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akashansari
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RC : Facing Difficulties in Paraphrasing and Taking Notes 12 Dec 2015, 03:41
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I have been facing difficulties in Paraphrasing as well as in note-taking. So far, I have applied the strategies
which are mentioned here, in this forum. No doubt, these are some very good time saving strategies i have ever
come across.
Many Many Thanks to bb, rhyme and others also.
All of the strategies i have gone through are based on short summary or Paraphrasing of the content. My problem
is how i can effectively paraphrase so that it can help me to answer the question.
I believe that paraphrasing should be done before taking notes.
What type of notes i should take?



Too much pressure.
Need Help Altruists.

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RC : Facing Difficulties in Paraphrasing and Taking Notes 18 Dec 2015, 00:25
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I often recommend that my students take notes in flowchart or diagram format. Don't take notes in bullet points like you would during a classroom lecture, since Reading Comp is 'open book' and you'll never need to remember the details. Instead, the point of taking notes is to provide some structure to your understanding of the passage, so make your notes physically reflect that structure. Does the passage compare and contrast two theories? Use two columns and jot down the major similarities and differences. Does the passage make a complex argument with many intermediate conclusions, or does it describe a complex process with many steps? Use a flowchart with arrows to organize.

For paraphrasing ideas, look at the right answers of some 'main idea' and 'purpose' questions. That's the sort of level of detail that the GMAT expects of you. It's not a very high level of detail, but you do need to go beyond the topic ('this passage is about _____') and address what the author chooses to say about that topic.
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RC : Facing Difficulties in Paraphrasing and Taking Notes 19 Dec 2015, 05:01
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ccooley
I often recommend that my students take notes in flowchart or diagram format. Don't take notes in bullet points like you would during a classroom lecture, since Reading Comp is 'open book' and you'll never need to remember the details. Instead, the point of taking notes is to provide some structure to your understanding of the passage, so make your notes physically reflect that structure. Does the passage compare and contrast two theories? Use two columns and jot down the major similarities and differences. Does the passage make a complex argument with many intermediate conclusions, or does it describe a complex process with many steps? Use a flowchart with arrows to organize.

For paraphrasing ideas, look at the right answers of some 'main idea' and 'purpose' questions. That's the sort of level of detail that the GMAT expects of you. It's not a very high level of detail, but you do need to go beyond the topic ('this passage is about _____') and address what the author chooses to say about that topic.
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Thank you Chelsey for you kind response.
For note taking purpose, I am now following Manhattan's strategies. They are really good. However, your paraphrasing ideas
seems interesting to me. I will definitely use this idea.
Of course, using two columns columns for jotting down the major similarities and differences is very effective. But, I suspect, using this layout will require me to read the content first while I want to take notes right after I finished reading some important lines.So it seems until I get to another theory, I will be constructing a bullet point layout in the entire scratchpad rather than constructing two columns.
The issue here is Time. I do not want to go back to the first theory for note taking.
What should I do then?
By the way, I am a GRE guy who finds this forum as a Precious Tutor.

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