Reading Comprehension Tips, Resources, Materials, Books, and Strategies

RC is one of the hardest areas to improve and probably the most challenging of all sections. I hope this
thread will be a starting point for RC improvement and also a place to swap strategies/tips, and ask RCspecific questions.

Resources Available:

Rhyme's "How to Destroy Reading Comprehension" Strategy - Recommended!

Gin's RC Strategy

How to stay focused on RC by Knewton

GMATPills RC Pill - the only video approach to RC demonstrating reading and thinking process

OG 12 contains 24 passages with 139 questions and Verbal OG has 18 passages followed by 104
questions

Manhattan GMAT RC
o

The only RC dedicated book

Comes standard with online access to 6 CAT tests and RC Question bank (7 passages and
25 questions)

Includes 14 total passages in the book to practice plus reference to the OG 11/OG 12.

PowerScore Verbal Bible - contains a section on RC - not much RC practice though - just a few
passages

Kaplan Premiere - contains a section on RC that has 8 passages/50 questions plus additional
exercises online. There is also Kaplan Verbal Workbook that contains additional RC passages and
in-depth strategies. (I used this approach)

Cracking the GMAT Cat by PR - includes several banks of verbal questions mixed together

PR 1012 - 30 passages with 150 questions split by passage type (science, business, humanities,
etc)

LSAT RC - this is really HARD and is used very rarely, but I thought I'd give you a full picture

GMAT Fiction - a collection of fiction books to help (esp. non-native speakers) master the RC
section.

review of Aristotle's RC99 - by rishiraj

Reading Comprehension Strategies:

1. Read the entire passage very carefully first.

I prefer this strategy (it helped me to get from inconsistent 50% correct RC to about 80-90% and
eventually in 96th percentile in verbal). It is outlined in various amount of details in Kaplan, PowerScore,
and MGMAT books.
The idea is fairly straightforward - while critically reading the passage, you build a mental map, stopping
to paraphrase after each paragraph and at the end to quickly summarize the passage. The strategy also
involves critically reading - meaning constantly asking why a certain sentence/phrase is there, how they
add to the development, and change the tone. It is important to master each of these elements before
actually trying to put the entire strategy together. At first it does feel awkward - almost like wearing an
armor suite that is clunky and seems useless - useless until GMAT shoots an arrow at you that is. Some
of my challenges were questions such as - why do I need to stop (waste valuable time) and paraphrase
the passage? (that answer comes in gradually). Also, how to actually stay interested and keep my
thoughts from wandering around as I read? And finally - how to read critically? It took a while to learn to
pick every word and notice subtle differences in tone (words such as however, but, still, and examples
help reveal author's true intention). I trusted the strategy and strangely enough it worked. I could see
improvement within just a week. My performance became a lot more consistent and the strategy was
becoming a lot more natural. I was also starting to catch little traps planted in the text and noticing tone
a lot more than before.
It is also good if you can start reading regularly to train your ear. (See this post for my recommendations
on reading material I call GMAT Fiction). If you are not a native speaker, you should keep a notebook
and a dictionary handy to keep track of all the new words you encounter. Some of them you will meet
over and over in the book, so it will be much faster to look up. For international students, my
recommendation is 1-2K pages within a month to get your mind tuned and prepped to absorb large
quantity of English passages. Also, many recommend WSJ, Economist, NY Times, and other magazines,
but I found those too short and very boring. Though the passages were hard, i could force myself to read
only a few articles before my mind would start wondering somewhere else. with books this did not
happen, so I preferred that option.

2. Skim the passage briefly.

This is another RC strategy. As Princeton Review puts it - "spend no more than a minute or two reading
the entire passage." (Cracking the GMAT Cat)
The goal is to create a mental roadmap of the passage and get a very general idea about the tone and
layout and then go back to the passage to answer each of the questions. This strategy works for a
number of people but did not work for me. I could only use it if I were really short on time and had to
pick my battles. In my experience GMAT passages are always tricky and it is not easy to figure out if the
author is arguing for or against a certain point by simply skimming the text.

Tips
1. Always read the First and Last sentence more carefully no matter what. GMAT passages are very
structured and the first stence will always contain the main idea and set the tone.
2. Watch for trigger words such as "but, however, still, regardless, nevertheless, although" and others

3. Always ask yourself why the author put this example here
4. Pretend that you are very interested in the reading material or another option is to play a game with
the author and try to prove the author wrong - pick at every word
5. Always know what the main idea of the passage is, even if the questions are not asking for it
6. It helps to know the vocabulary but you can make it - as long as you know all of the tone and general
words, you will be able to tell author's direction. Specifics may not matter, though again, I have found
that good vocabulary helps on RC
7. Do whatever it takes to help you read/remember the passage better - write summary notes (even if
you never go back to them), paraphrase each paragraph or even sentence, etc.
Common Pitfalls:

More often than not, the most typical second best answer choice on the RC will be out of scope.
I found it quite amusing and made a game out of it (I know, I am a bit over the top with RC but it
was the hardest section for me to master). After a while, I can very quickly (i.e. immediately)
pick out an answer choice that goes outside of the scope of the passage as a general question
(purpose/title/etc) or even a more specific one.

Another catch/trap you will see quite a bit is reliance on "trigger" words. For example, the
passage will spend 2-3 sentences on one point and then at the end will flip it with a "but",
"however", or another "trigger" word. This is designed to catch those who skim/skip or don't
read attentively and is really a big reason to read the passage attentively (in my view) vs. just
rushing through it. For example, a passage may talk about how the number of accidents has
been growing and that many people have been injured in the last year in car accidents and at
the end, say "but death rates have declined" and an example of a trap would be an answer
choice that would say "Injuries and fatalities are rising as the result of car accidents."

Finally a more subtle way to get many of us to pick the wrong answer choice is making the text
very heavy fact-based with long complex words and terminology, which distracts from the
simple task of analyzing the passage and asking why each sentence is put where it is put.
Sometimes, you can get to the answer by just looking at why a certain sentence is in a certain
spot. However, most focus on facts, understanding/remembering which minerals or microbes
live in which environment, etc. The facts and dry details are there not to test your
memory/knowledge of the subject but rather to distract and not let you see the passage
structure clearly.

Common Mistakes with RC

1. Not following a strategy or changing it on the test - biggest issue
2. Poor English vocabulary/skills - if you don't know what you are
! reading, how do you expect to answer the questions?
3. Taking too much time to answer each question
4. Having to re-read the passage multiple times

"New Reading Comprehension Strategy" by Spiridon

Source: new-gmat-reading-strategy-72189.html
I just developed a new strategy for RC and here it is available to you as well.
I tried several strategies but nothing has worked for me, I could not answer questions if I just skim
through the passage or I would lose time reading the whole thing and ended up losing focus when
answering question anyway.
So, here is the deal.
The good thing this technique really works for me and I want to share it with anyone whose brain works
in a similar way. The bad news is that this strategy require you to take notes but very simple tho.
Lets start...
First, mark your paragraphs with Roman numbers I, II, III, IV etc... (Hope passage wont be longer then
VIII cuz i forgot the Roman numbers lol)
Second, start reading your passage but (IMPORTANT!) from the last passage (eg IV) towards first (eg I)
Now, while you are reading take very simple notes as illustrated in this example: (remember to start
from the bottom paragraph IV)

I
Recent years have brought minority-owned businesses in the United States unprecedented
opportunitiesas well as new and significant risks. Civil rights activists have long argued that one of the
principal reasons why Blacks, Hispanics, and other minority groups have difficulty establishing
themselves in business is that they lack access to the sizable orders and subcontracts that are generated
by large companies. Now Congress, in apparent agreement, has required by law that businesses
awarded federal contracts of more than $500,000 do their best to find minority subcontractors and
record their efforts to do so on forms filed with the government. Indeed, some federal and local
agencies have gone so far as to set specific percentage goals for apportioning parts of public works
contracts to minority enterprises.
II
Corporate response appears to have been substantial. According to figures collected in 1977, the total of
corporate contracts with minority businesses rose from $77 million in 1972 to $1.1 billion in 1977. The
projected total of corporate contracts with minority businesses for the early 1980s is estimated to be
over 53 billion per year with no letup anticipated in the next decade. Promising as it is for minority
businesses, this increased patronage poses dangers for them, too. First, minority firms risk expanding
too fast and overextending themselves financially, since most are small concerns and, unlike large

businesses, they often need to make substantial investments in new plants, staff, equipment, and the
like in order to perform work subcontracted to them. If, thereafter, their subcontracts are for some
reason reduced, such firms can face potentially crippling fixed expenses. The world of corporate
purchasing can be frustrating for small entrepreneurs who get requests for elaborate formal estimates
and bids. Both consume valuable time and resources, and a small companys efforts must soon result in
orders, or both the morale and the financial health of the business will suffer.
III
A second risk is that White-owned companies may seek to cash in on the increasing apportionments
through formation of joint ventures with minority-owned concerns. Of course, in many instances there
are legitimate reasons for joint ventures; clearly, White and minority enterprises can team up to acquire
business that neither could acquire alone. But civil rights groups and minority business owners have
complained to Congress about minorities being set up as fronts with White backing, rather than being
accepted as full partners in legitimate joint ventures.
IV
Third, a minority enterprise that secures the business of one large corporate customer often runs the
danger of becomingand remainingdependent. Even in the best of circumstances, fierce competition
from larger, more established companies makes it difficult for small concerns to broaden their customer
bases: when such firms have nearly guaranteed orders from a single corporate benefactor, they may
truly have to struggle against complacency arising from their current success.
Notes:
I intro-civil rights activists-access-congress-money-fed n local agencies-percentages
II big corp response-increase 72-77- risks for minors-expanding-fixed costs-morale-financial
III second risk-joint ventures-sometimes legit-sometimes not
IV minority-danger-dependent-example-single benefactor
You can take more or less detailed notes its up to you. Notes act as a compass toretrieve and organize
information fast.