Reading Comprehension

hi friends

today we will continue with our verbal portion practice.
We will practice reading comprehension and look for the best methods to go about solving the reading comprehension , we will also be looking at some of the tips and tricks for solving the reading comprehension.

What is a reading coprehension

GMAT reading comprehension questions are meant to test your understanding of the implications, meanings, and structures presented in the passages. You can expect to see 2 to 4 passages of 200 to 400 words each, in the verbal section of the GMAT exam. Each passage will be followed by 4 questions. Because the GMAT is now a computer-adaptive test, you will only see 1 question at a time. The passage, however, will remain on your computer screen until you have answered all of the questions related to it.

There is a certain patterm that has been seen since the reafing comprehensions started coming in the MAT exams.This pattern shows us that RC's can be classified into 3 broad groups.You will get a passage in the exma from within these 3 groups.

1.Science - If the passage is from science group its most likely to talk about subjects like biology , chemistry , physics . These type of passages are very factual. You should to an initial skimming ( fats reading) of the passage and take note of any factual information given. These types of passages can be boring but they are simple and factual and therefore are relatively easyto do.

2.Social science - Typically, these passages deal with topics such as history, politics, and geography. These are enjoyable to read but the questions they pose can be a little dauting.Read carefully these passages and answer according to questions.You must read these passages slowly in order to answer the many inference questions they are sure to present.

3.Buisness - Business passages involve very difficult structures, and present questions that require you to infer information and even to determine the authors' moods and opinions. They need to be read slowly and carefully.

Tips and tricks

• Use your scrap paper - Use your scrap paper to make very brief notes on the main ideas of each paragraph. This will be very useful as in computer based test these days you can do it on screen.
  
• Read the first question before the you read the passage - As the exams these days are on computer you will only see 1 question of the passage , but be sure to read that before starting the passage .
  
• Identify the type of passage you are reading - Identify the passage that has come in the exam and see which of the 3 categories i explained above it falls in , and go about it in that stratergy .
  
• Practice is the key - Nothing can beat the hardcore practice . The best way is to read as much u can before when preparing for the MAT and learn the various reading techniques.
  

Some useful Gmat resources

Hi there friends
Hope the preperation is coming on well..

im back again after a gap of some days. Sorry for not posting in last few days as i was out on job duty.
Oke so im bak now and i have a little surprise for you all ! instead of getting on with our Gmat syllabus covering, i will be providing you some resources that will be very (seriously) helpful to you all in your Gmat preperation.

1. This is a set of flashcards that will be very helpful to you in doing quik creative leraning of all the Gmat concepts in a very interactive and enjoyable wway. Very effective. The flash card file can be downloaded from here

2. A very good and comprehensive Gmat practice test that has all the essentials needed for a person to practice upon for the Gmat.Recommended for all.
The test can be downloaded from here

Sentence correction

GMAT sentence correction questions are designed to test the ability to identify the understanding power of not just written English (that is grammatically-correct) but also so the situations that are ambiguous in any sort. Each question has sentences, parts of which have been underlined. You will then be presented with 5 different answer choices presenting alternative ways of stating the underlined portion of the text. One answer choice will repeat the text without any changes (meaning that the sentence is clear in meaning and grammatically correct as written). The other choices will re-write the text, sometimes in subtle ways.

The correct answer will have all of the following 4 characteristics:

1. No grammatical mistakes
2. Correct sentence structure
3. No diction errors
4. No changes to the sentence's intended meaning

Note: This is not stating that the correct answer is always the most concise one though often this is the case, but does not always hold true. You may find that you need to resist the temptation to always select the shortest answer choice.

GMAT Sentence Correction Tips and Strategies:

Do not waste time on a close reading of answer choice A:

Its a human nature to focus too much on the very first thing and being the first option Choice A is focused the most and generally it (Choice A) repeats the wording of the underscored section. Keep in mind, however, that we are not saying to ignore choice A entirely. It will be correct approximately one fifth of the time. This is just to save time and redundancy as the choice A very rarely is the correct answer but nonetheless it should not be ignored.

so keep in mind while attemping the question to read all the options with equal interest and speed.

Look out for multiple errors. :

A sentence might contain more than one error. A common fallacy that test-takers fall into is to find one error and then quickly choose the answer that corrects that mistake, without considering whether there are other errors in the sentence that an alternative answer choice might also address. The correct answer must correct all of the errors in the underlined text.

Actually this is the same problem as we have discussed for the choice A that we focus too much on what we see first and this leads to avoidance of others.

so keep in mind to have a detailed reading and equal time spreading over each and every option and error.

Employ process of elimination wherever possible:

The easiest way to use process of elimination in sentence correction questions is simply to eliminate any answer choices that are themselves grammatically incorrect. You can also eliminate any choices that alter the intended meaning of the sentence. If you are still unsure about how to answer a question even after narrowing your choices down to two, you will fare better by selecting the more concise of the remaining answer choices – provided that it does not use the passive voice.

this is the place where you can depend on your first thing you focus means if you see any error, you can simply eliminate that particular option and can move on.

Do not worry about spelling or capitalization errors:

The test writers don't get tested for these 2 errors.

When in doubt, look for subtle differences among the different answer choices:

Examining how answer choices differ from one another can also be a good way to determine what errors might be present in the underlined text. This technique can also help you fight the tendency to read so carefully for meaning that you overlook grammatical mistakes.

Read the entire sentence a second time, inserting your selected answer choice:

We have found this to be a very powerful tip for dealing with sentence correction questions. It can keep you from making careless mistakes that would harm your GMAT score.

Trust your ears:

If you get stuck, 'say' the choices in your head and then select the passage that sounds best to your ears. Most test takers, particularly native English speakers, have internalized many more grammar rules than they can explicitly identify.

Grammar Concepts and Rules one should know:

There is no enough time and space to to review the material tested by the GMAT sentence correction section here. However, I have have compiled the following "short list" of grammatical rules that the writers particularly like to test. You are strongly encouraged to memorize this list of grammar concepts and rules, and to refresh your knowledge of them, before you sit for the GMAT..

• 'Among' versus 'between'
• Elliptical verb phrases
• Misplaced modifiers
• Parallel sentences
• Pronoun-subject agreement
• Proper use of adverbs (they modify verbs)
• Proper use of the semicolon
• 'Fewer' versus 'less'
• Run-on sentences
• Sentence fragments
• Subject-verb agreement
• Verb tenses
• 'Who' versus 'whom'

In further posts I will be releasing out free Gmat test material that will be a boost to all the reader of my blog. The resources that I will be giving away to my readers will have the full grammar concepts and rules, which cannot be explained appropriately in post format.