Help with Reading comprehension problems

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Help with Reading comprehension problems

by Galactus21 » Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:42 pm
I am having a problem with RC questions. When the passages are interesting, I have no problem with the questions (regardless of level of difficulty). However, when I read passages that do not interest me, I begin to space out and lose interest.

This tends to hurt me, as I would have to read it multiple times before I understand the topic. If I am interested, I usually need to just read it once. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to correct this?
Source: — Reading Comprehension |

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by shadowsjc » Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:26 pm
hi,

i used to be the same exact way. unfortunately, you'll have to quickly realize that in business school, you'll be forced to read dozens of reading pieces daily, and you won't be interested in all of them.

there are 2 things i did to combat this weakness in my RC. the first is i realized that reading for leisure (or even for school) is COMPLETELY different than reading the RC passages on the GMAT. on the GMAT, you should understand that there are only a small set of specific types of questions that they can ask you, and when you read, you should look out for these possible answers, rather than just reading the passage blindly. for example, if you get a boring passage about art, start thinking right away: "what is the authors tone?", "what is the main idea of the passage?", "what details are important from each paragraph?".

the second thing i did, which is slightly more abstract, is to lie to myself (lol). no matter what passage i would start reading, i began by telling myself that this was my favorite subject matter in the whole world, even if it wasn't.

the main point of RC passages is that they can be tackled just like anything else on the GMAT (like a geometry problem, a sentence correction, etc.). the subject matter of the RC's should have no bearing on your performance whatsoever ,as long as you stay focused and look for the important parts as you're reading.
my GMAT debrief: https://www.beatthegmat.com/came-through ... 44327.html

You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right, but it will not come near you.

- Psalm 91: 5-7

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help me!

by kiennguyen » Tue Oct 06, 2009 7:33 pm
i agree with what you say. However, when i do a gmat test, i can not get the main idea and the the important details quick b/c the time is short for each question. can you help me to overcome this problem, please? such as tell me some tips to practice.
thanks