{"id":34015,"date":"2016-08-02T08:30:46","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T15:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/land-your-score-reading-comprehension\/"},"modified":"2016-08-02T08:30:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T15:30:46","slug":"land-your-score-reading-comprehension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/land-your-score-reading-comprehension\/","title":{"rendered":"Land Your Score: Reading Comprehension"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Here\u2019s<\/a><\/p>\n

Jennifer Land offers strategic reading tips for the GMAT.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Most <\/span>GMAT<\/span><\/a> preppers do not spend much time practicing Reading Comprehension\u2014and yet, it\u2019s a great place to snag some easy Verbal points if you give it a little attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Use strategic reading<\/strong><\/p>\n

GMAT <\/span>Reading Comprehension<\/span><\/a> passages follow fairly predictable patterns. Kaplan students know that the key to mastering Reading Comprehension is <\/span>strategic reading<\/span><\/a>. 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading strategically means anticipating (predicting) what\u2019s going to happen next. For example, when you see the word \u201chowever,\u201d 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, \u201cYou\u2019d rather be surprised than asleep on Test Day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Find the \u201cTSP\u201d of the Reading Comprehension passage<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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\u2019s its topic. You usually know a passage\u2019s topic by the second sentence. When you\u2019ve got it, jot it down on your noteboard.<\/span><\/p>\n

T: Reading Comprehension<\/span><\/p>\n

S:<\/span><\/p>\n

P:<\/span><\/p>\n

The scope (S) is a bit trickier to define, but it is very important. A passage\u2019s 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\u2019m not talking about everything you could imagine about Reading Comprehension; I\u2019m 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).<\/span><\/p>\n

T: Reading Comprehension<\/span><\/p>\n

S: strategic reading<\/span><\/p>\n

P: <\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, note the author\u2019s 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\u2019s purpose and write that down as well. Here, my purpose is to advocate the use of strategic reading on Test Day.<\/span><\/p>\n

T: Reading Comprehension<\/span><\/p>\n

S: strategic reading<\/span><\/p>\n

P: to advocate <\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve 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 <\/span>to advocate<\/b> the use of <\/span>strategic reading<\/b> when tackling <\/span>Reading Comprehension<\/b> on <\/span>Test Day<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

See the results on Test Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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\u2019s 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 \u201cto describe,\u201d you can throw out answer choices that begin with \u201cto argue,\u201d \u201cto criticize,\u201d or \u201cto advocate.\u201d Eliminate them without reading anything more than the verb.<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u201cpossible subjects\u201d for passages would be beyond the scope, because I addressed strategic reading, not subject areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

So stay engaged, anticipate, and note each passage\u2019s topic, scope, and purpose. You will see an increase in accuracy, which means an increase in points. That\u2019s the purpose of preparing for the GMAT, after all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Want to master Reading Comprehension passages? Explore our <\/span><\/i>GMAT prep course options and class schedules<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The post Land Your Score: Reading Comprehension<\/a> appeared first on Business School Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Land offers strategic reading tips for the GMAT. Most GMAT preppers do not spend much time practicing Reading Comprehension\u2014and yet, it\u2019s a great place to snag some easy Verbal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,558,243,940],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat","category-kaplan-blog","category-blog","category-gmat-prep-gmat","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34015","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\/120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}