it was that you did wrong. Was it a misread of the question? A misread of the passage? Did you not understand the passage well enough? This may help you tailor your methodology to spend a little bit of extra time wherever you might need it.

3) Are you taking notes while you read? If you're not, you have no technique that you can actually improve at. Consider taking notes (we have methods for it in our book) in some way.

4) Make sure you can explain why EVERY answer choice is wrong. Oftentimes, students only focus on the questions they get wrong, but you better be able to explain the wrong answers even on the questions you get right. Check your reasoning versus the explanations for every answer.

Good luck!

-t