Re: RC how to do
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11 Sep 2011, 12:27
Hmmm silver89 is absolutely right. You have to go with strategy which works for you. Some people and some books advice initial reading strategy. Initially reading strategy says read the first 3-4 lines of first paragraph, then only read the first sentences of other paragraphs. According to this strategy you don't need anything else than initial reading to answer the inference and global questions. When you get detail question then you should go back to passage and find the relevant part of the passage.
Personally for me I could never feel comfortable with initial reading strategy and never dare to answer a question without reading the whole passage. However I guess you don't need to read all the passage with equal emphasis. Just read the first paragraph with great attention, then skim through the whole passage at very fast pace. Just slow down on first sentences of every other paragraph to see how do they retain the flow of the passage. Regarding reading 'every details', You don't need to read every detail. In fact if you read details carefully you will pay attention to the content of the passage than the idea of the passage. Gmat rcs are about idea of the author more than any thing else. I will say in your first reading of passage do not pay attention to specific details, just remember which part of passage you saw them. You should carefully follow the idea of the author, his style, is he advocating something ? or questioning relevance of something or just giving a scientific analysis or disinterested commentary ? Also it is important to avoid answers which have too strong language, extreme language, narrow or too broad scope. Also see whether author is talking in third person way or giving his own opinion. for example - when he says most of the people of the time were against violent youth wing groups, answer choice which says author advocates against violent youth wing groups is sure to be wrong, unless some where else in passage author himself does any recommendations. Crux of the matter, get the hang of what authors intentions are behind the passage , how 2nd paragraphs links to first paragraph and so on and so on.....Of course when you get a detail question , then you can return to the passage and go back to the relevant part of the passage to check out the details of what the question is asking. The passage will never go away, so you can always come back for detail question. RCs of gmat are very good, you can very well make rcs your strongest point. Best of luck !