Timing

[cd1010]

Hello -- What would be a good target to aim for in terms of timing with reading comprehension passages? How many minutes to read the passage, and how many seconds per question? I'm realizing this varies depending on the number of questions, but I just want to know where I need to be more aggressive with the time.

My timing is still kind of up and down. Mostly, I think im in the 10 minute range, but it can go up to about 12 minutes. I just did a difficult science passage where I spent close to 5 minutes on the passage (yikes!). I answered 3 questions around 30 seconds, 1 question took me over a minute, and then one difficult question took me 2 minutes. I'm still doing the classes, so I'm trying to not stress out too much over my timing, but at the same time trying to start to think about it.

[Luke Haqq]

Hi cd1010!

As I'm sure you're aware, you have about 8 minutes and 45 seconds per passage, though as you note, you might want to apportion time differently based on the things like the number of questions. But that's at least a good parameter in terms of a goal of how long you spend on each passage and the accompanying questions.

In terms of how long you should spend on each passage independent of the questions, I think that a point worth emphasizing is that people often rush too quickly to the questions. You obviously don't want to dwell too long on reading each passage or you might run out of time. But many students don't pause to reflect on what they read and don't take the time to apply tools like the VIEWSTAMP analysis when approaching passages, and instead they go straight to the questions. Pausing to think about that analysis, even if takes, say, 10 or 20 seconds, could make a big difference in your preparedness for tackling the questions. It could very well be the case that you might spend a majority of the 8 minutes and 45 seconds reading the passage (e.g., perhaps 5 minutes of it), but that extra time spent understanding the passage could make the questions much quicker and easier to answer.