Very very scared of RC

Ruhi have you tried speed reading. I found this pretty awesome book on speed reading. A very thin, to the point book which acutually helped me increase my comprehension and reading by at least 30 words a minute. It shows you a couple of way to read and helps you undo some of the way we've been programmed to read. Try it out. Go to barnes and ask for a book on speed reading. I think it should help a lot from the approach side.Thanks'

This works AMAZINGLY well.

I STRONGLY urge everyone to try this method.

Why does it work? The GMAT passages are intended to be riddled with information you don't need, details and technical terms which confuse you, and which the questions will often refer back to.

Its very easy to read a passage, see some answer choices and say "Hey yea I remember reading about that detail" and pick the answer choice. For general questions that address things such as "The author's primary point" - they often will have one option that is similar to the last paragraph - its usually what is most fresh in your mind - and typically, thats what sticks out. It's almost always wrong.

Here is the way to tackle RC - with this method I was able to jump from 50% right to 80 to 90% right.

Read the entire first paragraph, rewriting each sentence in your own words.

Read the topic sentence of each subsequent paragraph and rewrite it in your own words. DO NOT READ THE ENTIRE PARAGRAPH. Skim it, looking for key words - names, dates, technical terms. Write these down underneath the paragraph.

Do the same for each subsequent paragraph.

NOTE THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE ACTUALLY READ THE PASSAGE. You've really only read the first and maybe second sentences of each paragraph other than the first.

This eliminates all the extra detail in each paragraph from your mind. You will be AMAZED at how much easier this makes answering questions like "The author would most agree with" or "The primary point of the passage is..."

So why did you write down those technical terms, names etc? To answer those specific questions like "Dr. Dumass research suggests which of the following _______" ?

Now, if you wrote down the key words in each paragraph, finding Dr. Dumass, will take just a few seconds of skimming. You then read the sentence preceding and following the reference and the answer is always right there.

Try it.

yes this really does work ... i use a similar strategy when doing RC

Another place to look for help on this is PrepForTests.com's free GMAT reading comprehension tutorial which takes you through general strategies for approaching RC questions and then shows you how to tackle the main types of RC questions you will face.

link is good...
thanks!!!!!!!

The strategy of paraphrasing all of the first paragraph, paraphrasing each topic sentence of the rest of the paragraphs and skimming for key words is one that Manhattan GMAT promotes. MGMAT actually suggests that the strategy should change depending on the length of the passage. If it's long, use the above strategy. If it's short, you can read the passage in detail.

As for timing, it suggests the following formula:

Total time to spend = (# of questions) x 2 mins.
Total time to spend on reading and note-taking = Total time to spend / 2
Time for each question = 1 min.

Hope that helps!

Great thread guys. I haven't really started practicing RC yet. But unlike what a lot of people have mentioned it seems to me that it is the most important areas on GMAT.

Does anyone have a link to the LSAT problems mentioned here?

I will keep you posted on my progress.

Posted from my mobile device