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An excerpt by RON purewal about RC passage strategy (I hope you know who he is.................)

Quote:
the two official guides (twelfth edition and verbal supplement), taken together, provide more than enough practice.

if the student has gone through those materials and is still having considerable trouble, then one of the following three things (or more than one of them) is true:
(1) the student hasn't taken the time to learn how the problems work, and is just randomly trying to memorize things;
(2) the student doesn't understand how to read and process the passages, and is basically reading as though the passages were just factfactfactfact;
(3) the student isn't yet good enough at reading and understanding professionally written english.

notice that NONE of these three things is going to be fix-able by a greater volume of practice problems. if any of these three things is going on, additional practice problems won't fix the problem; in fact, additional practice is just going to cement the problem.
as an analogy, think of someone with a totally wrong golf swing. now, think of what will happen if this person goes out and takes 10,000 practice swings at golf balls -- the person will still have exactly the same problems, but those problems will now be so thoroughly reinforced that they will be practically impossible to fix.
the same is true for rc. in fact, i will just come out and say that no student should spend more than 15-20 hours of his or her entire life practicing specifically for gmat rc. (note that this is a lifetime total -- not monthly, not weekly, but actual lifetime.) that is plenty of time to learn how gmac writes the wording of its questions, what terms such as “primary purpose” and “inference” mean, etc.
beyond this point, gmat-specific studying is simply not going to help, and, in all probability, will make bad habits even worse and more permanent.

if someone is going to spend a large number of hours, then those hours should be spent before the person starts taking on gmat-type problems. for instance, if the student can't read english fast enough, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. if the student doesn't understand how to read passages for the main point, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. etc.

Hope this will be useful to you to comprehend the meaning of a GMAT RC passage ;)

wow Ron is too good!

Cheers
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Yes you need to have a strategy for reading through RC passages. It's not just "fact fact fact fact..." -- that's generally how most ppl read academic books. Why? because they want to learn from each statement that is presented.

But that is not what most reading is out there. Most reading out there is about a point of view -- and presenting that point of view in different ways ---hence why there are so many "main idea" questions. Try out the RC Pill strategy
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carcass
An excerpt by RON purewal about RC passage strategy (I hope you know who he is.................)

the two official guides (twelfth edition and verbal supplement), taken together, provide more than enough practice.

if the student has gone through those materials and is still having considerable trouble, then one of the following three things (or more than one of them) is true:
(1) the student hasn't taken the time to learn how the problems work, and is just randomly trying to memorize things;
(2) the student doesn't understand how to read and process the passages, and is basically reading as though the passages were just factfactfactfact;
(3) the student isn't yet good enough at reading and understanding professionally written english.

notice that NONE of these three things is going to be fix-able by a greater volume of practice problems. if any of these three things is going on, additional practice problems won't fix the problem; in fact, additional practice is just going to cement the problem.
as an analogy, think of someone with a totally wrong golf swing. now, think of what will happen if this person goes out and takes 10,000 practice swings at golf balls -- the person will still have exactly the same problems, but those problems will now be so thoroughly reinforced that they will be practically impossible to fix.
the same is true for rc. in fact, i will just come out and say that no student should spend more than 15-20 hours of his or her entire life practicing specifically for gmat rc. (note that this is a lifetime total -- not monthly, not weekly, but actual lifetime.) that is plenty of time to learn how gmac writes the wording of its questions, what terms such as “primary purpose” and “inference” mean, etc. beyond this point, gmat-specific studying is simply not going to help, and, in all probability, will make bad habits even worse and more permanent.

if someone is going to spend a large number of hours, then those hours should be spent before the person starts taking on gmat-type problems. for instance, if the student can't read english fast enough, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. if the student doesn't understand how to read passages for the main point, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. etc.

Hope this will be useful to you to comprehend the strategy for a GMAT RC passage ;)

Thanks carcass - Very simple but important points highlighted by Ron. Not bad to keep these points in mind while preparing for RC.
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carcass
An excerpt by RON purewal about RC passage strategy (I hope you know who he is.................)

the two official guides (twelfth edition and verbal supplement), taken together, provide more than enough practice.

if the student has gone through those materials and is still having considerable trouble, then one of the following three things (or more than one of them) is true:
(1) the student hasn't taken the time to learn how the problems work, and is just randomly trying to memorize things;
(2) the student doesn't understand how to read and process the passages, and is basically reading as though the passages were just factfactfactfact;
(3) the student isn't yet good enough at reading and understanding professionally written english.

notice that NONE of these three things is going to be fix-able by a greater volume of practice problems. if any of these three things is going on, additional practice problems won't fix the problem; in fact, additional practice is just going to cement the problem.
as an analogy, think of someone with a totally wrong golf swing. now, think of what will happen if this person goes out and takes 10,000 practice swings at golf balls -- the person will still have exactly the same problems, but those problems will now be so thoroughly reinforced that they will be practically impossible to fix.
the same is true for rc. in fact, i will just come out and say that no student should spend more than 15-20 hours of his or her entire life practicing specifically for gmat rc. (note that this is a lifetime total -- not monthly, not weekly, but actual lifetime.) that is plenty of time to learn how gmac writes the wording of its questions, what terms such as “primary purpose” and “inference” mean, etc. beyond this point, gmat-specific studying is simply not going to help, and, in all probability, will make bad habits even worse and more permanent.

if someone is going to spend a large number of hours, then those hours should be spent before the person starts taking on gmat-type problems. for instance, if the student can't read english fast enough, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. if the student doesn't understand how to read passages for the main point, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. etc.

Hope this will be useful to you to comprehend the strategy for a GMAT RC passage ;)

carcass: Hi, I am fairly new to GMAT preperation as well as this amazing resource called 'GMATClub'. I am extremely thankful to the GMATClub team.

This excerpt makes a lot of sense so I tried searching for the whole article (RC strategy) by Ron Purewal but all I could find were links to some videos.
Would you be able to help me out with the article link?
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Actually, Ron didn't write ever an article how to tackle RC or Sc or CR.

This is a quote I have found on MGMAT forum board. Moreover, almost the entire material by Ron is simply a collection of his tips gathered by student or me, and that you can find at the top of this discussion in the first post under the very first section tagged "theory".

All videos made by him over the years, you can download them for free at this link MGMAT Study Hall Thursdays with Ron Verbal Videos

Regards
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Thanks a lot, Carcass for elaborating and sharing the video link.
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I am in the middle of my preparation for GMAT exam. When I am practicing RC passages, in some passages I am marking a lot of questions wrong ( sometimes 3 out of 4), or 4 out of 4( all wrong,pretty scary!). What I usually do is I set a time limit of 10 minutes per passage ( reading plus answering) and try to finish within that limit. My question is, suppose I am finding some passage difficult, whats the best way to improve on those passages. Should I again set a time limit of 10 minutes and again try to answer questions and see if there is any improvement.

Hi
RC is the section in Verbal that most people find difficult to improve. You have to start reading material similar to Gmat such as The Economist or Science journals. In that way you can improve your reading and comprehending skills. Further you can refer to the MGMAT RC guide for strategy and practice. Alternatively you can find lots of resources in Gmatclub that tells the strategy to the followed. Go through them and choose the one that suits you.
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@carcass



Hi, its written by RON, that one must not spend more than 15-20 hours to practice for GMAT RC. Do such type of limits apply to QUANT AND OTHER VERBAL questions too ? because, if that's the case, then many people spend months or years improving their scores. Should one spend that much time ?
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What Ron said, see above here https://gmatclub.com/forum/i-am-in-the- ... l#p1148290
is limited to RC questions.

For the rest is another story ;)
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carcass
An excerpt by RON purewal about RC passage strategy (I hope you know who he is.................)

the two official guides (twelfth edition and verbal supplement), taken together, provide more than enough practice.

if the student has gone through those materials and is still having considerable trouble, then one of the following three things (or more than one of them) is true:
(1) the student hasn't taken the time to learn how the problems work, and is just randomly trying to memorize things;
(2) the student doesn't understand how to read and process the passages, and is basically reading as though the passages were just factfactfactfact;
(3) the student isn't yet good enough at reading and understanding professionally written english.

notice that NONE of these three things is going to be fix-able by a greater volume of practice problems. if any of these three things is going on, additional practice problems won't fix the problem; in fact, additional practice is just going to cement the problem.
as an analogy, think of someone with a totally wrong golf swing. now, think of what will happen if this person goes out and takes 10,000 practice swings at golf balls -- the person will still have exactly the same problems, but those problems will now be so thoroughly reinforced that they will be practically impossible to fix.
the same is true for rc. in fact, i will just come out and say that no student should spend more than 15-20 hours of his or her entire life practicing specifically for gmat rc. (note that this is a lifetime total -- not monthly, not weekly, but actual lifetime.) that is plenty of time to learn how gmac writes the wording of its questions, what terms such as “primary purpose” and “inference” mean, etc. beyond this point, gmat-specific studying is simply not going to help, and, in all probability, will make bad habits even worse and more permanent.

if someone is going to spend a large number of hours, then those hours should be spent before the person starts taking on gmat-type problems. for instance, if the student can't read english fast enough, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. if the student doesn't understand how to read passages for the main point, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. etc.

Hope this will be useful to you to comprehend the strategy for a GMAT RC passage ;)

Makes so much sense. One must know how to read properly and effectively on the GMAT. In addition to the aforesaid points, I feel concentration also plays an important role while reading. Your mind should be able to focus and process the information while you are reading.
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At the end of the day, the real secret to smash RC boils down to these elements: reading very super carefully ONE time the passage, understand the big picture, make a sort of anchor points which turn out help you when coping with questions that delve into specific details (such as inference) and eliminate the fluff especially when the question MAIN IDEA (which is always present) pops up.

ALL the other strategies are solely a workaround and a waste of time.

That's it. Period.

Regards
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An excerpt by RON purewal about RC passage strategy (I hope you know who he is.................)

the two official guides (twelfth edition and verbal supplement), taken together, provide more than enough practice.

if the student has gone through those materials and is still having considerable trouble, then one of the following three things (or more than one of them) is true:
(1) the student hasn't taken the time to learn how the problems work, and is just randomly trying to memorize things;
(2) the student doesn't understand how to read and process the passages, and is basically reading as though the passages were just factfactfactfact;
(3) the student isn't yet good enough at reading and understanding professionally written english.

notice that NONE of these three things is going to be fix-able by a greater volume of practice problems. if any of these three things is going on, additional practice problems won't fix the problem; in fact, additional practice is just going to cement the problem.
as an analogy, think of someone with a totally wrong golf swing. now, think of what will happen if this person goes out and takes 10,000 practice swings at golf balls -- the person will still have exactly the same problems, but those problems will now be so thoroughly reinforced that they will be practically impossible to fix.
the same is true for rc. in fact, i will just come out and say that no student should spend more than 15-20 hours of his or her entire life practicing specifically for gmat rc. (note that this is a lifetime total -- not monthly, not weekly, but actual lifetime.) that is plenty of time to learn how gmac writes the wording of its questions, what terms such as “primary purpose” and “inference” mean, etc. beyond this point, gmat-specific studying is simply not going to help, and, in all probability, will make bad habits even worse and more permanent.

if someone is going to spend a large number of hours, then those hours should be spent before the person starts taking on gmat-type problems. for instance, if the student can't read english fast enough, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. if the student doesn't understand how to read passages for the main point, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. etc.

Hope this will be useful to you to comprehend the strategy for a GMAT RC passage ;)

Hey there i am facing the same issue i am not able to read English quickly and cannot comprehend the passage. How do you thing i have to go about it, could you please provide some tips on how to improve it. Thanks a lot ..
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carcass
An excerpt by RON purewal about RC passage strategy (I hope you know who he is.................)

the two official guides (twelfth edition and verbal supplement), taken together, provide more than enough practice.

if the student has gone through those materials and is still having considerable trouble, then one of the following three things (or more than one of them) is true:
(1) the student hasn't taken the time to learn how the problems work, and is just randomly trying to memorize things;
(2) the student doesn't understand how to read and process the passages, and is basically reading as though the passages were just factfactfactfact;
(3) the student isn't yet good enough at reading and understanding professionally written english.

notice that NONE of these three things is going to be fix-able by a greater volume of practice problems. if any of these three things is going on, additional practice problems won't fix the problem; in fact, additional practice is just going to cement the problem.
as an analogy, think of someone with a totally wrong golf swing. now, think of what will happen if this person goes out and takes 10,000 practice swings at golf balls -- the person will still have exactly the same problems, but those problems will now be so thoroughly reinforced that they will be practically impossible to fix.
the same is true for rc. in fact, i will just come out and say that no student should spend more than 15-20 hours of his or her entire life practicing specifically for gmat rc. (note that this is a lifetime total -- not monthly, not weekly, but actual lifetime.) that is plenty of time to learn how gmac writes the wording of its questions, what terms such as “primary purpose” and “inference” mean, etc. beyond this point, gmat-specific studying is simply not going to help, and, in all probability, will make bad habits even worse and more permanent.

if someone is going to spend a large number of hours, then those hours should be spent before the person starts taking on gmat-type problems. for instance, if the student can't read english fast enough, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. if the student doesn't understand how to read passages for the main point, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. etc.

Hope this will be useful to you to comprehend the strategy for a GMAT RC passage ;)

Hey there i am facing the same issue i am not able to read English quickly and cannot comprehend the passage. How do you thing i have to go about it, could you please provide some tips on how to improve it. Thanks a lot ..

Same problem. Please do let me know how to deal with it. My will be writing gmat on 11th sept,2019.
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How many questions for each passage 700+ students get correct in the limited time of <2 minutes per question?
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carcass
An excerpt by RON purewal about RC passage strategy (I hope you know who he is.................)

the two official guides (twelfth edition and verbal supplement), taken together, provide more than enough practice.

if the student has gone through those materials and is still having considerable trouble, then one of the following three things (or more than one of them) is true:
(1) the student hasn't taken the time to learn how the problems work, and is just randomly trying to memorize things;
(2) the student doesn't understand how to read and process the passages, and is basically reading as though the passages were just factfactfactfact;
(3) the student isn't yet good enough at reading and understanding professionally written english.

notice that NONE of these three things is going to be fix-able by a greater volume of practice problems. if any of these three things is going on, additional practice problems won't fix the problem; in fact, additional practice is just going to cement the problem.
as an analogy, think of someone with a totally wrong golf swing. now, think of what will happen if this person goes out and takes 10,000 practice swings at golf balls -- the person will still have exactly the same problems, but those problems will now be so thoroughly reinforced that they will be practically impossible to fix.
the same is true for rc. in fact, i will just come out and say that no student should spend more than 15-20 hours of his or her entire life practicing specifically for gmat rc. (note that this is a lifetime total -- not monthly, not weekly, but actual lifetime.) that is plenty of time to learn how gmac writes the wording of its questions, what terms such as “primary purpose” and “inference” mean, etc. beyond this point, gmat-specific studying is simply not going to help, and, in all probability, will make bad habits even worse and more permanent.

if someone is going to spend a large number of hours, then those hours should be spent before the person starts taking on gmat-type problems. for instance, if the student can't read english fast enough, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. if the student doesn't understand how to read passages for the main point, then that's a problem that must be addressed before he/she begins to look at gmat style problems. etc.

Hope this will be useful to you to comprehend the strategy for a GMAT RC passage ;)

Ron is a legend. Huge respect :please:
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