Hi Hutch,

Fromt the Kaplan perspective, the notes are necessary! Of course, with practice, those notes will get sparser; in my experience, higher scoring test-takers are better able to distill key ideas, and better able to associate minor details with the broad concepts in their summaries and locate them efficiently. But I encourage even 700+ scoring students to take notes on every passage. After all, your brain will be plenty occupied with problem-solving as the test progresses; my split your focus with memorization as well?

Best of luck!

Hi,
I bought Kaplan Verbal Workbook to help me with verbal part.
At the moment I am struggling to make my passage map. It seems that I miss the scope note.
How can I recognize what is the scope of the passage?
Thanks!

I would say that all test takers do take notes, it is just that some of them do it on the scratch paper and some take mental notes in their heads. Any but the most advanced test takers should probably be writing something down until they find that this is not needed.

I think you will find that anyone who just reads right through the passage with no pause at all is set up for trouble unless they are just very gifted in this area.

The key, whether you write out the notes or just make a point to keep them in your mind is to pause periodically and gather yourself before you proceed. Ask yourself what the main idea of that paragraph was - try to integrate what you just read with the rest of the passage - if you find that you do not understand what you read then you should go back and re-read that section or that paragraph.

One more thing to note - ironically the things that people most want to write down are the least important to write down!! Names, dates, numbers are all easy to locate if you need to return to the passage and are only really going to be the answer for specific questions so you will have the opportunity to return to the text for those. The things that you need to understand and take note of are the things that move the passage along but are harder to scan and locate later on - the development of the theory, the course of the historical action, the results of the business plan. Your notes need to be at the right level, detailed enough to capture the flow of the article but not so detailed that you are rewriting the passage.

Here is an article that I wrote about taking notes on Reading Comp. https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/08/ ... prehension

and Zeza - if you take down the main idea of each paragraph you should be able to look to those notes and understand what the scope is. It is what the passage is actually talking about. "Astronomy" is not a scope. "White Dwarf Stars" is not a scope. "Three theories of the formation of our solar system" is more like what the scope should be...

For me, taking notes has more to do with UNDERSTANDING THE PASSAGE, then with actual material that i always refer to when answering passages. I started off going Blind and reading the passage for better understanding (w/o notes), when fatigued i found myself skimming and reading the passage and often my mind would drift away (subconsciously).. Taking notes of the MAIN point of each passage makes sure that i actually read each passage carefully (knowing that i will have to write down the main point)..This keeps me focused 100% on the para i am reading (helps even more with the BORING topics)..Even though i may not actually go over the notes i make, it helps me UNDERSTAND my reading much better.. What helps time wise is also "READING THE FIRST QUESTION" before I begin reading the passage as it knocks down a minute or so that i may have otherwise taken to LOOK for our think of the answer to the question..

Just my 2 cents..

@ David
Great article David. I have read quite a few articles on RC strategy but your article nails it on the head. I have my Gmat on 8th December. I am not too strong in RC & CR but i wanted to go out there with a strategy. As suggested, i am going to practice the Stop, write and read mantra on OG 12-13 RCs and develop a game plan so that i am ready on the test day. Although it is not something which can be achieved in 4-5 days time but having a roadmap helps you to be confident in tackling diverse RC topics because you have done the RC before( faced the same structure before, the content may vary).

Regards.

@ David
What would you suggest for CR & SC. If you have written any articles kindly share.

Sure philanthropist thanks for asking! -

If there is a subject where I write the most it is CR. But I end up doing lots of articles for SC as I find it a very interesting game. There are more but this should be a good start.

Here are links to some SC articles and postings:

Relative Clauses
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/05/ ... correction

Sentence correction strategy: Think "Better" not "Best
https://www.beatthegmat.com/sentence-cor ... 69595.html

Watch out for Zombies in Sentence Correction
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/01/ ... correction

The Truth about Changing the Meaning in Sentence Correction
https://www.beatthegmat.com/the-truth-ab ... tml#342304

Split the Pair in Sentence Correction
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/04/ ... correction

A discussion of a Good Veritas Sentence Correction question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/unlike-water ... tml#323651


Critical Reasoning articles and postings:

MIP: Critical Reasoning the Tim Duncan Way
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2011/02/ ... duncan-way

Approaching assumptions like an expert
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/06/ ... -an-expert

The future of Critical Reasoning (Best completes the passage)
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/03/ ... -reasoning

The key to the GMAT in one CR problem
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/10/ ... ntire-gmat

Self-proving answer choices on Inference Questions
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2012/01/ ... -questions

Here is a document from December 2010 with 13 original questions that I wrote and links to another 12 postings. You should check this one out if you have not already.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/veritas-expe ... tml#327096

The importance of habits in Critical Reasoning (and GMAT as a whole)
https://www.beatthegmat.com/weaken-the-a ... tml#367641

Here is a discussion of how to approach "Must Useful to Know" type of questions.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/evaluate-wha ... 72335.html

Bold Faced question from OG Verbal Review 1
https://www.beatthegmat.com/bold-faced-q ... 65499.html

This is an interesting Critical Reasoning that was "thanked" several times.
https://www.beatthegmat.com/elections-t87699.html#390297

A Flawed Reasoning Question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/kap-800-ques ... tml#392262

Veritas Paradox Question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/source-verit ... tml#387533

Plan Question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/challenging- ... tml#382251

An Inference Question
https://www.beatthegmat.com/inference-qu ... tml#370107

As suggested by few experts the average time to be spent on RC is 2.5 min on short passage and 3.5 min on Long passage. However, if i start taking notes then the time consumed to read the passage is more than required. Also the notes i note at times is more than required.

Please advice, what should be the exact idea while taking notes and how efficient it can be in compare if i do not.

I have to say that I agree with Brent!

I am a little more lenient - I usually tell my students 6-12 words for each paragraph!

The idea of summarizing conflicting points of view is good and I cannot emphasize enough the fact that you need to understand the central concept of the passage!

I was recently working with a student who felt time pressure on a reading passage and attempted the questions without first understanding the core concept. It was a social sciences passage and he missed all 4 questions. Once we went over it and the student understood the concept he quickly go those questions right.

So here is the thing, okay, if you are actually "taking notes" you are doing the wrong thing. Because what will you write down for notes? Names, dates, numbers, lists, proper nouns, etc. But on the GMAT these are the easiest things to go back and find!!! You do not want to write down these details, you want to understand the main concepts, or the theory or theories - these are the things that are not easily located when you need to answer a question.