serious problem with RC, pls, help

[tanviet]

First problem

I took gmat and fail. I can not read the first passage which is about history. Now I realize that I can read natural science passage and can not read history passage. How can I improve reading history passage? pls help

second problem

I am very weak at RC and do not have new passages to read any more. Reading old passage help me to make inference when answer detail questions while my main weak point is that I do not realize structure of passage. I need NEW passages to practice skills to realize structure of passages. If I read old passages again, I can not get skills to realize structure of passages. How can I get NEW passages which are relevant to GMAT?. pls, help

[harsh.champ]

First problem

I took gmat and fail. I can not read the first passage which is about history. Now I realize that I can read natural science passage and can not read history passage. How can I improve reading history passage? pls help

second problem

I am very weak at RC and do not have new passages to read any more. Reading old passage help me to make inference when answer detail questions while my main weak point is that I do not realize structure of passage. I need NEW passages to practice skills to realize structure of passages. If I read old passages again, I can not get skills to realize structure of passages. How can I get NEW passages which are relevant to GMAT?. pls, help

Hey duongthang,
Don't lose hope.For improving your reading of history passage I would recommend 1)going through history articles in the newspapers,magazines,books etc. This would make you conversant with the terms and the writing style of such passages.

2)For improving your reading skills,READ A LOT.Go through newspapers,2-3 magazines,1 novel every week.
The important point to be kept in mind is that always try to speed-read rather than leisure-read.
Also,don't skip boring sections of the newspapers and head straight to the juicy news.
Most chances are that on the day of the exam you would get one of those boring topics.

3)For new passages relevant to GMAT,do the OG and the Verbal Review.
Then you can look forward to guides by major companies like Kaplan ,Manhattan etc.
Also,you can visit the RC forum time to time as you can find new questions in them.

Hope it helps.

[KapTeacherEli]

harsh.champ has it right. When you're struggling with English, simply reading is the best way to go.

That being said, make sure you are using a set of strategies (as a Kaplan representative, I of course recommend Kaplan's material.) It's very important not only to be able to read, but also to be able to not read. In other words, expert test-takers able to use keywords and paragraph structure to identify what are main ideas that they must understand, and what are examples and minor details that can be safely ignored until a question asks about them.

[piyushdabomb]

Hey there,

Although I don't sound like a native speaker, my RC scores place me in the native speaker zone. Here's are a few quick tips that will seriously help you become better.

1. Just read an article from Harvard Business Review, Financial Times, or SciMag for the purposes of 'looking at text'. Don't read for comprehension. The more text you skim, the better your eyes wil glare over structure. This might sound counter intuitive, but trust me, just do it for 1 article.

2. Take another article, read it, summarize the paragraph, then move to the next paragraph, summarize it, and repeatedly follow this procedure till you get to the end. Then, summarize the entire piece to yourself. Initially this might take you 30 minutes on one article. Trust me, its not easy. I'm still score close to my 30's on my verbal, but I've jumped up 10 points.

3. For speed reading, just read a few words at a time rather than glaring at one word at a time. Try to picture a few words at a time.

4. Don't re-read unless you absolutely are losing concentration. Remember that you don't need to re-read because the author has likely gone ahead to explain it further, so you'll be better.

I'm obviously not a guru yet, because I'm weak in my verbal, but so far, I see improvement. Try it!

[piyushdabomb]

Another point to make about the other respondents -

Everyone is saying that 'simply reading is the way to go'. I agree to a point, but how can the questioner do that if he can't comprehend the material? My assumption is that you're saying that he should read a lot assuming he can comprehend everything.

I'd say - go read 1 article and comprehend it till you 'get it'. Ask yourself what the author's main intent is, the mood, the overall point, etc... I think that will help more.!