{"id":15343,"date":"2012-11-19T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-19T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/?p=15343"},"modified":"2012-11-08T14:36:12","modified_gmt":"2012-11-08T21:36:12","slug":"gmat-reading-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/gmat-reading-list\/","title":{"rendered":"GMAT Reading List"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Learn what to read now to best prepare yourself for GMAT Reading Comprehension<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, one of the very best ways to prepare for GMAT\u00a0Reading Comprehension<\/a>\u00a0is simply to read, preferably from a high-quality reading list of GMAT-style material.\u00a0 If you have only a few weeks between now and the GMAT, you probably should stick to GMAT RC passages for practice.\u00a0 If, though, you have several months between now and your GMAT, you can afford to invest time in reading for the GMAT.\u00a0 If you don't like to read, that is all the more reason why you have to read, to get your mind in shape for the reading you will have to do on the GMAT.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What to read for the GMAT<\/h2>\n

First of all, what subject areas would be relevant?\u00a0 All GMAT Reading Comprehension passages fall into one of four areas<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Physical Sciences<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Biological Sciences<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Social Sciences<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Business<\/p>\n

A good reading plan for the GMAT should cover all four of these areas, and should all be material written at a high level of English usage.\u00a0 While reading a Wikipedia article about a science topic you don't understand might stretch your mind, there's no guarantee the grammar or the choice of vocabulary will be of the highest quality.<\/p>\n

The easiest area for which to make a recommendation is business, and there are more Reading Comprehension passages on this in the OG than on any of the other three categories.\u00a0 If you are planning to go to Business school, get an MBA, and pursue a corporate career, you already should be reading the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0newspaper every day and the\u00a0Economist<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>magazine every week.\u00a0 If you have never taken economics, it would be worthwhile to get either an Economics text book or some other introductory books, such as\u00a0Yoram Bauman<\/a>'s\u00a0Cartoon Introductions to\u00a0<\/em>Micro<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Macroeconomics<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Those latter two books may not be at the highest level of English usage, but if you are lacking a strong background in economics, those books would be an excellent way to catch up.<\/p>\n

For both the physical and biological sciences,\u00a0Scientific American<\/em>\u00a0is an excellent source.\u00a0 If you have a relative weak background in the natural sciences in general, pushing yourself through\u00a0Scientific American<\/em>\u00a0articles could be excellent training for wrestling with similar passage on the GMAT.\u00a0 If you are more ambitious, get your hands on a textbook (borrow from a friend or from the library) and force yourself to read a couple chapters.<\/p>\n

For the social sciences, unfortunately most popularly available publications (e.g.\u00a0Psychology Today<\/em>) are not nearly academic enough.\u00a0 Occasionally, the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0will cover an academic social science issue; in particular, if the Sunday NYT\u00a0Book Review<\/em>\u00a0reviews a book about social science, that can be good material to read.\u00a0 Here, unfortunately, there is no analog to the Economist magazine or Scientific American.\u00a0 If you really want social science reading practice, I have to banish you to the academic journals.\u00a0 Go to a good academic library, and peruse the highly respected social science journals: yes, this will be very dry and cerebral, but if you can stomach these, then anything the GMAT throws at you will seem easy.\u00a0 You may also try this\u00a0open access listing of online academic journals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How to read for the GMAT<\/h2>\n

You know a question the GMAT Reading Comprehension almost invariably asks is the \"main idea\" question, so whatever you read, you should constantly be in the habit of summarizing the main idea(s) and the roles of each paragraph.\u00a0 That's a bare minimum.<\/p>\n

Ideally, you will find a GMAT reading partner.\u00a0 Then, if both of you struggle through the same article, you can quiz each other on the main idea, you can discuss points of view and tone and details.\u00a0 If you are very ambitious, you can every start to write full practice GMAT Reading Comprehension for each other.\u00a0 (If you practice having to create four tempting and credible-sounding wrong answers for each question you write, that process will give you great insight into the patterns that the GMAT uses in crafting its\u00a0wrong answers<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here's a practice social science GMAT Reading Comprehension question:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0https:\/\/gmat.magoosh.com\/questions\/1215<\/a><\/p>\n

This post was written by Mike McGarry, GMAT expert at Magoosh<\/a>, and originally posted here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn what to read now to best prepare yourself for GMAT Reading Comprehension Not surprisingly, one of the very best ways to prepare for GMAT\u00a0Reading Comprehension\u00a0is simply to read, preferably…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,783,243,720,735],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-magoosh-blog","category-blog","category-reading-comprehension-gmat","category-verbal-gmat-blog","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15345,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15343\/revisions\/15345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}