RON HELP with my RC

[SuviT79]

Hi Ron,

I'm not a native speaker and I have problems with RC.

The thing is that when I practise my reading (I used some non-GMAT materials such as "Scientific American" and "Harvard Magazine" as StaceyKoprince suggested.) with limited time, I could go through the passage within time frame but actually I don't get the idea of the passage. (Except for some certain field I'm familiar with and I can easily understand the passage.)

I'm wondering, in this case, what should I do? Should I focus on the understanding without time limit at the beginning, or should I read the passage again and again until I really understand but with time limit?

Thanks for your time :)

[StaceyKoprince]

I answer all of the questions in this folder, so Ron doesn't typically check here; I'll send him an email.

Meanwhile, I'm guessing that you may already have read the below, but if not, try this:
https://www.manhattangmat.com/blog/2013 ... rehension/

The main tactic is to learn how to "ignore" the detailed information and only pay real attention to the main ideas. This can be especially difficult for non-native speakers, but even native speakers get sucked into paying too much attention to the details - and that means that you can't concentrate on the big picture.

I'll go email Ron now!

[SuviT79]

I'll read the passage you recommended and thanks a lot for your help Stacey! Have a nice weekend! :)

[StaceyKoprince]

You're welcome! I did send an email to Ron but it was a holiday week-end, so he may have been out. Hopefully he'll have time to answer this week!

[RonPurewal]

I could go through the passage within time frame but actually I don't get the idea of the passage. (Except for some certain field I'm familiar with and I can easily understand the passage.)

the red part suggests that you're misapprehending the task altogether.

you're not alone here; honestly, most people completely disregard the actual goal of the task when they're reading a passage.

DON'T FORGET
you are "reading" these passages for EXACTLY ONE REASON: to answer main idea questions.

for a main idea question, the answer choices rarely have more than 5-10 words.
so, you don't really care about anything that isn't important enough to mention in a 5- to 10-word summary of the whole passage.

that's really not very many words.

for example, in the Milankovitch passage from OG (the passage with questions starting at #63, on p. 392 of the 13th edition guide), this is all you really have to understand:
• there's a theory (earth's orbit is connected to ice ages)
• how to test that theory (paragraph 2, all the science)
• why to test it that way (paragraph 3, advantages compared to other methods)
• outcome of the testing (end of paragraph 3)
• some disclaimers as to the theory's possible limitations (last paragraph)

that's it.

note that you don't have to understand any of the actual science in the passage—literally, none of it—and, moreover, that understanding the actual science WILL NOT help you answer the questions.

in other words, if you are "reading" these things properly, then your familiarity (or lack of familiarity) with the subject material should essentially be a non-issue.
in fact, you might find this kind of "reading" even more difficult if you're familiar with the subject material—and especially if you have a personal interest in it—because, in that case, you might be tempted to spend too much time reading through chunks of details.

[RonPurewal]

in fact, you're not even supposed to understand all of the details in these passages.
this is why so many of the passages are chosen from fields with which business-school applicants will be largely unfamiliar (paleontology, archaeology, law, astronomy, and so on). the point is to see whether you can understand the overall significance of the passage WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THE DETAILS.

[RonPurewal]

analogy:
imagine you're a product manager for a highly technical product.
in this case, you'll regularly have "tech spec" documents thrown across your desk.
will you understand all of the technical stuff in the documents? nope—you're not an engineer. that stuff is for you to delegate to your engineers (or to your chemists, or to your materials scientists, or to whomever).
will you understand the overall significance of the stuff in the documents? what it means to your clients, your end users, your suppliers, etc.? you bet.

in fact, if you were asked for a definition of "manager", you'd do pretty well with "someone whose job is to understand the big picture, but not the details".
you should read these passages accordingly.

[RonPurewal]

... and if you find that you're still having a hard time "reading" in the correct way, even after absorbing all of the ideas written here, then it will be time for a little introspection.

in that case, you should examine your own thought process carefully: why are you concentrating so much on details?

• does it have to do with the way "tests" traditionally work (testing mostly memorized facts)?
if so, then you need to remind yourself that this exam doesn't work like a traditional "test". in fact, the entire point of this test is NOT to work AT ALL like a traditional "school test".

• are you changing your strategy with respect to the fact that RC is "open-book"?
many people have bad strategies for RC because they're accustomed to taking "closed-book" exams—i.e., exams for which you're not allowed to look at the reading.
for those exams, understandably, people are going to focus on trying to remember specifics, since they won't be allowed to look anything up.
on the other hand, on the GMAT you'll always have the passages available for your reference, so all of those tactics become a colossal waste of time.
(if you're copying facts from the passages—EVER—then you're guilty of this. you should NEVER copy anything from a GMAT passage, ever, unless (i) it's a main theme of the passage AND (ii) you're translating it into your own simpler words.)

[Navneet]

Thanks Ron for putting so much effort on delivering a great advice.

[StaceyKoprince]

agreed!