Critical Reasoning<\/a>, and Reading Comprehension —- about 13-14 of each.\u00a0 The RC questions, obviously, will be “clumped” around passages.\u00a0 A “short” passage (200-250 words) typically has 3 questions, and a “long” passage (300-350 words) typically has 4 questions.\u00a0 On your GMAT section, you most likely will see three “short” RC passages and one “long” passage, although you could see two of each.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Reading the RC passage<\/h2>\n
What we recommend at Magoosh is: take time to read the passage — actually to read it.\u00a0 This would be 2.5 minutes for a short passage and 3.5 minutes for a long passage.\u00a0 From now on, in all your GMAT RC practice, set a timer when you read to convince yourself that these times are, in fact, ample for digesting a passage.\u00a0 GMAT RC is not about speed reading.\u00a0 It is not about a mad rush through a passage.\u00a0 It is about actually reading in precisely the way you will have to read articles and memos once you have your MBA and are out working in some management position.\u00a0 You want to be able to read it once and get what you need.\u00a0 Yes, you may have to go back and re-read a specific part to answer a detail question, but your first reading should be enough to give you the layout of the whole passage.<\/p>\n
You goal is in reading is to follow the argument and understand it, but not to memorize.\u00a0 Map, don’t memorize<\/strong>!\u00a0 As you are learning, the practice of \u00a0note-taking can help you develop this absolutely crucial skill. \u00a0Students resist practicing with note-taking, thinking it will take more time, but in the long run, mastering the skill of \u00a0“map don’t memorize” through note-taking is one of the biggest time-savings on the entire GMAT.<\/p>\nWhat notes do you take?\u00a0 Write down the main idea, preferably in ten words or fewer.\u00a0 Feel free to use arrows, symbols, any shorthand code that makes sense to you.\u00a0 Write down the main idea of the passage very briefly, and write down just as briefly what each paragraph is about.\u00a0 This is your “map” of the passage. \u00a0Eventually, you will be able to dispense with the physical notes and do this entirely in your head. \u00a0This is \u00a0important to practice: DO NOT plan on doing on mapping a passage the first time on test day.\u00a0 Practice note-taking every time you read a GMAT RC passage, until you can seamlessly create a mental map every single time.<\/p>\n
Here is one excellent test of your note-taking ability. One day, read a passage, at the relaxed speed we recommend, and take notes on it.\u00a0 Put those aside.\u00a0 A day, or a couple days, later pull out just those notes, not the passage itself, and try to answer the question from the notes.\u00a0 Of course, you will not be able to answer every question, but from your notes, you should be able to answer any “main idea” question easily, and for detail questions, you should have a good idea about where you would re-read in the passage to find that specific information. \u00a0Over time, you can perform this same practice with your “mental maps” — read it once and set it aside —- \u00a0maybe not a day later, but a little later, say, after a couple math problems —- then without looking back at the passage at all, answer a main idea question. \u00a0 Practice this way, and you will become someone who dispatches batches of RC question with lightning efficiency.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Summary<\/h2>\n
Read the GMAT RC passage once.\u00a0 Read it carefully, for understanding.\u00a0 Take notes, to learn how to extract a main idea and create a map of the flow of the passage, and use your map to locate details you need.\u00a0 You can practice right now on this free question.<\/p>\n
1) http:\/\/gmat.magoosh.com\/questions\/3623<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GMAT test takers have a variety of ideas and suggestions about how to tackle the challenge of GMAT Reading Comprehension.\u00a0 Some like to skim, or to speed read, or to read the first paragraph carefully and skim the rest.\u00a0 Perhaps there are individual test takers for whom each of those is a valid approach.\u00a0 For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[13209],"class_list":["post-2829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading-comprehension"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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Beyond standardized testing, Mike has over 20 years of both private and public high school teaching experience specializing in math and physics. In his free time, Mike likes smashing foosballs into orbit, and despite having no obvious cranial deficiency, he insists on rooting for the NY Mets. 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He was also featured as \"member of the month\" for over two years at <a href=\"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/mike-mcgarrys-gmat-experience\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GMAT Club<\/a>. Mike holds an A.B. in Physics (graduating <em>magna cum laude<\/em>) and an M.T.S. in Religions of the World, both from Harvard. Beyond standardized testing, Mike has over 20 years of both private and public high school teaching experience specializing in math and physics. In his free time, Mike likes smashing foosballs into orbit, and despite having no obvious cranial deficiency, he insists on rooting for the NY Mets. Learn more about the GMAT through Mike's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/MagooshGMATChannel\/featured\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Youtube <\/a>video explanations and resources like <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/whats-a-good-gmat-score\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">What is a Good GMAT Score?<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/gmat-diagnostic-test\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GMAT Diagnostic Test<\/a>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2829"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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