Shuld I Skip Reading Comprehension Questions ?

Question

Hello Everyone,

I find Reading Comprehension questions very difficult, and they eat up my time, would it be better to skip those quesiton and have more time on the rest of the verbal sections(CR & SC) ?

thanks in advance

JingChan · Answer

If you mean during the test, that's not a very good idea. Reading passages, though long, have 3-5 questions each. Skipping 3-5 questions is not an option if you want to do well on the GMAT.

If you compare the length of the reading passage with the number of questions attached, it tends to be about the same per question as CR. Just a little longer, but usually a little easier to read.

Practice makes perfect, so I recommend you just practice reading the passages until you can do it faster. You can do it, it just takes practice. I'm not the fastest reader in the world, but I was able to speed up my reading so as to complete RC questions at about 1 per every 1.5-2 minutes. That should be your goal.

Another option, which is definitely a last resort and only to be used if the test is very very soon and you absolutely do not have enough time to speed up your reading. I recommend you try to practice "back-solving" the questions. You do this by reading the question first, and then trying to "find" the answer in the passage. Using this method, you could probably answer many of the RC questions and be able to gauge how much time each question takes. If you do this, you can give RC questions a good shot without spending too much time on them.

Hope this helps,
-J

GMATBLACKBELT · Answer

I agree w/ JingChan, that is a really bad idea.

Unlike on the math, on the verbal you can only afford so many incorrect answers.

I still i have trouble w/ RC timing as well. Sometimes I can finish the passage and questions in 5 min, sometimes 8min... but if ur accuracy is high, then why not fork over the extra minute or so. Save ur time w/ the SC's.

emoryhopeful · Answer

Skipping approximately one third of the Verbal section is a terrible idea. Even if you got every SC and CR question right, I wouldn't think you could score over 35 on the Verbal section by skipping the RC's. Continue to practice, even if you only get half correct you're in much better shape that just skipping the questions. I think its fine to skip one or two questions in Quant, but the Verbal section is not nearly as forgiving.

aaba · Answer

You should only completely skip 1 passage, consisting of 3 or 4 questions only. 
I am not sure which strategy is better. 
It is because in gmat, experimental questions are everywhere, and the time you invested in each question, and so on and so forth. You can skip 1 or 2 questions.

AkshdeepS · Answer

Not a great Idea to skip any of the RC passages as it consists of 3 to 4 questions. That means you need to fluke for those questions and it is certainly damaging. If you go through time constraint, then you may choose to skip alternate SCs or CRs at the end, but not RCs. You need to work on RC as one passage can give you the opportunity to get 4 questions correct.

QZ

GMATPill · Answer

You're probably asking about skipping RC passages because they are a pain. Sometimes you read through it - and you don't know what you just read - am I right?

If so, see whether this video walkthrough helps:

https://www.gmatpill.com/readingcomprehension/intro.mp4

https://www.gmatpill.com

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Shuld I Skip Reading Comprehension Questions ?

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