Need help in comprehending RC passages

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Need help in comprehending RC passages

by abcgmat » Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:53 pm
Hi ,

I am non a native Englosh speaker and I find Comprehending RC passages very tough even after my repeated struggle. Though I am average at spoken english when it comes to reading i find it hard to
comprehend in first attempt. I would like to get some tips in how I can improve my comprehending ability the very first time I read it

Some passages like below are hard to grasp:
Before Koko, Washoe, and other apes first showed they possessed some facility with symbols, people spoke with reasonable confidence about what it was that separated humans from other animals. If there was disagreement about whether the difference was the ability to construct sentences, think symbolically,................

I have seen tips to write down what each paragraoh says ..But due to lack of comprehending passages
I find it difficult to proceed. Some passages have lot of new words and the style in which they are written is tough for me comprehend. Because of this I dont find much improvement in my RC score.
Can someone give me tips on how i can improve .
Source: — GMAT Strategy |

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by sam2304 » Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:00 pm
RC is the toughest section in GMAT verbal. :) We can improve RC only with lot of practice. Try to practice 3 RCs a day till your G Day. There is no specific strategy for RCs. Try different strategies for RC. Manhattan asks you to write notes, Kaplan asks you to devise mental map, princeton - paraphrasing try out every strategy and you will feel more comfortable with any one or use a mixed approach. If you find difficult to understand things take notes it helps you a lot. Only way is to keep practicing with the right strategy whichever you feel comfortable, you will soon see an improvement. Before that tryout all the methods or devise your own even if possible. More general reading will also help you out.

Check out these links as well.
https://grockit.com/blog/gmat/2011/03/21 ... g&eev=gmat
https://www.beatthegmat.com/rc-99-passage-39-t81093.html
https://www.beatthegmat.com/ways-to-bbla ... tml#407231
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by tpr-becky » Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:58 pm
If you can't read an entire paragraph and summarize it then start smaller - it will take a bit of time studying but can help. Try reading it one sentence at a time and then try to summarize in 4-5 words, then, after summarizing each sentence try to create a paragraph summary. It is important to note that you should be summarizing, not taking notes - which means you should read, think and then write. AFter a while, you should get increasingly better at summarizing whole paragraphs. If vocabulary is the greatest difficulty then read, read, read - newsweek and time magazine are about the right reading level and look up every word you don't know. You can use the sentence summary technique in these magazines as well.

Hope that helps.
Becky
Master GMAT Instructor
The Princeton Review
Irvine, CA