Reading Comprehension

Paragraph starts are indicated by the bold words...

Protein synthesis begins when the gene encoding a protein is activated. The gene's sequence of nucleotides is transcribed into a molecule of messenger RNA (mRNA), which reproduces the information contained in that sequence. Transported outside the nucleus to the cytoplasm, the mRNA is translated into the protein it encodes by an organelle known as a ribosome, which strings together amino acids in the order specified by the sequence of elements in the mRNA molecule. Since the amount of mRNA in a cell determines the amount of the corresponding protein, factors affecting the abundance of mRNA's play a major part in the normal functioning of a cell by appropriately regulating protein synthesis. For example, an excess of certain proteins can cause cells to proliferate abnormally and become cancerous; a lack of the protein insulin results in diabetes.
Biologists once assumed that the variable rates at which cells synthesize different mRNA's determine the quantities of mRNA's and their corresponding proteins in a cell. However, recent investigations have shown that the concentrations of most mRNA's correlate best, not with their synthesis rate, but rather with the equally variable rates at which cells degrade the different mRNA's in their cytoplasm. If a cell degrades both a rapidly and a slowly synthesized mRNA slowly, both mRNA's will accumulate to high levels.
An important example of this phenomenon is the development of red blood cells from their unspecialized parent cells in bone marrow. For red blood cells to accumulate sufficient concentrations of hemoglobin (which transports oxygen) to carry out their main function, the cells' parent cells must simultaneously produce more of the constituent proteins of hemoglobin and less of most other proteins. To do this, the parent cells halt synthesis of non-hemoglobin mRNA's in the nucleus and rapidly degrade copies of the non-hemoglobin mRNA's remaining in the cytoplasm. Halting synthesis of mRNA alone would not affect the quantities of proteins synthesized by the mRNA's still existing in the cytoplasm. Biologists now believe that most cells can regulate protein production most efficiently by varying both mRNA synthesis and degradation, as developing red cells do, rather than by just varying one or the other.

Now, I will first pray for all the members who are gonna give the GMAT that no one gets this kinda passage at first...
I am from Engg back ground and donno anything from Bio side... When i solved this passage, I got 5 right out of 8 n i did not time this passage as i knew im not gonna get the questions right if i don't understand anything....

I dont want to know answers of questions that were asked on this passage... I wanna know how would you all approach this passage..So lets consider a scenario that you are doing a descent job in the overall test...you have passed the first ten qs of the verbal and, on 11th question, up pops this bio passage that you HATE.... Now, what would be your strategy....You start reading the passage and you know you are not getting much after you read two-three sentences....

Then how would you apply the manhattan strategy of taking notes...
the first thing happens is you get demotivated by the language of the passage..then your comprehension goes down..
When the sentence that you this is understandable comes...you start reading with interest and then again passage starts to throw at you sentence that simply mean something in bio terms that you can not understand....

How can make sure that you understand the passage at the best possible level...

This was related to reading the passage... Now down to questions..
You have not understood much n up pops a inference question that you find difficult normally...Also, the q is on technical knowledge that you have not understood n to make the matter even worst...you donno where to make the lookup...you have to search for that text n den read....

Now what would you do...
Is it worth investing time into these questions or you know the chances of u getting this one right are rare n just skip n concentrate on the next SC CR questions...

I am asking this coz this is where your verbal score can take a beating.... If you happen to invest 12-13 minutes on this passage with 4 questions on this passage.....so that means you are on around 15th question and you have spent around 35 minutes...The next task of 26 questions in around 40 minutes can become daunting with 2 RC passage still remaining... N when you are pressed for time in verbal..you tend to lose your comprehension..

Now, this is the point where fellow test takers have gone down...So, I wanna know what is to be done in this scenario...

Btw... I hope you found the passage tough...if you found the passage EASY, then i would rather take a 12th bio book and start studying from that first...


Even if you found this one easy, what would approach be if a tougher passage comes?

adi_800 wrote: Now, I will first pray for all the members who are gonna give the GMAT that no one gets this kinda passage at first...
I am from Engg back ground and donno anything from Bio side... When i solved this passage, I got 5 right out of 8 n i did not time this passage as i knew im not gonna get the questions right if i don't understand anything....

Hey aditya,

I am not that good at RC, but clocked under 6 minutes to read and comprehend the passage. (dont know hw well though).
Your hit rate of 5 out of 8 is pretty good i should say...

How were the first 4 questions and what was the net time taken for reading and these 4 questions?

I believe that the probability of us answering the last 4 questions right is more, since we are more familiar with the passage (unless as u mention...fatigued and not interested)

adi_800 wrote: I dont want to know answers of questions that were asked on this passage... I wanna know how would you all approach this passage..So lets consider a scenario that you are doing a descent job in the overall test...you have passed the first ten qs of the verbal and, on 11th question, up pops this bio passage that you HATE.... Now, what would be your strategy....You start reading the passage and you know you are not getting much after you read two-three sentences....

When I know the passage has way too much data, scientific passages... better draw/write flow diagrams and leave them off ur mind and on the paper...
Catch the broad Idea and the concept, do not get bogged down with data... also dont skip the data either , data could contain a potential answer.

adi_800 wrote: Then how would you apply the manhattan strategy of taking notes...
the first thing happens is you get demotivated by the language of the passage..then your comprehension goes down..
When the sentence that you this is understandable comes...you start reading with interest and then again passage starts to throw at you sentence that simply mean something in bio terms that you can not understand....

Keep yourself motivated, whatever motivates you, I say to myself, I have just got one life, I will try my best.
A change in attitude towards the problem itself could by itself help you out.

adi_800 wrote: How can make sure that you understand the passage at the best possible level...

If you dont catch much of the passage, re-read the 1st and last lines of the paragraph.
over here 'since' should be the indicator for the first paragraph.

adi_800 wrote: This was related to reading the passage... Now down to questions..
You have not understood much n up pops a inference question that you find difficult normally...Also, the q is on technical knowledge that you have not understood...

Now what would you do...
Is it worth investing time into these questions or you know the chances of u getting this one right are rare n just skip n concentrate on the next SC CR questions...

If this is your 4th RC and time is less for other CR and SC, get over the RC pretty quickly, reading the 1st and last lines and educated guesses, on whether an answer choice is too broad or narrow.

adi_800 wrote: I am asking this coz this is where your verbal score can take a beating.... If you happen to invest 12-13 minutes on this passage with 4 questions on this passage.....so that means you are on around 15th question and you have spent around 35 minutes...The next task of 26 questions in around 40 minutes can become daunting with 2 RC passage still remaining... N when you are pressed for time in verbal..you tend to lose your comprehension..

Now, this is the point where fellow test takers have gone down...So, I wanna know what is to be done in this scenario...

Btw... I hope you found the passage tough...if you found the passage EASY, then i would rather take a 12th bio book and start studying from that first...


Even if you found this one easy, what would approach be if a tougher passage comes?

Don't invest time reading the passage beyond 5-6 minutes,based on its lenght and complexity, one simply cannot compensate the time lost.
If CR and SC are your strength areas, dont be too worried about RC, rather worry about the pacing.

As a general strategy, my formula would be

4 RCs (14-15 questions) Max 35 mins.
Make up in ur mind.. I wont cross the 9 minute barrier for any RC no matter what!

27-26 remaining CR and SC, 1.5 mins each, I use the GMAT timer of gmatclub to clock around 75-90 seconds in the SC.
CR takes around 110 seconds.

I have a small booklet.. which i open while writing a test which i call the ulta counter...

at each of these hops... try and see the deficit in time.

6->65
9->60
15->50
20->40
25->31
26->30
31->20
36->11
37->9
38->7
39->5
40->3

but I do agree.. in real test conditions, things can and do go haywire...

Arora ji..thanks for the reply..
i think 5 minutes on these kinda passages would be d timing dat you would spend considering the liking/content/length...

I got 2/5/8 question number wrong on this passage, which were all inference questions...
but i did found that rest of the qs were easier...
one purpose of passage..relation of third to first(third starts with for example..so that was easier) 1-2 detail passage...

Hmm..flow diagrams....this is new to me...
will take ur point of catching the concept n move on...
I think the 4th RC would suffer considering the time constraint...

I have pinged the same problem to experts...lets c what their comments are..
till den... do check this thread..

Adi,

This is a short passage.Normally short passage has 3-4 questions.Average time you should take to read and answer the questions is 6-7 mins[Stricly not more than this].2.5-3 mins to read the passage.60-75 seconds to answer the question.

GMAT won't test your knowledge on particluar topic..Instead it tests how you much you are able to comprehend from the given information.Even tough there are technical terms in the passage,get the overview of the passage.Try to write the keyterms and reread the first and last sentence of each passage.Check how each passage is related to other passage.Finally you should not simply skip the RC questions.Surely your verbal score ll affected much.

The below link tell us how to deal with science passages?

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... e-passages

selango wrote:The below link tell us how to deal with science passages?

https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/04/ ... e-passages

Thanks for pointing to this thread....a very important point what Brian says....

Brian on April 16th, 2010 at 7:55 am

One other tip I find helpful - don't let complex language and spelling throw you off. You don't need to know how to spell the word or how to pronounce it. I find the passages often use multiple words with alliteration to throw you off.

So if there's a word like Lyophilization (go go Google search!), I might just call it "Lyo" or "Phil" as I read the passage. As long as I know what word it's substituting, that's all that matters. I find substituting the words for something I can easily pronounce keeps me more focused on the structure of the passage, tone, and author's intent. It may also help you save time (instead of re-reading a passage trying to pronounce the word in your head).

Yes don't dealt too much with technical terms or jargon..Just try to get the overview and see how it's related to d passage..

Adi,

I also find the science passages challenges.
But one thing I can suggest you.
If you are not getting the passage, don't worry.
Just go quickly.
Read the question choice and then read the 2-3 lines before and after the related part of the question.
By this strategy, at least you can solve 2 problems out of 4.
But if you loose hope, then you are going to loose all the 4 questions.

adi_800 wrote:Paragraph starts are indicated by the bold words...

A tough Passage Indeed. This is what I would have done on the real exam.
Let me tell you something, My RC is pretty poor. I will not recommend my strategy to anyone.
I believe in RC, everyone needs to come up with their own ways of attacking.

Saying that, let me explain my approach to this.

As Anand has rightly pointed out, there would be 3-4 questions on the test.
Out of which 2 would be easy and 2 would be difficult (inference or purpose).

Definitely, A passage like this would pull me down, but on the hindsight its good to see this because, it gives an Indication that you are doing well.

I agree with Arora's strategy of drawing flow diagram. BUt, I wouldnt have done that because I never practiced it earlier. Instead, I would write down the key terms to feel confident about the passage.
After spending about 5 mins, the 2 easy questions should be answerable.

Now comes the tough part, I will just skim through the terms that bring the contrast/ importance. Like, THEREFORE,SINCE,HOWEVER,BECAUSE..etc. A small map with these terms in the mind shouldnt take much time. This gives the organisation of the passage. This should help in addressing the tough questions. If not, I would give my best answer here and move forward.
I believe, the more time I spend choosing between the answers, more is the probability of getting it wrong. Falling for the GMAT trap.

Now one more obstacle is "when" you encounter such passage.
If I encounter it as first or second passage, I will carefully read it and answer. Spending slightly more time. This is not advisable, but Something that I cannot resist.
If I encounter it as third passage, Assuming that I dont have much time left, I will skim through the info first to see if I can understand the organisation of the passage. I think this is the key. Then go into the questions, to check back the answers into the passage.
If I encounter it as the fourth passage, GOD please dont.. I would implement the above strategy, If I can spend atleast 5 mins. Else, Look at organisation, guess and proceed.

If you are getting boggled with the content of the passage on the D-Day, that means you have not prepared well for the attack. This statement is easy to say. But, needs ton of practice to execute.
Time urself with some very difficult passages, so that you dont get boggled that day.

Too much Gyan from a Novice.

Will leave it to the experts to Comment more.

Received a PM. First off, this is a difficult passage. I want it to be clear from the start that the prospect of getting science passages in the GMAT should not depress you. The reason for this is that you just might not get such a passage! I myself did not see any science passages, even though I got a v47 (which is a good score, I'd argue). Science passages in the OG tend to be a lot clearer and more approachable than this one anyway (what's the source btw?).

Now, the way to approach this passage... First off, be patient and don't get discouraged! I know it seems a lot on your first read, but if you can simply tell that your main interest in this passage is the mRNA, then it might make it easier to follow. Think of the mRNA as the actor in a book or movie: he is your focus and you need to see what he does next. This helps structure the thought a bit.

I personally don't usually take notes when reading RC passages, but I have found that students tend to understand much better when you lay down the text in note-format, with the main ideas and A LOT of rephrasing. I've used this technique in CR and people seem to react very well to it. This is why when seeing such a dense passage, I'd say take a few notes (not too convoluted, though - no more than one phrase per paragraph), because it will help you follow the text much easier. Another poster mentioned connectors such as "however" or the likes: these you must keep track of, they're really important in the structure of the passage.

Don't worry if you have to re-read a phrase to understand it: it's perfectly normal. It might take a bit, but that's just how it is. You won't see all science passages, that's for sure, so you may be better off spending a bit more time on this one and make it up with the other passages. Try not to waste too much time though - in the end, you might not even need that phrase to answer the questions before you.

Timing wise... It's difficult to say really how much you should spend reading this thing. I say if you get a small passage, read it in 3 mins and then answer the questions - you'll see that it takes a lot less to answer each question after you're done reading - I'd say less than a minute per question. If it's a sciency passage such as the above, spend no more than 4 mins. If it's a huge, 4-5 paragraph passage, you'll need around 5 mins. Just to give you an example, I was doing some Beat The GMAT practice questions the other day and got a passage about mollusks. It was a pretty sciency passage, but I eventually realized that the mollusks are the "heroes" of the story and it got much easier then - managed to read the whole thing in 3 mins. It all comes down to understanding!

Valuable inputs..Thanks Dana..

guys do have a look at this thread

https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-font-t63166.html

engineers and scientists in particular get stuck on detail because they're taught to memorize concept names, definitions, phenomenon, and zillion other glossary of terms. i am from an engineering background too, but happen to be good at science/bio passages due to my personal experiences with the medical and health care system.

lately, i developed this strategy and find it very useful in saving time and improving comprehension:

NEVER memorize or spend time on pronouncing the detail: the 'proper noun' or 'jargon' you see in such passages. they're fishhooks to trap you and suck up all your time. INSTEAD, like @DanaJ and @arora007 said, abbreviate with the 1st letter or two, e.g. 'L', of the word and remember or simply note it down. your job is to read the language that talks about this 'L'. focus and traverse the common English language words of structure - subject, verb, and object - and not comprehend these fishhooks (you're not expected to either know them beforehand or learn them while you read).

similarly, note 'key dates' and 'people references' so you know where to go when a 'detail' or 'according to the passage' question pops up.

HTH