What to do with unfamiliar words?

Question

Hi all GMATters,

I wonder what do you do when facing difficult unfamiliar words while reading magazines or books. I've newly started reading the Economist. I've tried to look-up the meaning of a new word but it is time-consuming and take around half an hour for just one article. What do you recommend?

broall · Answer

First time, you need to build up your vocabulary well. After a certain time, you could guess the meaning of unknown words without knowing the exact meaning of those words.

Mehemmed · Answer

Thanks for answer brall.

How long that "certain time"? To mention I had 7.5 overall IELTS score, my vocab is not so bad I guess. In highly-intelligent magazines or novels there is always a difficult word for non-natives and I'd say for natives too.

broall · Answer

There is no specific number for "certain time". It depends on each own experience

With your 7.5 IELTS, I think you could take less time to be familiar with the passage style and used words in science and research articles like GMAT RC

Try to guess any unknown word, maybe

Mehemmed · Answer

thanks <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/1f603.png" class="forumSmileyItem" width="20" height="20" alt=":)" title="Smile" />

davidhibner12 · Answer

Sometimes you don't have to translate words because you can guess their meaning in the context or words can be unnecessary to understand the meaning. But if a word must be translated, then do it:)
It's just my personal experience.

ccooley · Answer

Just ignore them.

You're probably reading tough articles because you're trying to improve your Reading Comprehension skills (kudos - that's exactly the right thing to do). On the GMAT, there will never be a problem that requires you to know the meaning of a technical term or piece of jargon. There may occasionally be tough 'academic' vocabulary, but problems will almost never depend on it. If you're struggling to define words while reading on the GMAT, you're reading too closely - back off and skim, focus on the big picture. Remember - you're not trying to learn from the passage! You're just trying to get a general outline.

What to do with unfamiliar words?

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