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01 Sep 2015, 11:45
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Dear Mike
Dear Users
I am writing here regarding Reading Comprehension (for non native). Yes especially for non native... I know, some say, you do not really have to understand the content of the passage in order to answer the questions. However, it is very distracting when you read a passage about e.g. biology or history with plenty of words you do not understand. How do you tackle this problem? Learning endless lists of vocabulary or reading Economist, GEO, Financial Times etc. in order to get used to those topics?
I now went through Economist and Manhattan for Reading Comprehension. Their approach is quite similiar imo. Economist recommends to always first perform a so called "initial reading" i.e. reading the first 1-2 sentences of each paragraph and taking notes. However I have figured out, that this strategy does only suit me when I feel that I master the content (e.g. finance topics which i master asleep). But as soon as there is a annoying topic from history, human sciences to which I am not really used to, I am starting to sweat and getting nervous and hence wasting time and finally answering the question mostly wrong.
Is there anything you could recommend for such a student except the points I already mentioned?
Looking forward to hear from you mikemcgarry and all!
Dear Users
I am writing here regarding Reading Comprehension (for non native). Yes especially for non native... I know, some say, you do not really have to understand the content of the passage in order to answer the questions. However, it is very distracting when you read a passage about e.g. biology or history with plenty of words you do not understand. How do you tackle this problem? Learning endless lists of vocabulary or reading Economist, GEO, Financial Times etc. in order to get used to those topics?
I now went through Economist and Manhattan for Reading Comprehension. Their approach is quite similiar imo. Economist recommends to always first perform a so called "initial reading" i.e. reading the first 1-2 sentences of each paragraph and taking notes. However I have figured out, that this strategy does only suit me when I feel that I master the content (e.g. finance topics which i master asleep). But as soon as there is a annoying topic from history, human sciences to which I am not really used to, I am starting to sweat and getting nervous and hence wasting time and finally answering the question mostly wrong.
Is there anything you could recommend for such a student except the points I already mentioned?
Looking forward to hear from you mikemcgarry and all!
02 Sep 2015, 16:07
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reto
Dear Mike
Dear Users
I am writing here regarding Reading Comprehension (for non native). Yes especially for non native... I know, some say, you do not really have to understand the content of the passage in order to answer the questions. However, it is very distracting when you read a passage about e.g. biology or history with plenty of words you do not understand. How do you tackle this problem? Learning endless lists of vocabulary or reading Economist, GEO, Financial Times etc. in order to get used to those topics?
I now went through Economist and Manhattan for Reading Comprehension. Their approach is quite similiar imo. Economist recommends to always first perform a so called "initial reading" i.e. reading the first 1-2 sentences of each paragraph and taking notes. However I have figured out, that this strategy does only suit me when I feel that I master the content (e.g. finance topics which i master asleep). But as soon as there is a annoying topic from history, human sciences to which I am not really used to, I am starting to sweat and getting nervous and hence wasting time and finally answering the question mostly wrong.
Is there anything you could recommend for such a student except the points I already mentioned?
Looking forward to hear from you mikemcgarry and all!
Dear reto,Dear Users
I am writing here regarding Reading Comprehension (for non native). Yes especially for non native... I know, some say, you do not really have to understand the content of the passage in order to answer the questions. However, it is very distracting when you read a passage about e.g. biology or history with plenty of words you do not understand. How do you tackle this problem? Learning endless lists of vocabulary or reading Economist, GEO, Financial Times etc. in order to get used to those topics?
I now went through Economist and Manhattan for Reading Comprehension. Their approach is quite similiar imo. Economist recommends to always first perform a so called "initial reading" i.e. reading the first 1-2 sentences of each paragraph and taking notes. However I have figured out, that this strategy does only suit me when I feel that I master the content (e.g. finance topics which i master asleep). But as soon as there is a annoying topic from history, human sciences to which I am not really used to, I am starting to sweat and getting nervous and hence wasting time and finally answering the question mostly wrong.
Is there anything you could recommend for such a student except the points I already mentioned?
Looking forward to hear from you mikemcgarry and all!
I'm happy to respond, my friend.
First of all, let me introduce a series of blog articles:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/strategies ... ion-types/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/how-to-stu ... rehension/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-rc-el ... g-answers/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-readi ... ully-once/
You will notice, particularly in that last article, Magoosh recommends a different strategy than the "initial reading" strategy that other companies recommend. We recommend that you read the passage once carefully. We say your job is to "map, don't memorize" --- that is, get the gist of the flow of the argument, the back and forth, although you don't have to memorize every detail, because you can go back to look at a particular detail if you know where it is. Incidentally, in the Magoosh product, we have a fantastic series of lessons on the RC questions.
I also think that, especially a non-native person, the very best preparation is to read. Yes, read the economical news (Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Economist, The Financial Times, etc.)--- that's good for the business passages. You also should be reading Scientific American regularly, to build your stamina with science articles; in reading these articles, you will get familiar with the basic science terminology. You don't have to know a lot of science. For example, in the USA, high school students typically take an introductory year of biology, then chemistry, then physics. I don't know whether you took introductory years of those sciences when you were in the equivalent of secondary school. Think about what would be covered in first year biology (a cell, metabolism, photosynthesis, etc.), first year chemistry (atom, molecule, ion, chemical bond, etc.), and first year physics (force, mass, momentum, voltage, current, wavelength, etc.) It is good to be comfortable with these terms in English: perhaps you already know all of this thoroughly in your native language, but you need to be comfortable with these terms in English for the GMAT. Notice that GMAT RC science passages sometimes introduce some more abstruse scientific terms, but typically, the passage defines these terms----these terms are brand new even to most native speakers!!
For truly sophisticated non-science writing, see the New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly. The New York Times is good for general articles: the Sunday Book Review is a particular good place to do some social science reading. I would say that a non-native speaker who struggles with RC should be doing at least a hour a day of pure reading --- that's a hour over and above any GMAT preparations. If you want an outstanding GMAT score, then this will require an outstanding effort.
I will say that, believe it or not, the attitude you bring toward reading in general and the GMAT RC in particular, has a huge effect on how much you get from the passage. See this blog:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/curiosity- ... n-success/
This is also an important blog: I said some of this already in this response, but there are several important points here:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/how-to-im ... bal-score/
Does all this make sense?
Mike
reto
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04 Sep 2015, 11:08
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mikemcgarry
reto
Dear Mike
Dear Users
I am writing here regarding Reading Comprehension (for non native). Yes especially for non native... I know, some say, you do not really have to understand the content of the passage in order to answer the questions. However, it is very distracting when you read a passage about e.g. biology or history with plenty of words you do not understand. How do you tackle this problem? Learning endless lists of vocabulary or reading Economist, GEO, Financial Times etc. in order to get used to those topics?
I now went through Economist and Manhattan for Reading Comprehension. Their approach is quite similiar imo. Economist recommends to always first perform a so called "initial reading" i.e. reading the first 1-2 sentences of each paragraph and taking notes. However I have figured out, that this strategy does only suit me when I feel that I master the content (e.g. finance topics which i master asleep). But as soon as there is a annoying topic from history, human sciences to which I am not really used to, I am starting to sweat and getting nervous and hence wasting time and finally answering the question mostly wrong.
Is there anything you could recommend for such a student except the points I already mentioned?
Looking forward to hear from you mikemcgarry and all!
Dear reto,Dear Users
I am writing here regarding Reading Comprehension (for non native). Yes especially for non native... I know, some say, you do not really have to understand the content of the passage in order to answer the questions. However, it is very distracting when you read a passage about e.g. biology or history with plenty of words you do not understand. How do you tackle this problem? Learning endless lists of vocabulary or reading Economist, GEO, Financial Times etc. in order to get used to those topics?
I now went through Economist and Manhattan for Reading Comprehension. Their approach is quite similiar imo. Economist recommends to always first perform a so called "initial reading" i.e. reading the first 1-2 sentences of each paragraph and taking notes. However I have figured out, that this strategy does only suit me when I feel that I master the content (e.g. finance topics which i master asleep). But as soon as there is a annoying topic from history, human sciences to which I am not really used to, I am starting to sweat and getting nervous and hence wasting time and finally answering the question mostly wrong.
Is there anything you could recommend for such a student except the points I already mentioned?
Looking forward to hear from you mikemcgarry and all!
I'm happy to respond, my friend.
First of all, let me introduce a series of blog articles:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/strategies ... ion-types/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/how-to-stu ... rehension/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-rc-el ... g-answers/
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-readi ... ully-once/
You will notice, particularly in that last article, Magoosh recommends a different strategy than the "initial reading" strategy that other companies recommend. We recommend that you read the passage once carefully. We say your job is to "map, don't memorize" --- that is, get the gist of the flow of the argument, the back and forth, although you don't have to memorize every detail, because you can go back to look at a particular detail if you know where it is. Incidentally, in the Magoosh product, we have a fantastic series of lessons on the RC questions.
I also think that, especially a non-native person, the very best preparation is to read. Yes, read the economical news (Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Economist, The Financial Times, etc.)--- that's good for the business passages. You also should be reading Scientific American regularly, to build your stamina with science articles; in reading these articles, you will get familiar with the basic science terminology. You don't have to know a lot of science. For example, in the USA, high school students typically take an introductory year of biology, then chemistry, then physics. I don't know whether you took introductory years of those sciences when you were in the equivalent of secondary school. Think about what would be covered in first year biology (a cell, metabolism, photosynthesis, etc.), first year chemistry (atom, molecule, ion, chemical bond, etc.), and first year physics (force, mass, momentum, voltage, current, wavelength, etc.) It is good to be comfortable with these terms in English: perhaps you already know all of this thoroughly in your native language, but you need to be comfortable with these terms in English for the GMAT. Notice that GMAT RC science passages sometimes introduce some more abstruse scientific terms, but typically, the passage defines these terms----these terms are brand new even to most native speakers!!
For truly sophisticated non-science writing, see the New Yorker and the Atlantic Monthly. The New York Times is good for general articles: the Sunday Book Review is a particular good place to do some social science reading. I would say that a non-native speaker who struggles with RC should be doing at least a hour a day of pure reading --- that's a hour over and above any GMAT preparations. If you want an outstanding GMAT score, then this will require an outstanding effort.
I will say that, believe it or not, the attitude you bring toward reading in general and the GMAT RC in particular, has a huge effect on how much you get from the passage. See this blog:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/curiosity- ... n-success/
This is also an important blog: I said some of this already in this response, but there are several important points here:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/how-to-im ... bal-score/
Does all this make sense?
Mike
Ah mikemcgarry, you are a miracle. Thanks again for this wonderful post ... why are kudos limited?!
