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Hi all, great board. Just wondering if any of you who've aced the GMAT can shed some light on how to really polish up one's reading comprehension skills. I'm currently studying for my GMAT and I really have no problems with any particular section other than reading comp.. I just find it so incredibly boring, at times, that I tend to tune out and many times I'm forced to reread paragraphs to understand them (but this obviously wastes valuable time). Bottom line is this: I can understand that passages and answer the questions quite well if given all the time in the world, but if I'm rushing and pressed for time I tend to screw up quite badly on them. So any of you guys have any tips? Do you maybe take notes, or read the questions 1st then look for the answer?
PS: On the real GMAT how many reading comp. passages, and questions pertaining to them, are there (on average), and when do you usually begin to see them (ie. how far into the verbal section of the test?)
Thanks for your feedback.
PS: On the real GMAT how many reading comp. passages, and questions pertaining to them, are there (on average), and when do you usually begin to see them (ie. how far into the verbal section of the test?)
Thanks for your feedback.
25 Dec 2002, 22:42
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Nick,
easy answer first: you will have 4 RC passages: one will be long, around 70+ and can be as long as 100 lines, usually, this one comes first or second. The second and third passages are medium length - 40-60 lines. The fourth passage is always a short one (at least people say so) which is around 30 lines. There are about 10-13 RC questions and they are spread out 3-4 with each passage.
As to improving your skills, that's a little harder. I don't know if it will help, but I can tell you what I did. (I am an international student and I got a 42 on the verbal). I have read books - as boring as I could tolerate but not as boring as to lose desire to read. I have built a little collection of fiction books I have read in the Books Review Section, if you are interested. It is not nearly what I want it to be, but it has a few good books.
I would try to stay concentrated while reading a passage. I would actually stop after each paragraph and ask myself what I read. Sort of paraphrasing the story. I also asked myself what it can mean - but I was not really concentrating on this thing. As you may have noticed, most of the RC passages are fairly predictible - 2 theories, 2 solutions, analysis of an issue, event, or some historical/political movement and its consequences. So, I would try to sort of predict in advance which one it could be. It does not matter if you guess or not - guessing is not the trick. Thinking about the passage and remembering the main points is the helpful part.
A very important and hard part is to stay concentrated and I think you have mentioned it. I sometimes would reread first sentences of a paragraph. Kaplan mentiones keywords to watch (which is easier than staying concentrated) but I watched only a few, and here is the list: (numbers such as two theories, three reasons, one major cause, etc) and reverses such as however, but, yet) i did not have enought brain power to watch for others.
If you asked me what of that pile above is the most important, I would say stopping after each paragraph and asking yourself what you have just read.
As to my score improvement. I used to miss 50% of the RC questions. I don't know what my level was on the GMAT, but I got a 96th percentile in Verbal.
Good luck, I hope this helps.
easy answer first: you will have 4 RC passages: one will be long, around 70+ and can be as long as 100 lines, usually, this one comes first or second. The second and third passages are medium length - 40-60 lines. The fourth passage is always a short one (at least people say so) which is around 30 lines. There are about 10-13 RC questions and they are spread out 3-4 with each passage.
As to improving your skills, that's a little harder. I don't know if it will help, but I can tell you what I did. (I am an international student and I got a 42 on the verbal). I have read books - as boring as I could tolerate but not as boring as to lose desire to read. I have built a little collection of fiction books I have read in the Books Review Section, if you are interested. It is not nearly what I want it to be, but it has a few good books.
I would try to stay concentrated while reading a passage. I would actually stop after each paragraph and ask myself what I read. Sort of paraphrasing the story. I also asked myself what it can mean - but I was not really concentrating on this thing. As you may have noticed, most of the RC passages are fairly predictible - 2 theories, 2 solutions, analysis of an issue, event, or some historical/political movement and its consequences. So, I would try to sort of predict in advance which one it could be. It does not matter if you guess or not - guessing is not the trick. Thinking about the passage and remembering the main points is the helpful part.
A very important and hard part is to stay concentrated and I think you have mentioned it. I sometimes would reread first sentences of a paragraph. Kaplan mentiones keywords to watch (which is easier than staying concentrated) but I watched only a few, and here is the list: (numbers such as two theories, three reasons, one major cause, etc) and reverses such as however, but, yet) i did not have enought brain power to watch for others.
If you asked me what of that pile above is the most important, I would say stopping after each paragraph and asking yourself what you have just read.
As to my score improvement. I used to miss 50% of the RC questions. I don't know what my level was on the GMAT, but I got a 96th percentile in Verbal.
Good luck, I hope this helps.
thanks for your reply bb.
By the way, have any of you ever noticed the subjective nature of some of the GMAT questions in reading comp. and, especially in critical reasoning? It seems that for about 20% -25% of the critical reaoning questions there is more than one possible answer, logically speaking that is. Therefore, the correct answer in merely only the 'best' answer, but 'best' is a very subjective term. Unlike sentence correction or the math section, where its quite clear where you made a mistake, critical reasoning is very ambiguous. I many times completely disagree with the 'correct' answer even after reading the explanation. Any of you ever experience this? I personally think GMAT/ETS should assign part marks for some of those 'second best' answers in some of the subjective critical reasoning questions.
By the way, have any of you ever noticed the subjective nature of some of the GMAT questions in reading comp. and, especially in critical reasoning? It seems that for about 20% -25% of the critical reaoning questions there is more than one possible answer, logically speaking that is. Therefore, the correct answer in merely only the 'best' answer, but 'best' is a very subjective term. Unlike sentence correction or the math section, where its quite clear where you made a mistake, critical reasoning is very ambiguous. I many times completely disagree with the 'correct' answer even after reading the explanation. Any of you ever experience this? I personally think GMAT/ETS should assign part marks for some of those 'second best' answers in some of the subjective critical reasoning questions.
