Verbal makes me feel like I can't read

A few thoughts. One is to understand why reading is harder on the GMAT than it is in other situations. It's not just the time--it's the sentences.

Why is understanding this sentence:


Harder than understanding these:


The first is an actual sentence in a CR answer choice. The second captures the same story, but notice--even though it requires more words, it's much more straightforward to understand. I've written more, simple sentences rather than one complicated one. What makes a sentence complicated? It has more thoughts in it. The difficulty is untangling those thoughts and relationships to discern meaning--this is what 'comprehension' is.

(see if you can understand how that second string of sentences came from that one complicated sentence. What words must be attended to? What connections must be made? What words build those connections?)

You have to use the logical structure of a sentence to extract the 'world' it is actually building. The two videos below are meant to help with such a skill. One of them is made for the GRE, but it's lesson is very pertinent to the GMAT.

Hi ThrivingWind.

Many people have experiences similar to yours. In fact, even though I've been working in the GMAT space for years, not too long ago, I read a GMAT RC passage and found it challenging to process.

So, what's to be done?

The thing is to realize that, whereas much of what we read is written to be as easy as possible to understand, GMAT passages are not written with the intention of making them easy to read. So, when we read GMAT passages, we may get confused in ways we're not used to.

Accordingly, a key GMAT skill we need to develop is skill in digging in and unconfusing ourselves. In other words, we have to develop skill in not being surprised that we're having difficulty reading a passage and doing whatever we have to do to understand it, even if that means reading if a handful of words at a time.

So, when you're practicing GMAT verbal, don't worry too much about the time you spend on each question. Rather, take all the time you need to learn to understand the passages and arrive at correct answers. In other words, take your time and learn to go through the motions that lead to success.

For some more tips that could help you master RC and other aspects of GMAT verbal, see this post.

How to Score High on GMAT Verbal

Hi ThrivingWind,

While I understand the point that other forum members are getting at in this thread (GMAT SC/CR questions are hard to read?), I don't see that as a reason for someone who's read on a regular basis since childhood going "completely blank", especially on easy questions.

I'm not sure whether this is something that applies to you, but you may want to check whether you're just... tired.

hey ThrivingWind

In gmat preparation and basic reading there is vast difference in sentence structure, modifiers, and length of sentence.
So it would be better if you would start by learning some sentence structure and especially modifiers. but as you start preparing for gmat it would be second nature to you.

good luck on your preparation.