GMAT Reading Comprehension Section

1. GMAT Reading Comprehension Section Or how to read the GMAT way… GMAT Verbal Success

2. Types of Passages • Business • Social Science • The most diverse • From (American) history to biography • Science • Very straightforward (facts) • Don’t let big words get to you GMAT Verbal Success

3. Things to Remember • Paragraph Subject => Who / What is being talked about • Topic Sentence => Aspect focused on • Restate it More Concisely => If you can explain it, you understand it! • Support Material => Which parts help you support what the main idea is? GMAT Verbal Success

4. Things to Remember Subject Topic Main Idea Details S: Children T: Children’s learning styles MI: Children have several different learning styles D: They can repeat and imitate, they can do the opposite, they can pretend GMAT Verbal Success

5. Things to Remember GMAT Verbal Success

6. Things to Remember GMAT Verbal Success

7. Things to Remember • Illustrations & Examples • One long or several shorter illustration(s) • Order makes little difference • Cause & Effect • With or without transition words • Explicit or implicit • Perceiving these differences => Higher level! GMAT Verbal Success

8. Things to Remember • Definition • Explaining technical terms • Comparisons & Contrasts • Presenting likenesses, differences or both • Similar to cause & effect GMAT Verbal Success

9. Things to Remember • Sequence of Events • Events presented chronologically • What the sequence of events means to you => Higher level! GMAT Verbal Success

10. Things to Remember • The Author’s Craft • Why the author included certain information • Transition words • Organizational patters • All on different levels—sentences, paragraphs & passages GMAT Verbal Success

11. Things to Remember • The Author’s Use of Language • Individual adjectives & modifiers • Choice of verbs is equally important: • An inquisitive child vs. a nosy child walks A person into a room. saunters slithers GMAT Verbal Success

12. Things to Remember • The Author’s Use of Language • Choice of words includes absence of words: • Persuasive documents => subjective language • Technical documents => objective language GMAT Verbal Success

13. Things to Remember • Reality Check—Common Sense! • Read for meaning, yes, but also… • Read between the lines! • Specific details • Tone • Volume (!) • Context GMAT Verbal Success

14. Types of Questions • Global Questions (1/4 of all questions) • Main Idea • How it’s put together – structure • Global Question Decoys • Too specific • Too broad • Contradictory • Too strongly worded GMAT Verbal Success

15. Types of Questions • Detail Questions • Look for a paraphrase of what you’ve found • And now for some practice GMAT Verbal Success

16. Types of Questions • Detail Questions • Detail Question Decoys: • Contradict • Similar but distorted wording • Go beyond the scope of the passage (in FR: H.S.) • Paraphrase from the wrong part • Extreme wording GMAT Verbal Success

17. Types of Questions GMAT Verbal Success

18. Types of Questions • Occasionally: Line Reference Questions • The author mentions the researchers’ experiment in lines 26-33for which of the following reasons? • Lead Words: Yes! Yes! Yes! • Jump directly to the words. • The passages suggests that the author has which of the following opinions toward Thursday evening Foy’s parties? GMAT Verbal Success

19. Types of Questions • Inference Questions • Both Global & Detail • What a passage suggests or what can be inferred => implicit and not explicit • Inference Question Decoys • Contradictory • Extreme Wording • Go beyond the scope of the passage GMAT Verbal Success

20. Types of Questions • Weakening & Strengthening • A new trend • Watch out for distractors & decoys! • What wrong answers do: • Out of scope (H.S.) • Weaken instead of strengthen • Strengthen instead of weaken • Subjective / emotional choices => not in passage GMAT Verbal Success

21. Types of Questions • Special Question Formats • Roman Numeral Questions • Considered “harder” than others => More combinations of choices available • Spend time on each • Example GMAT Verbal Success

22. Types of Questions • Special Question Formats • “Except” Questions • Considered the toughest… • …but hey, this is ESSEC, OK? • Require you to identify the wrong answer (sound familiar?) • If you’re taking the CAT, this type of question is probably a good sign. GMAT Verbal Success

23. How to do it then? • Overview the task => skimming: • Read the first few sentences of the passage. • Read the first & last sentences of each paragraph. • Glance through each paragraph for exceptional words or items. GMAT Verbal Success

24. How to do it then? • Overview the task => skimming: • Read the last few sentences of the passage. • Read the question stems. • Glance through the possible answers for exceptional words or items. GMAT Verbal Success

25. How to do it then? • Why overview? • Identify the topic • What information will be asked • Evaluate your level of comfort / ease • Get the overall content of each paragraph GMAT Verbal Success

26. How to do it then? • Don’t be compulsive. • Some paragraphs have main ideas or thesis statements. • “Steal” information as quickly as possible. • Determine the general sense of direction. • Take about a minute for this for each passage. GMAT Verbal Success

27. How to do it then? • Summarize to yourself: • Clear – any person above 10 can understand • Concise – short & sweet! • Conversational – try explaining it to an imaginary friend • Look for dead giveaways GMAT Verbal Success

28. How to do it then? • “Get your goodies & go!” • Skim, don’t dawdle. • ETS wants you to read everything—that’s part of the stuff they’re measuring. GMAT Verbal Success

29. How to do it then? • “Map Out Your Grocery Store” • Structure! Structure! Structure! • Where are the different points? • Take Notes • Duh! GMAT Verbal Success