Its been a while since I posted here, but really feel the need to vent my frustrations a bit - and what better place than my blog!
Over the past month, I've been studying for the GMAT off n' on (more on than off) and mostly gotten all the Math fundas down. I also did enough problems of each section to know where my largest weakness is: as expected it is Reading Comprehension.
While I felt that most of the mistakes I make in most of the sections were careless errors, the Reading Comprehension mistakes were simply due to stress and not "getting it". It takes me about 8 minutes to completely read a passage and another 3-4 minutes to answer 4-5 questions on that passage.
Most books/sites suggest making notes (1-2 sentences) of each paragraph and then referring to those notes. My problem is, I end up spending almost 7-8 minutes reading and making these notes (which I do not even bother to refer back to!). Whenever I try to speed up my reading, I end up not getting the questions right.
I spent a good part of today getting extremely frustrated since I could not figure out a way to tackle the RC. I think what I'm going to try to follow is to only write the main topic in the first paragraph and unless there is a new topic / idea introduced stop making notes and just read through the whole thing. Also, I'll try to read the first question so I know what to look for while going through the paragraph and it may force and entice me to read more actively.
My goal is to bring my average time for reading a passage to 4-4.5 minutes, and being able to read it comfortably so as to not make mistakes.
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7 comments:
try to read GRE passages just for practicing reading. The passages are deliberately made hard to read, you just need to get use to the syntax.:P hope it helps.
Thanks, happybunny.
Thats a really good suggestion. I have my old GRE book from way back, but I could totally use it for the RC passages.
Do you bother to make notes? How do you create the roadmap like Kaplan suggests?
I don't take notes, I try to make a mental map. First taking notes takes too long. Second, mental map helps you relocate if you can't remember the specific information, that is better than fuzzy notes you are taking. Finally, after you read dozens of them, you'll find GMAT's passages are very much logically structured.Well that's just what I think. I don't have a 100% accuracy on RC. Question can be tricky too, I often overthink :(
Thanks, happybunny.
I tried both taking and not taking notes and figured that taking notes does help me even if I do not refer back. It forces me to take 5 seconds out, think about the paragraph and paraphrase it.
My goal, now, is to take 5 minutes to read + take notes and answer the questions in 3 minutes.
And yes, like you I over-think and over-analyze.
have you checked out these GMAT resources?
www.beatthegmat.com
www.gmatclub.com/forum/
you can read through posts or post your own question on strategy.
good luck!
hey mba monk,
best of luck on your GMAT. i'm taking mine early next month so i'm on the same boat as you with GMAT prep. it seems like you're studying hard so i'm sure you'll do great!
fishee: Good luck to you too!
I hope you do well. Do let me know how it goes!
My preps are going slower than expected, but I'm targeting to give the exam in May.
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