RC strategy

[HJ]

Could anyone share with me your personal RC strategy?
I tried diagramming the passage but it is very time consuming.
Thank you for your help.

-HJ-

[Harish Dorai]

The style which I follow is to write a main theme in your own words for each paragraph. Also I make sure that I don't spend more than 4 minutes to read the entire paragraph. Time permits, I also take a mental note on any examples (not going to details), to go back and refer in case there is a specific question on that example. Coming up with the main theme for each para, helps me answer generic questions and keeping a mental note on specific examples or premises, helps me answer any specific questions.

Your background and personal interest also determines the style you need to follow. I have found topics on biology, social science or politics as more difficult ones to comprehend. So I tend to spend more time on RC questions that covers the above subjects. Especially in biology and science topics, you can easily get lost in examples. So it is important that you focus on comprehending what the author is trying to convey, rather than focusing on examples. If you are weak in a certain subjects, then it is also recommended to read articles on those subjects and make notes.

[dbernst]

Harish, thanks for the insight. HJ, we spend quite a bit of class time at MGMAT discussing RC strategy and potential modifications, so yours is an impossible question for me to answer in a brief post. My suggestion is to peruse or purchase the MGMAT RC Strategy Guide, which offers specific diagramming suggestions for both short and long reading comprehension passages. As for a quick answer, only focus on the main idea of the passage and the general purpose of each paragraph during your initial read. After reading the passage the first time you should be able to broadly answer the two following questions:

1. What was the passage about?
2. What is the author's attitude or tone?

Do not get bogged down with the details during your initial read because you will have to "return" to the passage to accurately answer specific, detail-oriented questions. However, this process will be facilitated by your acquiring a general understanding of the passage during that first read.

-dan

[HJ]

Thanks to Harish and Dan for your reply.

Dan, I have RC & CR MGMAT book and have studied it. The reason why I started this discussion is that I find it very time consuming to do both skeletal and detail diagrams (or maybe I dont do it right).

On average, how long should I spend on reading and diagramming both short and long passage?

Thank you.

[dbernst]

HJ, this is definitely an approximation, but you should spend in the neighborhood of 3 minutes for the read/diagram of a short passage and 4 minutes for a long passage.

-dan

[HJ]

thank you

[dbernst]

No problem!