Approach for RC

Hi taorishrushti,

To start, you do NOT need to be a 'fast' reader to score at a high level on the GMAT, but you do have to work at a reasonable pace, 'attack' each prompt that you face (re: actively read, look for patterns, etc.) and take a reasonable amount of notes. Many GMATers end up losing points because they try to read too fast (or "skim" text, which is also not a good idea) - and that actually leads to additional problems (re: those GMATers almost always have to reread the entire prompt - sometimes multiple times - which is the actual CAUSE of their pacing problems). Reading the question first is a strategic way to start off a CR prompt, but it's usually not beneficial on RC.

Before I can offer you any additional advice for your studies, it would help if you could provide a bit more information on how you've been studying and your goals:

Studies:
1) How long have you studied? How many hours do you typically study each week?
2) What study materials have you used so far?
3) On what dates (or approximate dates) did you take EACH of your CATs/mocks and how did you score on EACH (including the Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores for EACH)?

Goals:
4) What is your overall goal score?
5) When are you planning to apply to Business School and what Schools are you planning to apply to?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

Hi taorishrushti,

I would not suggest you to do skimming as the GMAT RC questions test your inferential skills. And skimming is not recommended for detailed based questions also as you will not be reading the passage for every question. The right process approach RC questions is to:

• Read the passage
• Understand the purpose of the each sentence
• Draw inferences from each para
• Summarize the para once you finish reading it
• Derive the main point by summarizing the summaries of individual paras
• If you come across any details while reading the passage, skip them for the moment as you can always come back to that specific part if you need to solve detail based questions
• Once you finish reading the passage, read the question stem
• Go to the relevant area of the passage and make sure you draw the right inferences
• Eliminate answer choices carefully (either irrelevant, out of scope or opposite choices)

This is how you should read a passage and solve the questions. If you learnt the right methods to read the passage and to eliminate answer choices, then I would suggest you to practice a few passages without any time limit. Focus on solving the passages using the right methodology. Once you start getting a decent accuracy, then you can take timed quizzes.

Hope it helped. Feel free to get in touch if you need any further help with the study strategy.

Hi taorishrushti,

Since you are looking for RC help, here is a helpful article:

GMAT Reading Comprehension Tips: Top 8 DOs and DON’Ts

If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out.