Question about difficulty in RC questions

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RyanJW: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 33; Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:58 pm; Thanked: 4 times

by RyanJW » Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:42 am

Hi everyone,

I was wondering how the difficulty level increases in RC questions. Do the passages themselves get more and more convoluted as your score increases? Do just the questions get more difficult? Or is it a combination of the two?

I find myself improving at RC questions pretty quickly and would like to equip myself for the tougher ones, but would like to know what to focus on.

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Reading Comprehension | Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:42 am

alex.gellatly: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 435; Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:27 amFollowed by: 16 members; Thanked: 48 times

by alex.gellatly » Mon Aug 27, 2012 5:03 pm

RyanJW wrote:Hi everyone,

I was wondering how the difficulty level increases in RC questions. Do the passages themselves get more and more convoluted as your score increases? Do just the questions get more difficult? Or is it a combination of the two?

I find myself improving at RC questions pretty quickly and would like to equip myself for the tougher ones, but would like to know what to focus on.

Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks.

I'm not exactly sure either, but I'm assuming its a little bit of both. A good strategy would be to apply your energy on both more difficult readings as well as more difficult questions because know one knows what questions you'll get on D day.

A useful website I found that has every quant OG video explanation:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/useful-websi ... tml#475231

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mohan514: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 82; Joined: Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:33 pm; Location: india

by mohan514 » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:51 am

i had a similar doubt..
but my performance is not good at rc in the verbal section

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GMAT/MBA Expert

Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pmFollowed by: 1268 members; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:51 am

This is a good question for the Ask the Test Maker forum: https://www.beatthegmat.com/ask-the-test-maker-f71.html

My guess is that both the passage difficulty and the question difficulty increase as you improve.

One question though: Once you get an answer, what will you do with the information? Will you ignore easy passages (or questions) in your studies?

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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RyanJW: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 33; Joined: Tue Feb 07, 2012 10:58 pm; Thanked: 4 times

by RyanJW » Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:03 am

Hey Brent,

Thanks for the response- I really like the GMATPrepNow videos.

I'm asking this for two reasons: the first is sheer curiosity, I know the direction in which more advanced quant problems head, the advanced SC questions are fairly obvious as well, and the advanced CR questions get a bit harder to analyze but I can't put my finger on what would make an RC question more difficult. Like you said, I'm leaning toward a little bit of both.

The other reason is that I feel I am progressing well with my studying of RC, of all of the sections I'm studying I'm seeing the most consistency/growth in this area and feel that I'm ready to tackle "advanced" RC questions. But before I just start reading lots of boring passages (the area I feel I need the most work in), I'd like to see if I can develop some kind of method of attacking these tougher questions rather than just looking for passages with, in my opinion, boring subject matter.

To answer your question - that information would satisfy my curiosity but I wouldn't necessarily let it dictate my study method.

Thanks,
Ryan

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GMAT/MBA Expert

Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pmFollowed by: 1268 members; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Tue Sep 11, 2012 6:44 am

RyanJW wrote:Hey Brent,

Thanks for the response- I really like the GMATPrepNow videos.

I'm asking this for two reasons: the first is sheer curiosity, I know the direction in which more advanced quant problems head, the advanced SC questions are fairly obvious as well, and the advanced CR questions get a bit harder to analyze but I can't put my finger on what would make an RC question more difficult. Like you said, I'm leaning toward a little bit of both.

The other reason is that I feel I am progressing well with my studying of RC, of all of the sections I'm studying I'm seeing the most consistency/growth in this area and feel that I'm ready to tackle "advanced" RC questions. But before I just start reading lots of boring passages (the area I feel I need the most work in), I'd like to see if I can develop some kind of method of attacking these tougher questions rather than just looking for passages with, in my opinion, boring subject matter.

To answer your question - that information would satisfy my curiosity but I wouldn't necessarily let it dictate my study method.

Thanks,
Ryan

That's great that you're seeing a lot of improvement in RC - this is typically a subject that students have difficulty improving in.

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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