BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Site Admin
Posts: 6778
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Thanked: 1249 times
Followed by:994 members

General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

by beatthegmat » Sat Apr 15, 2006 2:20 pm
Here's guide called, "General Strategies for Reading Comprehension," by Stephen Bolton. A great guide to study, especially for those people who don't have a good sense on how to fundamentally attack RC on the GMAT.
Attachments
General Strategies for RC.doc
(68 KiB) Downloaded 10887 times
Last edited by beatthegmat on Wed Oct 03, 2007 8:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Beat The GMAT | The MBA Social Network
Community Management Team

Research Top GMAT Prep Courses:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-prep-courses

Research The World's Top MBA Programs:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/school
Top
Source: — Reading Comprehension |
Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:34 am
Thanked: 1 times

Re: General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

by nishant_nt » Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:18 am
beatthegmat wrote:Here's guide called, "General Strategies for Reading Comprehension," by Stephen Bolton. A great guide to study, especially for those people who don't have a good sense on how to fundamentally attack RC on the GMAT.

This file download is available only to members. Register today--it's free!

i am a biginer here ..dont know how to download this document ..plz help me.
nishant singh
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Site Admin
Posts: 6778
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Thanked: 1249 times
Followed by:994 members

Re: General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

by beatthegmat » Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:36 am
nishant_nt wrote:
beatthegmat wrote:Here's guide called, "General Strategies for Reading Comprehension," by Stephen Bolton. A great guide to study, especially for those people who don't have a good sense on how to fundamentally attack RC on the GMAT.

This file download is available only to members. Register today--it's free!

i am a biginer here ..dont know how to download this document ..plz help me.
Login with your username and click on the link that says 'Download' on the first post--there is a paperclip icon right above the link. Save the document to your computer.
Beat The GMAT | The MBA Social Network
Community Management Team

Research Top GMAT Prep Courses:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-prep-courses

Research The World's Top MBA Programs:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/school
Top
Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2006 10:38 pm

by vishal_sharma » Sat Aug 12, 2006 11:44 pm
A very good document. Thanks a lot for sharing it Eric. Apart from all this is there any way to increase the concentration level, i think I'm lacking in that area....

Any suggestions are more than welcome.
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Site Admin
Posts: 6778
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Thanked: 1249 times
Followed by:994 members

by beatthegmat » Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:23 pm
vishal_sharma wrote:A very good document. Thanks a lot for sharing it Eric. Apart from all this is there any way to increase the concentration level, i think I'm lacking in that area....

Any suggestions are more than welcome.
Hi Vishal:

Check out this post from my blog: https://beatthegmat.blocked/2005/06 ... re-rc.html

This may sound like odd advice, but one strategy that really helped me focus on RC passages was pretending that I was really interested in the subject matter discussed in the passages. I tried to read each RC passage with an attitude that I really wanted to learn something from them. Having this attitude helped me improve my performance quite a bit.

This sounds simple, but you may find this advice helpful for you as well. Best of luck!
Beat The GMAT | The MBA Social Network
Community Management Team

Research Top GMAT Prep Courses:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-prep-courses

Research The World's Top MBA Programs:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/school
Top
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 8:31 pm

perfect

by krishnakanthpps » Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:27 pm
Hi Erin

I really feel thats an attitude that did help me a lot.

It also involves a psycological aspect in it that, when we tend to read it with a desire to sqeeze out some information of the passage, the passage becomes smoother for the passage to get into our head, which helps us in eliminating silly mistakes that happen.

But then, it does require a lot of patience to have that desire to read it with a desire to sqeeze some info out of it.

but then it does help.. a lot indeed.
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
Site Admin
Posts: 6778
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Thanked: 1249 times
Followed by:994 members

by beatthegmat » Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:32 pm
Haha, Krishna--wrong forum. The name's ERIC. :D
Beat The GMAT | The MBA Social Network
Community Management Team

Research Top GMAT Prep Courses:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/gmat-prep-courses

Research The World's Top MBA Programs:
https://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/school
Top
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 15
Joined: Tue May 23, 2006 8:31 pm

oops

by krishnakanthpps » Sun Aug 13, 2006 8:48 pm
blooper. but then posted it at the place where i was supposed to post.
Top
User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 2469
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2006 12:09 pm
Location: BtG Underground
Thanked: 85 times
Followed by:14 members

by aim-wsc » Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:44 am
this thread s rocking man! though i sweared not to go to V & Q sections for next 4months, i couldnt resist myself.
i used some different strat. pretend that u r ultra.busy person & keep asking this question after every sentence- why i m reading this?
that way u kno d purpose. what author wants to say.

This radical strat worked for me.
Eric's very positive approach. & i admire that.
Top
User avatar
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 57
Joined: Fri Sep 22, 2006 12:09 pm
Location: Bangalore
Thanked: 13 times
Followed by:3 members

Remember for RC

by Psychodementia » Wed Oct 11, 2006 2:03 pm
If there is one thing I want people to remember in RC it has to be:
"Overcome the fear of missing something"

There can't be a greater example of this then to remember that none of us remember who coined the phrase "The devil lies in the details" :D

Tell yourself a million times.....nay, a billion times before you pick the next RC passage. You don't need to read the entire passage to understand it entirely. And you don't need to understand the passage entirely in order to answer all the questions.

Learning something new is hard. Unlearning an old habit is harder. We have become so used to remembering the details for our school exams we forget that its the concept that is important. We can *always* revisit the passage for minor details.

So next time you hit the passage, try this (try this for 5 passages and I guarantee you will see a change):

(1) Focus on the first few lines - read critically to understand what the author is trying to say. For longer passages this could be roughly 1/3 of the first paragraph.

(2) Skim the rest of the passage. In most cases, the author just ends up justifying what he is trying to say in the first few lines. Skim for the GIST (GI -> General Idea S->Structure T->Tone).

(3) Now for a longer passage try putting down in less than 10words for each paragraph what you thought was the crux. For shorter passages, the same might be for a chunk of 3-4sentences.

eg. Author shows 2 reasons a & b for a theory.
Goes onto show why a is wrong and b is unproven
Explains his own theory (c)
Gives lots of examples for c to be right

(4) Remember that while reading you might not even want to read the examples given and dive straight into the questions

More about strategy on each type of question in the next post.

HTH,

Arun
Top
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Feb 15, 2007 1:50 am

by jaheer » Tue Feb 20, 2007 7:55 am
Hi Arun,

I liked your post. It helped me, like you promised.

Would like to have your other posts .

Thanks.
Top

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 2228
Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm
Location: Montreal, Canada
Thanked: 639 times
Followed by:694 members
GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:16 pm
Totally agree with Arun - just get the big ideas and the structure of the passage on your first read-through, NOT all that annoying detail. If you know the big ideas and how the passage is organized, you can find any answers you need when you get "specific detail" questions.
Please note: I do not use the Private Messaging system! I will not see any PMs that you send to me!!

Stacey Koprince
GMAT Instructor
Director of Online Community
Manhattan GMAT

Contributor to Beat The GMAT!

Learn more about me
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 58
Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:51 pm

by gmat765 » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:14 pm
Great materials, where does it come from?
Top
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 438
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:44 am
Thanked: 26 times

by chidcguy » Sat May 10, 2008 7:02 pm
Trying to download this and it downloads a file download.php.

I am on a mac if it makes any difference.
Top
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 438
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:44 am
Thanked: 26 times

by chidcguy » Mon May 12, 2008 8:40 am
Still the same problem. Downloads a php file
Top
Post new topic Post Reply