Question on Question Order

[German.Steel]

I read an article suggesting you should tackle the easier non-inference, specific reference type of questions first ("according to the passage....", "the passage contains information sufficient to answer which one of the following....", etc.).

I guess the idea is, the specific details should be fresher in your memory if you attack them right after reading, and presumably you can get them out of the way quickly and have more time available for the typically more challenging inference/synthesis questions.

Any input on this strategy? Or do you suggest simply going in order?

Thanks in advance!!!

[Adam Tyson]

I'm not a fan of that strategy myself, German.Steel, in part because I think you should be reading the passage more for the big picture ideas than for the details. In other words, when you are done reading the passage you should be prepared to immediately answer big questions like "what is the main point" and "what is the author's tone" and "what was the purpose of the passage." You actually should not be prepared to answer many detail-based questions, because if you are it means you took too long reading the passage and focused to much on memorizing the subject matter and not enough on getting the overall gist. When it comes to the details, you should be answering those questions not from memory, but by looking back in the passage to find the evidence and creating a prephrase! And how do you know where to look? By paying attention to the overall structure of the passage, another "big picture" concept.

My advice is to do the questions in order, and to plan on doing research on most of the questions. Give yourself about two minutes to read the passage, and that leaves you roughly one minute per question, which is actually a lot of time to spend looking up those details when you need them.