Help Needed For RC

ajaypatil_am · Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 10:44 pm Post subject: Help Needed For RC

Hi All,
I am a Indian.My reading speed is 100 WPM (Word Per Min) . Most of the times in case of RC.I find I don't get the main idea of the passage and only able to answer specific detail questions.Can you please suggest me what steps I should take in order to improve my speed and accuracy in RC.

My GMAT is on 26th JAN 2008 ,So have just 2 months in my hand.I have finished RC from Kaplan Comprehensive book.Currently doing it from OG 11.But,Have accuracy just 40-50 % worried Sad

Thanks,
Ajay

mayonnai5e · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 9:17 am Post subject:

Have you tried reading through some of the books out there on RC strategies? What kinds of reading practice have you been doing as part of your prep? What do you currently do on RC? Do you take notes? Or do you just read through the passage?

ajaypatil_am · Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 10:06 pm Post subject:

Hi mayonnai5e,
I finished all RC questions in Kaplan Comprehensive.
Nowdays,Doing OG.I just read,never make the notes.Can you mention how you tackle a particular RC passage in detail.I would like to know your way of studying RC.
Thanks,
Ajay

mayonnai5e · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 2:26 am Post subject:

Start taking notes under timed conditions, but don't answer the questions. Use the RC1000 document just to see lots of passages. As you take notes, make sure to note the important things that will be asked about. Next read the questions and, for each, verify whether the notes you have taken would help you solve that question. Do your notes point you to where you can find the answer? Do your notes provide the information you need? You can review the other third party books on RC note taking to see what items are important.

This is important because it will let you know if you are taking the RIGHT notes. You can take paragraphs of notes, but if you aren't noting the important things that the test writers would actually ask about then you are wasting a lot of time and not truly understanding the passage from the view of a test writer. This is the phase to "understand" what test writers deem most important.

Repeat this for several passages until you start to read passages from the test writers point of view and you can detect what the important points are. After you get really used to this, you can stop taking notes and start training your mind to note the important points and track them.

This is what worked for me. Please look at this link to see another post about RC help:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/stacey-t6556.html

beatthegmat · Posted: Sun Nov 18, 2007 2:04 pm Post subject:

Be sure to check out the reading comprehension resources here: http://del.icio.us/beatthegmat

There are some good tips for improving reading speed and comprehension.

ajaypatil_am · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:41 pm Post subject:

Thanks Eric Very Happy

I'm nowdays solving all the RC questions in OG 10

beatthegmat · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:52 pm Post subject:

beingAndNothing · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:32 pm Post subject:

mayonnai5e & eric:

i would like to have some inputs from both of you regarding "taking notes". i usually try and take notes after reading each sentence. but i end up spending something like 5 minutes on a short passage whereas most books suggest spending about 3 minutes on a short passage. if i try and summarize 2-3 lines in one go, my comprehension as well as accuracy suffers.

thanks.

beatthegmat · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:25 pm Post subject:

mayonnai5e · Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:43 pm Post subject:

I agree with Eric. It really depends on how long it takes you to actually answer the questions that dictates how fast you read the passage.

As for your question, summarizing every sentence means you are essentially rewriting the entire passage. That is not the way to go. The whole point of taking notes is to keep a general overview of what is being discussed so you can reference it easily later, but if you're taking notes every sentence, you may be better off just not taking notes at all and just carefully reading. In any case, my suggestion is to take notes paragraph by paragraph. The exceptions are when you come across something that really sets off bells in your head; in other words, something that has a very highly likely of being asked about. For example, read this fake sentence:

"The scientific studies, though there are weaknesses in the methodology, appear to provide support for Watson's theory."

If I read this, the phrase "though there are weaknesses in the methodology" would set off bells in my head because that is something that totally sounds like it will be asked about in an inference question:

"It can be inferred that the author believes what about the support for Watson's ideas?"

Generally, I took notes based on paragraphs unless I read something that really seemed important and after practicing with many passages, you should start getting a feel for what types of things will be asked about.

ajaypatil_am · Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 3:38 pm Post subject:

Thanks mayonnai5e ,For such a detail post ,I have heard LSAT study material is also good for RC,Do you have any comments on this.
-Ajay

mayonnai5e · Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:25 am Post subject:

Sorry for the late response - I didn't notice your new post. I have not had any experience with any of the LSAT material. On this forum, other users have mentioned the LSAT CR book, but I have never seen any mention of an particular LSAT RC book. Sorry I couldn't be of more help..