How do you approach a difficult passage with seemingly impenetrable paragraphs?
Welcome to “Land Your Score,” a blog series in which Kaplan instructor Jennifer Land shares key insights and strategies for improving your GMAT performance on Test Day. This week, Jennifer discusses how to approach Reading Comprehension passages using the Kaplan Method.
Processing a difficult GMAT passage
Hello again, GMAT enthusiasts! In this post I am going to show some steps to take to more efficiently process a Reading Comprehension passage.
Here is an example of a difficult GMAT passage. I’ve only included the first paragraph, but we can mine a lot of goodies (points) from it!
Parfleche is the French name for the Plains peoples’ hoemskot ‘eo—an envelope-shaped rawhide container for storing clothes, food, and personal items. The parfleche served not only as a practical and durable storage solution, but also as a decorative object of spiritual significance. Among certain tribes, most notably the Cheyenne and Arapaho, parfleches were decorated by the women’s painting society, whose members among the Cheyenne were known as moneneheo, the Selected Ones. Although similar in their economic and social importance to craftsmen’s guilds in medieval and Renaissance Western Europe, the painting society also had a spiritual or religious nature. The shamanistic society required application for admission and held its members to high artistic and moral standards. The society further displayed its importance by defining aspects of Cheyenne wealth and status.
Wow. If you are not familiar with French or Native American languages, you might already wish you could do something other than read this passage. However, if you approach it the way a Kaplan-trained test-taker does, you will know that the content of the passage hardly matters.
The Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension
In this post we will look at Step 1 of The Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension: Read the passage strategically. Reading strategically means reading for points. On the GMAT you are not reading to learn or retain information; you do not care about any details other than the ones you are asked about!
When reading strategically, pay attention to the structural components of the passage. Remember that the reason why a detail is included is always more important than what the detail is (or means).
Keywords frame the action and details within text, and you can spot them to understand what is happening in a passage, even if you do not understand what the author is talking about.
Mapping the passage
Let’s break this paragraph down line by line so I can show you how this works. On the left is a sentence from the passage, and on the right are the kind of mental notes you should make while reading. You should write as much as you need on your noteboard using abbreviations, since no one but you need understand it; here I am writing my thoughts and scratchwork in full.
| Parfleche is the French name for the Plains peoples’ hoemskot ‘eo—an envelope-shaped rawhide container for storing clothes, food, and personal items. | French word = rawhide container |
| The parfleche served not only as a practical and durable storage solution, but also as a decorative object of spiritual significance. | P was both practical and significant[keywords show contrast: two uses] |
| Among certain tribes, most notably the Cheyenne and Arapaho, parfleches were decorated by the women’s painting society, whose members among the Cheyenne were known as moneneheo, the Selected Ones. | examples of tribes that used P P painted by women these women seem important |
| Although similar in their economic and social importance to craftsmen’s guilds in medieval and Renaissance Western Europe, the painting society also had a spiritual or religious nature. | [keyword shows it seems similar but isn’t] more significance (compared to Europe) |
| The shamanistic society required application for admission and held its members to high artistic and moral standards. | more significance (high standards) |
| The society further displayed its importance by defining aspects of Cheyenne wealth and status. | even more significance (repetition and “further” emphasize importance) |
At the end of the paragraph, you have the beginnings of a guide to the passage. This Passage Map will guide you through even the most difficult language and confusing concepts. In this example, we have boiled Paragraph 1 down to this: P (rawhide container) was practical, but more importantly it was culturally significant.
Next time I will pose a question based on this paragraph and will walk you through using your Passage Map to zero in on the points!
Want to master Reading Comprehension on the GMAT? Visit Kaptest.com/gmat to explore our course options.
The post Land Your Score: Reading Comprehension Passages, Part 1 appeared first on Business School Insider.
