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NEWKID
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RC 03 Nov 2004, 22:49
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My accuracy rate in Reading Comprehension is around 50%.
Iam frustrated and depressed because of this.
No matter how hard I try, the accuracy is not improving.
Any tips as to where Iam going wrong.

My analysis sugges the following.
a) Concentration: Perhaps, Iam unable to decide... at some point while reading the passage I loose my concentration.
b)Iam an Indian and am not good in English like others. Perhaps I am not understanding the passage properly.
c) If the passage is related to economcy and anthropology, I fail miserably in that.

I have a bad GMAT history and am taking my second exam soon. Any inputs will be highly appreciated.

I don't want to end up with a similar score as the first time. :cry: !
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mbassmbass04
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RC 04 Nov 2004, 08:08
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NewKid,

The verbal score on the GMAT is based on how well you perform on RC, SC and CR. If you are weak in one of those parts, this could damage your verbal score and this is what happenned to me too...

This is what could happen if you are not confident about your reading capabilities during a GMAT exam:

- Spending maybe 10 minutes trying to understand a passage and resulting in a bad time management of the exam.
- Loosing concentration on SC and CR.

Beleive me, if you are targeting high, don't go to a GMAT Exam if you are not confident that you master fast reading techniques.

Pratice a lot at least one hour per day.

Try to understand how ETS ask their questions, the types of passages, business, science and history...

Do a lot of practice from differents ressources such as OG, GMAT plus, V-study and time yourself

Buy books such as:

Remember everything you read: (ISDN 0380715775)
Triple your reading speed: (ISDN 0768909031)
Teach yourself speed reading: (ISDN 0071426655)
Speed reading the easy way: (ISDN 0812098528)

The bottom line is that English speed reading are skills that should be developped with time and needs a lot of patient and determination especially if you are not native english speeking. With a lot of practice and hard work , you will get the result that you want.

Good Luck !
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Paul
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RC 04 Nov 2004, 09:09
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RC has always been GMATers weakness including my own. However, I saw a sharp increase by telling myself that I LOVE this topic by making myself believe that I'm an avid reader of the topic. I also took enough time to paraphrase and think about what I just read. Locate cue words like however, since then, on the other hand, etc... as they will give you an indication of what the next paragraph will talk about and what the overall structure of the excerpt is like. Do not get bogged down by details, especially in science passages. Just skip the scientific terms and replace them by letters like X,Y or Z.

I usually spend less than 2min per question overall (on an approx 50-60line RC). Practice will improve your timing. Just to repeat once again that you HAVE to force yourself to think that you love the passage and want to know more about the topic. It is the only way to keep your concentration level at a maximum. Of course, being well rested before the test will also help you. Sleep properly or else, even though you're good, your mind will miss easy questions.

More advices here also:
https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7363
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Hjort
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RC 04 Nov 2004, 09:52
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Hi,

I have observed little success with students who use "speed reading" techniques- I am not saying that they will not work at all just that I have seen little in the way of positive results.

I have observed two main issues for students on the verbal sections:

1) "I speak English, how hard could it be to take an 'English' exam?"

2) "I do not speak English (well), I should not be expected to do well on any exam of this type"

For the first issue, we have all also been learning math since we were small children. However, it still makes sense to expand our learning and practice math skills intensively. However, some students have the unfortunate notion that what that they can allow their verbal skills to remain at the high school level or lapse beyond even that.

For the second issue, many of the skills of reading comprehension are not language specific. Students who are strong at reading can do well on reading tests even if they are relatively weak in the language (just as students who are weak in English can perform well on word problems in an English language math exam). Indeed, the analogy to mathematics tests is especially apt since students who are strong in math can generally get a strong sense of where a math problem is headed after reading the first few words. Many students simply "over read" reading passages, in that they fixiate on individual words but fail to grasp the overall meaning that the author is attempting to convey.

Hjort
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BudweisAr
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RC 16 Nov 2004, 18:13
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Hjort...

Then what would you recommend?? Please elaborate.
You are RIGHT-ON-THE-MONEY when you said that in Math exams, for word problems, after reading just the first couple of sentences I can determine where the problem is headed and that helps me solve it fairly quickly.

I wish I could grasp the gyst of RC in the same way I do for Math word problems. You are also absolutely right when you said, people over-read the passages. How can we avoid this??

I read about your "polite conversation with a high ranking boss or elder" technique. What can you suggest in addition to that?

Your help is higly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

-BudZ
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