The reading comprehension part of the OAT is a category you cannot “study” for. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t valuable tips that will make the section easier and boost your score!
- Time yourself. You have 3 passages, 40 questions in 50 minutes. If you are finding yourself still on passage 1 by the halfway point, you are doing it wrong!
- Use your whiteboard and dry erase pen! For each article, number your whiteboard to how many paragraphs there are in each article. As you read the article (and each paragraph), jot down a short summary/keywords of relevance to the paragraph. For example, if presented about an article on stem cells, and the first paragraph talked about the discovery of stem cells, uses back in the day e.t.c. you might write down history of stem cells under that first paragraph. You keep doing this for every paragraph of the article, simply writing down the key points. THEN, once the article is fully read, go back to the questions. See what the question is asking for, locate it on your whiteboard and go to the paragraph number it corresponds to and find the answer. This technique basically employs a read-then-answer technique, but it is very time efficient as it allows one to locate the paragraph the answer is in 95% of the time. The other 5% is from questions that ask about the article as a whole (e.x. opinion of author, tone of the article e.t.c.).
- Using the technique above, read the first question before you begin reading the article. That way as you read the article (and take notes on each paragraph), you know if you encounter information the first question asked, you can answer it and get that question out of the way passively. As you do this, read the second question before resuming reading the article in hopes of encountering it passively again.
- Each question is worth the same points. If you encounter a question that you find yourself spending more than 30 seconds finding/answering, mark it and skip! There will be easier questions down the road for the same (or different article) that you can knockout and get easy points. Once you’ve read and noted all 3 articles, and answered the straightforward questions, then use your last few minutes you have left to work on those marked questions. If you are running out of time, guess on those questions and keep moving. There is no penalty for wrong answers.
- There is no pattern in article difficulty. Some say the second is harder, some say it is the easier. It is different for each person as the article topics vary from person to person. You might just get lucky and get an article that is of interest or relevance to you!
- Practice practice practice! While you cannot study for the RC, practicing will help make the process comfortable for you on exam date as it will seem routine, just a different set of articles. Kaplan and most practice exams offer great RC articles that are very similar to the articles (and questions) seen on the real OAT.
I personally used all of the above tips and managed a 350 on the RC of the OAT. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to send an email to admin@oatquestionoftheday.net
Good luck!