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Pritishd
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How would you go about comprehending this paragraph? 17 Sep 2022, 08:12
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Hi RC Champs,

I just started working through the Power score RC bible and got stumped in comprehending the below paragraph. How do you guys go about comprehending such a dense text?

Socrates defines timocracy as a regime closest to, but decidedly inferior to, aristocracy. However, the language used to differentiate them makes such proximity both essential and unsettling. The surprise emerging from the passage on timocracy lies precisely in a dialectic whose attainment of regime derivation and differentiation depends on a certain failure to
obliterate difference and faction as constitutive elements of either regime. In seeing both regimes as mutually constitutive and co-extensive, rather than oppositional or mutually exclusive, Socrates inadvertently questions the valorized difference between the two. - Paragraph Credit - Power Score RC Bible

ChiranjeevSingh egmat

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How would you go about comprehending this paragraph? 19 Sep 2022, 00:39
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It would be better to practise with RC passages from GMAT Official Guides and Verbal Reviews, or even with LSAT passages.

Pritishd
The surprise emerging from the passage on timocracy lies precisely in a dialectic whose attainment of regime derivation and differentiation depends on a certain failure to obliterate difference and faction as constitutive elements of either regime.
... Paragraph Credit - Power Score RC Bible
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I've never seen a sentence like this 👆 in any official question. Such a sentence would not appear in an official RC passage. It would not even appear in the GRE, which often has passages that are less straightforward than GMAT passages.

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How would you go about comprehending this paragraph? 22 Sep 2022, 07:25
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vv65
It would be better to practise with RC passages from GMAT Official Guides and Verbal Reviews, or even with LSAT passages.

Pritishd
The surprise emerging from the passage on timocracy lies precisely in a dialectic whose attainment of regime derivation and differentiation depends on a certain failure to obliterate difference and faction as constitutive elements of either regime.
... Paragraph Credit - Power Score RC Bible
I've never seen a sentence like this 👆 in any official question. Such a sentence would not appear in an official RC passage. It would not even appear in the GRE, which often has passages that are less straightforward than GMAT passages.

Posted from my mobile device
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Thanks for the response. Overall, what are your suggestions to build the skills required to approach complex passages?
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How would you go about comprehending this paragraph? 22 Sep 2022, 17:01
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Thanks for the response. Overall, what are your suggestions to build the skills required to approach complex passages?

Consider regularly reading similar articles from the Economist. Working with a study buddy with strong RC skills may be helpful, too.
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How would you go about comprehending this paragraph? 22 Sep 2022, 18:25
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Pritishd
Overall, what are your suggestions to build the skills required to approach complex passages?
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Read a lot. That's really important and useful.

Any RC guide is likely to suggest a reading strategy for GMAT. Follow the strategy. As everyone says, read GMAT passages for structure and purpose. Think of the role of each sentence and
the purpose of each piece of information.

Some points about what it means to read for structure and purpose:
Think of the GMAT passage as a long argument or as a series of arguments. Think in terms of claim/evidence. Pay attention to conclusions (opinions, beliefs, speculation, recommendations, ...). Then look out for reasons or evidence to back up up the conclusion. And look out for comments or opinion about the conclusion. Look out for differing conclusions.

Look out for any problem that needs a solution, any puzzle that needs an explanation, any question that needs an answer. Then look out for possible solutions, explanations, answers.

Pay special attention to transitions in the text.

Look out for indicators that something has changed. When a change is mentioned, some questions arise naturally: Why the change? What are the effects of the change?
For example, in the statement "Scientists BELIEVED X", notice the past tense. The passage may then go on to talk about why scientists believed X, why they changed their belief, what they believe now.

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