Reading Comprehension difficulties

Question

Good Afternoon,

Reading Comprehension has hurt my verbal score a lot more than I expected. I haven't found a method that works for me to attack these problems. I have tried mapping but it seems to not really work. I also tried to read the question first, and looking for structure words. Can anyone give me any pointers on Reading comprehension?

Mapping: I always tend to spend too much time mapping each passage, and never use it because I find it not really useful. 
Structure words: Miss the general idea of the passage even when I read the first and last sentence of the intro and conclusion

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

Hi mrw07080,

Both the techniques that you have listed are very help, but need some practise to master.
I am personally in favour of making the passage map and noting things down. This makes sure that you understand the passage thoroughly and do not need to go back to the passage.

How long have you been practising with these techniques?
Have you solved the RC passages from the OG and Verbal Review?

mrw07080 · Answer

Hi Janielle , I have used Magoosh and the Kaplan 2015 review text for verbal review. Verbal is the most difficult for me and has killed my overall score. I scored a 20 on the Verbal.

All I'm trying to get is a 650 for the grad programs I'm applying for, but the verbal has killed me. I read articles from Business Insider, and difficult books but it doesn't seem to help.

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

Hi mrw07080,

A score of 20 on the Verbal suggests that you are facing problems in all the three sub sections: SC, CR and RC
While you have figured out the problem for the RC section, have you tried to delve deep in the CR and SC sections?

SC sections can be improved easily if you pay attention to certain concepts.
Always focus on the following things while solving a question: SV agreement, parallelism, modifiers and usage of certain words -such as, like, which that etc.
You will find that you can easily remove incorrect options by paying attention to the above things.

Regarding CR, pre thinking is always helpful. Make sure you read the question stem first and then read the premise in the light of the question. This will give you a vague idea about what the answer should be.

For the RC, unfortunately you need to practice more and try to stick to on strategy.

When do you plan to give the GMAT?

mrw07080 · Answer

Hi Janielle

I haven't set a date yet but I have to take it in a month because of deadlines
I have improved quite a bit on Sentence correction since it was my weakest section. I have a better understanding on SV agreement, parallelism, comparisons, and modifiers. I've improved on idiom use because I understand the structure more.

Critical reasoning is similar to reading comprehension, but it's easier to map the passage out. I forgot to read the question stem first for critical reasoning so I will be aware to do this.

I focused on mapping out each paragraph in Reading comprehension and have seen a little improvement on it. The biggest thing for me is I get overwhelmed on the long passages and lose focus. I'm trying to improve my reading speed because it takes me a while to read the passages and it has affected the time i use on critical reasoning and sentence correction

Quant is my strength. I review 5 to 10 questions on each section every other day as well as review the problems that I got wrong on. The biggest thing for quant I would say is not to overthink on data sufficiency.

The most important thing for me is confidence. I sometimes question myself and put too much pressure on myself.

Thank you for your advice; I needed it. If there is any more pointers that come to mind, please feel free to share.

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

You can try bifurcating the RC and the CR questions on the following basis:

CR: There might be certain types of questions that are troubling you. May be Assumption, may be conclusion, inference etc.
You need to find that out and then practice them

RC: There are always certain topics that trouble you more that others. Ex: Science, history, geography etc. Try to find out the topics that trouble you and practice the RCs on those topics. 
The questions again can be drilled down into different types of questions and also different topics. See what questions and topics trouble you the most and then practice accordingly.

Reading Comprehension difficulties

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