Shorter GRE-Reading Comprehension General Strategy

No matter how old you study for this test, no matter which way you take to handle this section or improve your overall verbal score the problem remains unsolved: people DO NOT know how to improve their score, actually because they do not know how to overcome RC passages during the exam.

It is the most neglected and underrated part of the test. Still, it is the most important. That said, for two main reasons:

• First of all, people do not want to understand that the quant part of the test is crucial for a good score, indeed. That is true but is only part of the story. ETS does not care if you do not know some math formula or pick some questions wrong. They care more about your verbal part than quant. If you want a score above 160, yes, you must do well in both legs. But if you want a good score for your application and is enough for most cases, you must do well in the verbal part more than in quant. People constantly do the precise contrary.
  As it turns out, to do well and increase your verbal score, you must do well in RC, no matter what.
  
• Secondly, if you are good at TC and SE is a big deal but is not sufficient. Whenever you deal with a problematic passage, convoluted and awkward, then you are lost. As such, your score is ruined simply because you will find yourself in a situation that is detrimental to your performance: you DO NOT know how to handle a passage in the allotted time. This is at most. The minimum will not understand anything.

How can I understand the difficult passages that GRE popup us into the screen ?? how much time should I spent on this sub-section of the exam ??



How many passages should I practice before to reach a solid base or a really good proficiency ??




How much practice should I do?




Reading is a skill that most of the students learn and start to nourish the first grade. A skill, however, rarely taught to them after middle school. Rarely after that throughout the college. At least not in a sense specifically tested on the GRE. It is also true that many people feed, polish, and improve their reading skills across their life span but also, in this case, not in a proficiency mood specifically useful for this challenging test. For the GRE, you should practice reading the academic-level composition. Spending even 10 minutes a day familiarizing and dedicating yourself to difficult and intricated passages and lectures could make the real difference. With reading comprehension, the GRE is trying a fundamental ability in business: your capacity to look over thick materials and perceive the critical and significant data. In business college and the past, this will be significant not just in your day-by-day perusing of influential papers, yet additionally in your capacity to figure out dreary business reports and correspondence. But reading on the GRE is not pleasure reading; it takes concentration and discipline to focus on the often-convoluted passages about unusual and unfamiliar topics. This exercise is designed to reward those who can efficiently sort through technical jargon and unimportant details to find the relevant takeaways.

Nonetheless, we do need to get a step back in the story "how to tackle" high dense, long and short, convoluted passages on the GRE. What I am saying following these words is crucial for a student who aims to highest score. I would not say that this is more important than the skills I will teach you soon. However, it is at the core to success on the verbal side and the quant side. In this way: nailing all the right questions during the verbal exam is like being a badass driver. You are the Ayrton Senna of the situation. The way you drive your car has no secrets. However, to drive a car, you must have a driving license.

Well, understand what the GRE tests are for your driving license. It is your passport to score high.


What Does the GRE test?

The GRE is designed to:

• Predict student success in business school, allowing schools to accept those most likely to be successful.
• Measure higher-order thinking abilities through quantitative reasoning and verbal reasoning.


Simply put, the GRE is a test of how you think, not a test of what you know.


Put it in simple words; the GRE is a holistic approach to problem-solving. As I pointed out several times, it is a non-zero game. Therefore we do need something that goes and push us even further.






What you MUST know BEFORE attempting any type of RC passage ?


The following crucial THREE aspects MUST be carved in the mind of a student when he/she approaches any type of RC passage. Like a mantra. Moreover, any tutor must address this before teaching you any possible strategy or if you are a self student, you must be aware of these three;

1) - When you read an RC passage, WHY ARE YOU READING THE PASSAGE ? WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ?

Main Idea
Logic of the passage
Inference
Organization
Purpose or scope of the passage
Tone of the passage - you do not have to identify this precisely, but you should have a sense or "feeling" of the passage. (Most passages are very objective/factual/neutral. There is not much of an identifiable "tone"). You do not have to identify or pinpoint the tone explicitly unless it is asked by one of the questions along the passage



WHAT ARE YOU NOT LOOKING FOR ?
You do NOT want to read for DETAILS



2) - YOU MUST READ FOR SOMETHING?

It is much easier to read FOR something rather than just read a passage.

To direct your reading efficiently and effectively - to give you something to read FOR - you must look for two FOCUS questions

[1] What is the main point of the passage? What does it telling us?
[-] What is the point of each smaller unit (usually each paragraph)?
[-] The point is NEVER just to inform or to list a bunch of facts/facts/facts in a sterile sequence

[2] If the passage presents facts or details, WHY ARE THEY THERE? WHAT IS JUSTIFIED/EXPLAINED by those facts or details?


3) - HOW THE DIFFERENT TYPE OF QUESTIONS ON RC FUNCTION

This is important to know how the test works and how it is constructed, which will help you to improve your probability to nail every single question and the passage as a whole correctly.

What is tested through an RC passage is your way of thinking and the interplay, always between two extremes of the Thinking Spectrum.





Notice how the questions on the left extreme of the spectrum (main idea and so on) are IMPOSSIBLE to solve with formal logic and/or rules.
Those on the right extreme of the spectrum, you will be misled by using real-world thinking on these question types

Read also Shorter GRE - Trick To Boost Your Reading Speed by 35%

Source: Ron Purewal Manhattan Study Hall
The images are a personal elaboration of the author of this post!!