Tackling the verbal portion

The verbal portion of the GMAT consists of three types of questions: Reading Comprehension, Arguments, and Sentence Correction. They are designed to test your ability to reason using the written word. There is roughly the same number of each type of question, for a total of 41 questions.




1. GMAT READING COMPREHENSION



FORMAT:

The GMAT reading comprehension section passages are about 200 to 400 words long. The subject matter of a passage can be almost anything, but the most common themes are politics, history, culture, science, and business.


READING METHODS

There are many methods explained in Gmat books to go about the reading of the comprehension passages. The most common ones are skimming or speed reading of the passage.
According to me this is not a very good idea, the reason being in speed reading the reader is just skimming through the passage and collecting only the most important information from that passage and leaves the other information as it is without recollecting then in their minds.
In reality the speed reading technique of passages is based for those written materials that are non technical in nature which is not the case in Gmat exam reading comprehension passages. The passages you get in reading comprehension are very detailed and demands close scrutiny from the reader. Therefore the technique of speed working may not work in the Gmat reading comprehension.
Another technique that is prevalent for tackling these passages is reading the questions first. This technique can backfire also as questions are themselves sometimes are a paragraph long and reading the question twice or maybe thrice will take away your precious time.
Even after you read the question 2-3 times you maybe clueless as to what its exact reference is to the main passage , this technique is a form of gamble and taking such a big risks in your exam is not a wise idea .
The technique that can be used for tackling the reading comprehension is reading the first two sentences of each paragraph. The topic of the paragraph is explained in the first few sentences. Reading the first sentence of each paragraph will give an overview of the passage. The topic sentences act in essence as a summary of the passage. Furthermore, since each passage is only three or four paragraphs long, previewing the topic sentences will not use up an inordinate amount of time.
I will be giving more detailed information on how to tackle the reading comprehension in later posts as this is an important part of the exam. Illustrations will also be provided for interactive and easy understanding.