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27 Oct 2016, 08:12
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Hi All,
I am an indian who is quite aware of the politics in my own country and I understand my own government structure to a certain extent. However when i started preparing for GMAT reading comprehension, i realised that there were a LOT of terms that we understand EXTREMELY differently. Now this prior knowledge of a different meaning of some terms makes understanding the RC passages about the US politics even more difficult.
What i then decided to do was draw a parallel between the two government structures and get this limitation out of my way. I have also decided to prepare similar structure for other nations as well but that will take me some more research hence a little more time . Non indians and Non US natives can also benefit from this as i will also try to explain the US government structure in general.
P.S: All the natives please feel absolutely free to correct if i have misrepresented any term.
My fellow indian ( non native) test takers, there you go:
Federal Government
Now federal government is what we call in India the "Centre Government"
Now all you movie buffs must have heard FBI so often right ? ( let us give some more credits to Priyanka Chopra ). The Indian equivalent is the CBI.
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation
CBI: Central Bureau of Investigation
Just as it in India, The US also has a 2-level system. The centre govt ( federal) and the state. The two function independently and have independent rights. However, there are some areas that come under the jurisdiction of the centre government alone and the centre government has some sort of a veto powers.
Congress:
No, it is not the 130 year old political party headed by the Gandhis.
The United States Congress is a legislature of the federal government that consists of 2 chambers: The senators & the house of representatives.
Basically, Congress is what we generally refer in India as " The Parliament"
The Senate and The House of Representatives
The Senate: The upper house = Rajya Sabha
The House of Representative: The lower house = Lok Sabha
Senator =MP
Representative = MLA
"Political Parties in the US"
Federalist: Now DO not confuse this with the federal government. This was the first American political Party. They do not exist any more ( similar beliefs might still be lurking around or would have taken different forms)
Federalists were a group of elite people.
Republicans and Democrats : Now they are two different political parties with varying views on various topics ( US primarily is a two party political system). Imagine something like, if India had a two party system, then we would have had the Indian national congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party as the two big players.
I believe, to begin with, this information should give you some clarity. However if you guys want a lot more detail, i suggest going through this Youtube Channel " CrashCourse". They have quite amazing content and their videos are everything but boring.
Let me know what you guys think, I also plan to write similar write ups about various common topics of the RC ( science, business, economy, US history) once I go through a few passages to understand the scope of the topics being tested.
Shradha
I am an indian who is quite aware of the politics in my own country and I understand my own government structure to a certain extent. However when i started preparing for GMAT reading comprehension, i realised that there were a LOT of terms that we understand EXTREMELY differently. Now this prior knowledge of a different meaning of some terms makes understanding the RC passages about the US politics even more difficult.
What i then decided to do was draw a parallel between the two government structures and get this limitation out of my way. I have also decided to prepare similar structure for other nations as well but that will take me some more research hence a little more time . Non indians and Non US natives can also benefit from this as i will also try to explain the US government structure in general.
P.S: All the natives please feel absolutely free to correct if i have misrepresented any term.
My fellow indian ( non native) test takers, there you go:
Federal Government
Now federal government is what we call in India the "Centre Government"
Now all you movie buffs must have heard FBI so often right ? ( let us give some more credits to Priyanka Chopra ). The Indian equivalent is the CBI.
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation
CBI: Central Bureau of Investigation
Just as it in India, The US also has a 2-level system. The centre govt ( federal) and the state. The two function independently and have independent rights. However, there are some areas that come under the jurisdiction of the centre government alone and the centre government has some sort of a veto powers.
Congress:
No, it is not the 130 year old political party headed by the Gandhis.
The United States Congress is a legislature of the federal government that consists of 2 chambers: The senators & the house of representatives.
Basically, Congress is what we generally refer in India as " The Parliament"
The Senate and The House of Representatives
The Senate: The upper house = Rajya Sabha
The House of Representative: The lower house = Lok Sabha
Senator =MP
Representative = MLA
"Political Parties in the US"
Federalist: Now DO not confuse this with the federal government. This was the first American political Party. They do not exist any more ( similar beliefs might still be lurking around or would have taken different forms)
Federalists were a group of elite people.
Republicans and Democrats : Now they are two different political parties with varying views on various topics ( US primarily is a two party political system). Imagine something like, if India had a two party system, then we would have had the Indian national congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party as the two big players.
I believe, to begin with, this information should give you some clarity. However if you guys want a lot more detail, i suggest going through this Youtube Channel " CrashCourse". They have quite amazing content and their videos are everything but boring.
Let me know what you guys think, I also plan to write similar write ups about various common topics of the RC ( science, business, economy, US history) once I go through a few passages to understand the scope of the topics being tested.
Shradha
28 Oct 2016, 15:20
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This isn't the best way to practice for RC, unfortunately. Since the GMAT is a standardized test, their own internal 'rules' say that every question has to be answerable with minimal outside knowledge. Otherwise, the test wouldn't be fair - if outside knowledge was required, different people (for instance, Indian vs US test takers) would have different interpretations of the passage and questions, and so they'd be able to make the case for different answers being correct. The GMAC wants to avoid letting people argue about the right answer, so they always 'tell' you the right answer right there in the passage.
A little outside knowledge can be a dangerous thing, honestly. On hard RC problems, often, there are right answers that are 'technically right' (they're true in the real world, and they 'make sense') but they aren't actually the right answer to the question. That's because these answers aren't supported by the information in the passage.
Instead of this, I'd recommend doing more reading (high-quality English-language nonfiction) and doing more RC passages (and specifically focusing on finding the part of the passage that proves the right answer.)
A little outside knowledge can be a dangerous thing, honestly. On hard RC problems, often, there are right answers that are 'technically right' (they're true in the real world, and they 'make sense') but they aren't actually the right answer to the question. That's because these answers aren't supported by the information in the passage.
Instead of this, I'd recommend doing more reading (high-quality English-language nonfiction) and doing more RC passages (and specifically focusing on finding the part of the passage that proves the right answer.)
28 Oct 2016, 16:41
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Hi Chelsey,
I appreciate you going through my post but i believe you misinterpreted my intention.
I completely agree that one can always answer all the questions just reading the passage alone and without any prior knowledge but you can not discount the advantage of being familiar with some terms. I do not intend to explain US politics but only want to help people understand a few common terminologies used in the RCs. The creators of this exam are primarily from the United States and which is why you see a slight influence in the humanities passages ( US politics, slavery, Women's suffrage etc).
I am sure you agree that an engineer will be more comfortable reading a science passage and somebody from a finance/ business background wont be appalled by the business jargons used. My intention is just to build an "RC vocabulary" which is not a must know but a good to know resource.
I am an engineer but i still i don't understand every science passage but at the same time i don't fear science passages particularly. Also, you are right that the best way to empower is reading high quality non fiction english content but very honestly most of us who are preparing for GMAT don't have the luxury of time. Why do we have maths flash cards? Why do we have cheat sheets, crash courses ? It is for us, time-pressed yet hopeful people.
Finally, I was very careful about my explanations and the scope of the topics i elaborated on. I understand that prior knowledge can sometimes be harmful but that should not stop us from learning new things, right ? All the natives taking this exam would have just the same understanding of most of the terms/ topics then how does this put the non natives under any particular disadvantage ?
I reiterate, if anybody thinks that there is anything "incorrect" about the facts/ definitions, please let me know and i will be more than happy to incorporate the changes. All this information is freely available on the internet but i am just collating it all for the future test takers who can save some time and effort. All of us who are contributing to this forum are just trying to equip each other with our own experiences and lessons.
Thank you for reading. Happy to hear more feedback.
Regards,
Shradha
I appreciate you going through my post but i believe you misinterpreted my intention.
I completely agree that one can always answer all the questions just reading the passage alone and without any prior knowledge but you can not discount the advantage of being familiar with some terms. I do not intend to explain US politics but only want to help people understand a few common terminologies used in the RCs. The creators of this exam are primarily from the United States and which is why you see a slight influence in the humanities passages ( US politics, slavery, Women's suffrage etc).
I am sure you agree that an engineer will be more comfortable reading a science passage and somebody from a finance/ business background wont be appalled by the business jargons used. My intention is just to build an "RC vocabulary" which is not a must know but a good to know resource.
I am an engineer but i still i don't understand every science passage but at the same time i don't fear science passages particularly. Also, you are right that the best way to empower is reading high quality non fiction english content but very honestly most of us who are preparing for GMAT don't have the luxury of time. Why do we have maths flash cards? Why do we have cheat sheets, crash courses ? It is for us, time-pressed yet hopeful people.
Finally, I was very careful about my explanations and the scope of the topics i elaborated on. I understand that prior knowledge can sometimes be harmful but that should not stop us from learning new things, right ? All the natives taking this exam would have just the same understanding of most of the terms/ topics then how does this put the non natives under any particular disadvantage ?
I reiterate, if anybody thinks that there is anything "incorrect" about the facts/ definitions, please let me know and i will be more than happy to incorporate the changes. All this information is freely available on the internet but i am just collating it all for the future test takers who can save some time and effort. All of us who are contributing to this forum are just trying to equip each other with our own experiences and lessons.
Thank you for reading. Happy to hear more feedback.
Regards,
Shradha
