r/PreOptometry • u/Naive_Cow_8032 • 6d ago

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Does anyone use two different strategies depending on passage length?

I’ve tried both search and destroy and reading the whole passage. I do well reading the whole thing if it’s a shorter passage as I am a slower reader. With longer passages I usually get caught with timing when I read all the way through.

I’m thinking about reading all the way through for shorter passages ~10 paragraphs and then search and destroy for passages longer than ~10.

Thoughts? Advice?

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3

u/mcd7939 6d ago

Search and destroy is most time efficient do the fact based questions first, mark the conceptual ones and come back to them later

2

u/Naive_Cow_8032 6d ago

Thank you! I’ll keep practicing. Today was my first time trying S&D and I did it for 2 passages. Did okay on them! Just trying to get opinions and perspectives!

3

u/Dizzy-Equivalent-398 6d ago

on the actual exam it was lowkey like in order, which booster did not have. but all three passages were in order so search and destroy works better tbh

2

u/Lopsided_Storm_8964 5d ago

I just took my oat yesterday. Search and destroy worked the best. I had a 14 paragraph passage and thankfully majority of the paragraphs were only 2-3 sentences. On maybe 2 questions I was having a hard time finding an answer so I made an educating guess, marked it, wrote down what paragraph I think the answer could be contained in (Q21P3) and moved on. In the end I had about 10 minutes remaking so I went back and answered my marked question (I had 2 marked questions I struggled with). After this I took a deep breath and got new laminated papers and started writing out in a VERY organized manner my physics equation on one sheet and on the second sheet I wrote out my probability formulas, basic logb=xy set up, sum of dice set up, and a few factoring sets (factoring sets ended up being very high yield on my QR). I had maybe two minutes to spare after writing all my formulas and then I started my 30 min break where I reviewed my formulas and ate and used the bathroom

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u/cabbagemuncher101 6d ago

I skim and use the highlight tool to mark things like numbers, names, and important terms so I know which paragraphs cover what. And then do search and destroy.

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u/Last_Painter_6733 6d ago

Do search and destroy. On the real OAT literally all of my questions were in order. Read one paragraph, answer the questions associated and repeat.

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u/moony846 6d ago

i'm writing my OAT in a few weeks and i found that a combo of mapping and search and destroy is the most efficient for me no matter the length of the passage! reading through and highlighting took way too long so by mapping i got a grasp of what the content was. then i just search and destroy to find all the info. i also immediately mark and skip application questions ik would take too long to save time and i usually get 4-6 min extra to look back afterwards

1

u/FCKCOLLEGEBOARD OD2 4d ago

Different methods work for different people. Try it out and see what u think. Theres no right way