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by bhumika.k.shah » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:56 am
Hi , I am giving my gmat in 20 days from now. I need to practice more in RC as I am quite bad at it.
Accuracy % - 50 -60 :-(
I am done solving passages from OG 10th and 12th edition.

What should i do now ?

I dont find any of the RC tricks and tactics useful as i like reading the passage first. I think the only way this can help me is by practicing more .

Can Someone please suggest

1.) where to practice more RCs from ?
2.) Should i try reading the Powerscore RC bible ?(( though i dont have one))
3.) within how many minutes should i finish reading + answering a i.) 30 lines passage ii.) 45 lines passage iii.) 60 lines passage iv.) all of the i.) ii.) iii.) with 5 questions v.) all of the i.) ii.) iii.) with 8 questions

Please suggest an immediate POA ( Plan of Action ) for me :(

Thanks
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by thephoenix » Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:04 am
bhumika.k.shah wrote:Hi , I am giving my gmat in 20 days from now. I need to practice more in RC as I am quite bad at it.
Accuracy % - 50 -60 :-(
I am done solving passages from OG 10th and 12th edition.

What should i do now ?

I dont find any of the RC tricks and tactics useful as i like reading the passage first. I think the only way this can help me is by practicing more .

Can Someone please suggest

1.) where to practice more RCs from ?
2.) Should i try reading the Powerscore RC bible ?(( though i dont have one))
3.) within how many minutes should i finish reading + answering a i.) 30 lines passage ii.) 45 lines passage iii.) 60 lines passage iv.) all of the i.) ii.) iii.) with 5 questions v.) all of the i.) ii.) iii.) with 8 questions

Please suggest an immediate POA ( Plan of Action ) for me :(

Thanks
hey bhumika if u have not tried the Kaplan's way of dealing RC then i wud suggest u to do so now , the method suggested in Kap verbal workbook is good enough to help u to pull your accuracy for GMAT RC by 20 % in the remaining 20 days
if one can implement those techniques properly then i think while taking RC then i guess 100% is also acheivable
try it
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 10, 2010 6:20 am
I used past LSATs when I ran out of RC passages from the official guide. I would only do that though if you think you will do well on the verbal. Otherwise, the difficulty of those passages will be too much for you. In terms of RC strategy, I wouldn't spend more than 10 minutes on any passage. Do not read the entire passage, only read the first paragraph. The reason for this is if you get a specific detail question, you will have to go back and reread the information anyway. It is better to not waste time reading the entire passage first, and then having to go back and reread to answer each question.
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by sreak1089 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:06 am
Interesting strategy mate. I usually read the entire passage before answering any question. I have a question. If you read only the first paragraph and then get a specifics question, how do you know in which paragraph to look out for?
osirus0830 wrote:Do not read the entire passage, only read the first paragraph. The reason for this is if you get a specific detail question, you will have to go back and reread the information anyway. It is better to not waste time reading the entire passage first, and then having to go back and reread to answer each question.
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:07 am
sreak1089 wrote:Interesting strategy mate. I usually read the entire passage before answering any question. I have a question. If you read only the first paragraph and then get a specifics question, how do you know in which paragraph to look out for?
osirus0830 wrote:Do not read the entire passage, only read the first paragraph. The reason for this is if you get a specific detail question, you will have to go back and reread the information anyway. It is better to not waste time reading the entire passage first, and then having to go back and reread to answer each question.
You just skim for the key words. Almost all of the specific questions will have key words. You can read the first sentence of each paragraph and determine if you think those key words will be in that paragraph. Otherwise you can just attempt to speed read for the key words, and don't attempt to read for understanding until you locate those key words.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-retake-o ... 51414.html

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by bhumika.k.shah » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:09 am
How will you work with this kinda strategy for inference based questions ? or questions asking for the authors view which might be contradictory / supportive of the text mentioned in the passage.
osirus0830 wrote:
sreak1089 wrote:Interesting strategy mate. I usually read the entire passage before answering any question. I have a question. If you read only the first paragraph and then get a specifics question, how do you know in which paragraph to look out for?
osirus0830 wrote:Do not read the entire passage, only read the first paragraph. The reason for this is if you get a specific detail question, you will have to go back and reread the information anyway. It is better to not waste time reading the entire passage first, and then having to go back and reread to answer each question.
You just skim for the key words. Almost all of the specific questions will have key words. You can read the first sentence of each paragraph and determine if you think those key words will be in that paragraph. Otherwise you can just attempt to speed read for the key words, and don't attempt to read for understanding until you locate those key words.
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:11 am
This is what I didn't realize when I took the test. To avoid being sued GMAC will make sure that every RC answer can be justified by one or two sentences from the passage. It is your job to identify those sentences. Even with inference questions, you have to find the topic in the passage and then find 1 or 2 sentences that clearly justifies your answer. The hardest questions are actually the "all of these are true EXCEPT" because those are just time consuming.
bhumika.k.shah wrote:How will you work with this kinda strategy for inference based questions ? or questions asking for the authors view which might be contradictory / supportive of the text mentioned in the passage.
osirus0830 wrote:
sreak1089 wrote:Interesting strategy mate. I usually read the entire passage before answering any question. I have a question. If you read only the first paragraph and then get a specifics question, how do you know in which paragraph to look out for?
osirus0830 wrote:Do not read the entire passage, only read the first paragraph. The reason for this is if you get a specific detail question, you will have to go back and reread the information anyway. It is better to not waste time reading the entire passage first, and then having to go back and reread to answer each question.
You just skim for the key words. Almost all of the specific questions will have key words. You can read the first sentence of each paragraph and determine if you think those key words will be in that paragraph. Otherwise you can just attempt to speed read for the key words, and don't attempt to read for understanding until you locate those key words.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-retake-o ... 51414.html

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by bhumika.k.shah » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:27 am
does this strategy take less than 10 mins ?

wouldnt it be convenient if u first read the passage so u would know where exactly the info would be ??which para ??? or something like that ??
osirus0830 wrote:This is what I didn't realize when I took the test. To avoid being sued GMAC will make sure that every RC answer can be justified by one or two sentences from the passage. It is your job to identify those sentences. Even with inference questions, you have to find the topic in the passage and then find 1 or 2 sentences that clearly justifies your answer. The hardest questions are actually the "all of these are true EXCEPT" because those are just time consuming.
bhumika.k.shah wrote:How will you work with this kinda strategy for inference based questions ? or questions asking for the authors view which might be contradictory / supportive of the text mentioned in the passage.
osirus0830 wrote:
sreak1089 wrote:Interesting strategy mate. I usually read the entire passage before answering any question. I have a question. If you read only the first paragraph and then get a specifics question, how do you know in which paragraph to look out for?
osirus0830 wrote:Do not read the entire passage, only read the first paragraph. The reason for this is if you get a specific detail question, you will have to go back and reread the information anyway. It is better to not waste time reading the entire passage first, and then having to go back and reread to answer each question.
You just skim for the key words. Almost all of the specific questions will have key words. You can read the first sentence of each paragraph and determine if you think those key words will be in that paragraph. Otherwise you can just attempt to speed read for the key words, and don't attempt to read for understanding until you locate those key words.
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by sreak1089 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:27 am
Hmmm...sounds interesting..Let me try this method next time...
osirus0830 wrote:This is what I didn't realize when I took the test. To avoid being sued GMAC will make sure that every RC answer can be justified by one or two sentences from the passage. It is your job to identify those sentences. Even with inference questions, you have to find the topic in the passage and then find 1 or 2 sentences that clearly justifies your answer. The hardest questions are actually the "all of these are true EXCEPT" because those are just time consuming.
osirus0830 wrote:
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:49 am
Just try it out on some sample passages. I think its faster. With this strategy, you get to handle RC like Critical Reasoning. You don't waste time with worthless details which are only there to distract you. Let me find an example.

https://www.economist.com/world/asia/dis ... s_box_main

In this article, what does the author mean by broken rice?

Go through the article and just skim it and see how fast you are able to find the info to answer that question. If it takes you longer than just reading the entire article, ignore everything I said, but if you find it in 30 seconds, and are able to answer the question without even knowing what the article is about, then my strategy works.
bhumika.k.shah wrote:does this strategy take less than 10 mins ?

wouldnt it be convenient if u first read the passage so u would know where exactly the info would be ??which para ??? or something like that ??
osirus0830 wrote:This is what I didn't realize when I took the test. To avoid being sued GMAC will make sure that every RC answer can be justified by one or two sentences from the passage. It is your job to identify those sentences. Even with inference questions, you have to find the topic in the passage and then find 1 or 2 sentences that clearly justifies your answer. The hardest questions are actually the "all of these are true EXCEPT" because those are just time consuming.
bhumika.k.shah wrote:How will you work with this kinda strategy for inference based questions ? or questions asking for the authors view which might be contradictory / supportive of the text mentioned in the passage.
osirus0830 wrote:
sreak1089 wrote:Interesting strategy mate. I usually read the entire passage before answering any question. I have a question. If you read only the first paragraph and then get a specifics question, how do you know in which paragraph to look out for?
osirus0830 wrote:Do not read the entire passage, only read the first paragraph. The reason for this is if you get a specific detail question, you will have to go back and reread the information anyway. It is better to not waste time reading the entire passage first, and then having to go back and reread to answer each question.
You just skim for the key words. Almost all of the specific questions will have key words. You can read the first sentence of each paragraph and determine if you think those key words will be in that paragraph. Otherwise you can just attempt to speed read for the key words, and don't attempt to read for understanding until you locate those key words.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-retake-o ... 51414.html

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by money9111 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:01 am
I won't answer the question re: what the economist passage says... i'll leave that for your practice.

but I would like to ask you about a disclaimer. Do you think this strategy should be used only if you're having difficulty with RC passages? For my personally I'd be weary about skipping information within the passage prior to reading the questions. Sure I use this strategy everyday at work deciphering emails...so I think I can at least pinpoint the paragraph that the information is to be found in.

I think at lower RC levels, the information may be more obvious, but at the higher levels I think reading the RC passages fully is best - at least for me! I wouldn't even feel comfortable committing to an answer if I hadn't read the whole passage.

maybe the last point is just something I have to get over?
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by Osirus@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:06 am
money9111 wrote:I won't answer the question re: what the economist passage says... i'll leave that for your practice.

but I would like to ask you about a disclaimer. Do you think this strategy should be used only if you're having difficulty with RC passages? For my personally I'd be weary about skipping information within the passage prior to reading the questions. Sure I use this strategy everyday at work deciphering emails...so I think I can at least pinpoint the paragraph that the information is to be found in.

I think at lower RC levels, the information may be more obvious, but at the higher levels I think reading the RC passages fully is best - at least for me! I wouldn't even feel comfortable committing to an answer if I hadn't read the whole passage.

maybe the last point is just something I have to get over?
This is how I thought too. I have always read at least 3 grade levels above my grade, so I understand the passages. This test is not about understanding the passage, its about being able to answer their questions within a certain time frame. I think its the best strategy for anyone, because you get bogged down by details otherwise. What will happen is that you will start to remember tangential information and think that you "know" the answer but won't remember the exact details of it. Its best to approach RC in the way I outlined, but I'll let you figure out what works best for you. Just keep it in mind if you see yourself missing questions you don't think you should in RC.
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by sreak1089 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:54 am
Let me try this assignment tomorrow :) having a long day at office :)
Just try it out on some sample passages. I think its faster. With this strategy, you get to handle RC like Critical Reasoning. You don't waste time with worthless details which are only there to distract you. Let me find an example.

https://www.economist.com/world/asia/dis ... s_box_main
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by money9111 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:54 pm
osirus0830 - so you're just going to let me fail first?!?! gee thanks! haha no just joking... i'll learn after my class, unless this is taught in MGMAT prep.. RC is in 2 weeks!
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by Brian@VeritasPrep » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:43 pm
Hey guys,

Great topic - and everyone is correct in that Reading Comprehension questions don't exactly measure your ability to read, or to understand the passage, so much as they test your ability to read "the way the GMAT wants you to".

By that, I mean read like a manager - remember, this is a test of your fitness for business school, and for business. Managers typically don't need to be too concerned with the details of anything particularly technical, but they do need to understand what the passage (or whatever they're reading) is trying to accomplish, and be ready to make decisions based on it.

With that in mind, I'd recommend this - read each paragraph enough to be able to answer the question "why was this paragraph written?". You don't need to be able to say "this paragraph outlines the theory that X and Y lead to Z except for in cases of A and B together", or whatever the science might dictate, but you do need to be able to say "this paragraph introduces one theory regarding the origin of plant life". If you do that, you'll be set up for a few things:

1) Any question regarding the primary purpose of the passage (you'll get one of those for each passage) will try to get you to select an answer choice that is discussed in the passage, but for which the theme isn't carried through the whole thing. The primary purpose must be reflected throughout the passage.

2) For any specific questions, you'll know which paragraph to return to based on your understanding of what is discussed in each paragraph.

3) For any questions regarding the author's intent, you'll know what the author was seeking to do in each paragraph, and have a good understanding of the overall intent, plus the reasons that the author would include particular quotes, details, etc.

That's not to say that osirus' strategy won't work, but I've seen enough questions that require that you understand the overall gist of the passage, and not just the first paragraph (if it's well-written, the first paragraph will be a thesis statement, but that's not always the case) that I prefer the above strategy, which sets you up pretty nicely to attack pretty much all of the questions.
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