RC help

Hey Rich,
Thanks for replying to the post. I haven't taken any mocks since then. I am focusing on mastering concepts rn. RC and CR are the two sections I am finding most difficult and while CRs are something one can still improve with practice, I am not seeing that happening with RCs. That's why I wanted to know what approach to adopt for improving RCs.

Hi Blair15,

Taking CATs/mocks in a realistic fashion (and at regular intervals) is one of the essential aspects of training for the GMAT. If it's now been closer to almost 4 weeks since you took your last CAT, I strongly recommend that you take a NEW CAT sometime soon (perhaps this weekend) - and take it in a realistic fashion that matches-up with what you will face when you take the Official GMAT (take the FULL CAT - with the Essay and IR sections, at the same time of day as when you'll take the Official GMAT, if you will be at a Test Facility, then wear a face mask, etc.). Once you have that Score, you should PM me and we can discuss the results and how you might best proceed with your studies. I've also sent you a PM with some questions about how you've been training for RC.

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

Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

Hi Blair15,

I have the perfect article for you:

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

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Hi Blair15,

Mastering RC is a challenge many students face and I’ve faced it myself. As a student, I remember trying various methods including Reading only first para and last para, reading question first, reading only first few lines, reading online articles, maintaining a gaze span while reading, skimming through the passage and what not. Nothing helped much. In the end, while waiting for the score to flash, I never had confidence that I’ve done well. All I could do was pray that I somehow got the questions right.

I’ve been through the trouble and I know how it feels. There is one fundamental mistake that most students do, that is trying to read the passage fast. The trick to ace RC is not to understand WHAT is written, but to understand WHY it is written. Let me take you through the 3 step process that helped me master RC.

STEP 1: INVOLVED READING

While reading the passage, focus on the role played by each sentence and understand what purpose does it serve? Simple questions that you can ask could be - does it support an argument, weaken it, oppose a viewpoint, provide more data, or bring in a different perspective and so on. The idea is to understand the transition in thoughts and which side is the author taking.

STEP 2: EVOLVED READING

Once you’ve understood the intent of each line, you can then choose to ignore the detail and focus on summarising the paragraphs in a line. Then, focus on the intent of each para and think about the structure of the passage. I even believe in identifying (at a high level) what is the main point of the passage even if there is no main point question attached. It helps in having more confidence in marking Inference or Organization based questions.

STEP 3: ANSWER CHOICE ELIMINATION

If the above two steps are done properly, this step is the easiest. All you need to do is, look at each question one-by-one and eliminate the answer choices from your evolved understanding of the passage. Involved and Evolved Reading will help you eliminate 4 choices in most of the questions. In few tough ones, you might be confused between 2 choices, but those can be easily eliminated by focusing on the following aspects:

1.Scope of the choice – shouldn’t be out of scope or too limited in scope
2.Minute details – shouldn’t have half-truths and rest distortion
3. Confusing words – shouldn’t have words which seem similar but are different.
4. Opposite – is opposite of what you should be looking for

These 3 steps are simple and you need to ensure that you practice using this method and perfect it to get high accuracy.

I see that you are focusing more on practicing questions, than on the process, which is not the right way to prepare for GMAT. Focus on learning the right methodologies as discussed, the rest will follow.

You can go through the links below to understand the process in a better way:

Hope this helped and feel free to contact if you have any further queries.

You can always write back to me here or the better way would be to connect over a call and have a discussion. You can schedule a free consultation call using the below link.

If you are interested, look at my Definitive guide complete in every aspect.

GRE Reading Comprehension - The Definitive Strategies Guide (2022)


Regards