Jennifer Land offers strategic reading tips for the GMAT.
Most GMAT preppers do not spend much time practicing Reading Comprehension—and yet, it’s a great place to snag some easy Verbal points if you give it a little attention.
Use strategic reading
GMAT Reading Comprehension passages follow fairly predictable patterns. Kaplan students know that the key to mastering Reading Comprehension is strategic reading. This involves active participation for two reasons: The reader stays focused on the passage, and the reader stays AWAKE. Both of these things are essential to landing the score you need.
Reading strategically means anticipating (predicting) what’s going to happen next. For example, when you see the word “however,” you can predict that a contrast or contradiction is coming. Most of the time you will be correct, although sometimes you may be surprised. As Boris Dvorkin, one of my fellow Kaplan teachers, explains it, “You’d rather be surprised than asleep on Test Day.”
Find the “TSP” of the Reading Comprehension passage
Strategic reading also involves identifying the topic, scope, and purpose of the passage. The topic (T) is usually easy to spot; this blog post, for example, is about Reading Comprehension, so that’s its topic. You usually know a passage’s topic by the second sentence. When you’ve got it, jot it down on your noteboard.
T: Reading Comprehension
S:
P:
The scope (S) is a bit trickier to define, but it is very important. A passage’s scope is more specific than its topic. Identifying scope puts parameters on the topic and helps you rule out wrong answer choices. If the topic of this post is Reading Comprehension, its scope is strategic reading. I’m not talking about everything you could imagine about Reading Comprehension; I’m talking only about the most efficient way to read a passage. My topic is Reading Comprehension (a broad category of GMAT questions), and my scope is strategic reading (an approach to use on Test Day).
T: Reading Comprehension
S: strategic reading
P:
Lastly, note the author’s purpose (P) for writing the passage. Is the author neutral, merely describing a phenomenon or theory? Does she take a position? An author might argue for (advocate) or against (rebut/criticize) something. Choose a verb that describes the author’s purpose and write that down as well. Here, my purpose is to advocate the use of strategic reading on Test Day.
T: Reading Comprehension
S: strategic reading
P: to advocate
When you’ve nailed down topic, scope, and purpose, you can read the list backwards to make a sentence that sums up the passage. This post was written to advocate the use of strategic reading when tackling Reading Comprehension on Test Day.
See the results on Test Day
Why is this necessary? When you get to the questions at the end of a passage, you will likely see a question asking about the passage’s primary purpose. Because you have nailed down the purpose while reading strategically, all you need to do is scan the answer choices; they always begin with infinitive verbs. So if you determined the author was neutral and your purpose verb was “to describe,” you can throw out answer choices that begin with “to argue,” “to criticize,” or “to advocate.” Eliminate them without reading anything more than the verb.
You also will see answer choices throughout the questions that are beyond the scope of the passage. If there were questions associated with this post, something about “possible subjects” for passages would be beyond the scope, because I addressed strategic reading, not subject areas.
So stay engaged, anticipate, and note each passage’s topic, scope, and purpose. You will see an increase in accuracy, which means an increase in points. That’s the purpose of preparing for the GMAT, after all.
Want to master Reading Comprehension passages? Explore our GMAT prep course options and class schedules.
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