Other problem I am facing is, during skimming. When i try to skim facts / examples in passage, its more or less like skipping it and by the time i reach to end of passage, I have no idea what was discussed in those facts/examples. :( :( So when i get some specific details questions, I have to search ( as i am not able to locate directly) & re-read complete details including couple of previous lines. :(
well -- unless you are a blazing fast reader, you just aren't going to have the time to actually read through all the specifics. (plus, noticing
all the specifics would be a colossal waste of time, anyway -- remember that you're only going to get questions on two, or maybe three, of those details at the very most. considering that there are a lot more than 2-3 details in the whole passage, the amount of time that you'll be wasting on the others is unconscionable.)
here's a compromise:
think of the way you'd explore a new city -- you'd just notice the
general neighborhoods of the city at first. i.e., you wouldn't notice lots of individual storefronts while driving through the city for the first time -- just "that's an italian neighborhood", "that's an industrial neighborhood", etc. then,
if you wanted to find specific things, you'd go to the appropriate neighborhood -- which you found before -- and look there.
in fact, this is the
only reasonable way to find things while exploring a city (barring technologies such as internet directories, etc.) think of how ridiculously difficult it would be to find, say, an italian deli
by randomly trying to remember where you'd seen an italian deli. now, think of how much easier it would be to find that same deli if you remembered where you saw an italian neighborhood, and then went there and looked for the deli.
you should do the same with long passages:
just notice the "neighborhoods" of details. for instance, if some paragraph describes the 4 steps of some scientific process, don't bother to try to remember what the steps actually
are; instead, just say "hey, that's the 'steps' neighborhood" or "hey, that's the 'procedure' neighborhood". then, if the passage
asks you about one of those steps, you go back to the appropriate neighborhood and find it.
What should i do during skimming to retain at least some amount of information? Should i note down few words discussed there?
maybe. although it's more important to get a sense of the general "neighborhood" of that part of the passage, as stated above. if you can get that general sense by noting a few words, then go ahead and do that.
I would also like to mention getting gist of the passage & paragraph ( main idea, tone , structure) really helping me to answer general question with good accuracy level. :) :) is
that's good news.