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Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019ve had multiple conversations recently with different students about how to improve GMAT Reading Comprehension skills, and each person had a somewhat different angle or issue going on. I realized, though, that these students all had something in common\u2014and, therefore, there was one particular thing that they all needed to do to get better at RC.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve got to give you some background first.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the students I spoke with were non-native speakers who didn\u2019t do their undergraduate studies in English. Others did attend English-based schools (and some were even native speakers) but their specific programs of study did not involve very much reading. And still others did read a lot of academic material in school…but that was a long time ago now.<\/span><\/p>\n Separately (but actually related, it turns out!), we always make fun of how pedantic and boring the Reading Comprehension passages can be. (Though, secretly, I find a lot of them interesting! ?<\/span>\u00a0Shh, don\u2019t give me away.)<\/span><\/p>\n You can take the exact same topic and write about it at any \u201clevel\u201d of writing: grade-school level, high-school level, university-level, magazine-story level, casual-email-to-a-friend level, and so on. These different levels or styles are designed to be appropriate for a particular audience, and that determines such features as vocabulary, sentence complexity, and even what I would call \u201cgeneral human interest\u201d level. For example, a general-market magazine demands pieces that are written with a very engaging style of writing\u2014the reader never has time to get bored or be distracted by something else.<\/span><\/p>\n Academic writing, by contrast, is a much more formal style, especially as you get up to university-level writing (or even higher). You\u2019ll have more advanced vocabulary, of course, but the differences go well beyond that. It is much more common to employ sentence structures that are used only in writing; nobody would ever speak aloud that way, even in formal speech. And it\u2019s more common to write <\/span>dense<\/span><\/i> sentences\u2014sentences that pack a whole lot of complexity into a relatively small number of words.<\/span><\/p>\n And here\u2019s one more key to the puzzle: Did you know that the test writers don\u2019t write these RC passages specifically for the GMAT? Rather, they cut down and adapt actual academic articles for their test. So this academic material that you may have missed out on in college (or have just not read for a really long time) is literally the exact type of writing that you\u2019re going to see on the GMAT.<\/span><\/p>\n As a result, GMAT testers require lots of exposure to and practice with reading at a university level. Some people have a natural advantage in that they regularly read and analyze this type of writing (whether in school or for work). Others, though, don’t or didn\u2019t\u2014or they did but conducted those studies in a language other than English. If this describes you, then you have some work to do to remedy the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n No, definitely not. It\u2019s true that this is not going to be a quick fix, but it\u2019s not going to take you 4 years, either. <\/span><\/p>\n Depending on your level of (dis)comfort with this kind of academic writing, you may need a solid 3 to 6 months of regular reading in order to build these GMAT Reading Comprehension skills. (This is yet another reason why it\u2019s a good idea to get a head start on your GMAT studies. Don\u2019t leave it till the last minute!)<\/span><\/p>\n The good news, though, is that any steps you take to get better at reading on the GMAT will directly (and immeasurably) help you with graduate school as well. That\u2019s not always the case for some things we have to study for the GMAT.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s start by identifying sources (ideally free!) that give you access to this kind of material.<\/span><\/p>\n I started with <\/span>MIT\u2019s OCW (OpenCourseWare) website<\/span><\/a>, where the school lists hundreds of courses available for free. Under Find Courses, I browsed by Topic. I went for Health and Medicine first\u2014that sounded interesting to me.\u00a0<\/span>\u263a<\/span><\/p>\n I then picked Health and Exercise Science as my Sub-Topic and looked down below at the Results. (Note: it can take a while for Sub-Topics, Specialties, and Results to populate. Just wait a little.)<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m looking for something at the Undergraduate level and I decided that Food in American History was the kind of topic that might show up on the GMAT.<\/span><\/p>\n On the page for that course, click on the Readings tab.<\/span><\/p>\n Twinkies! This is definitely the course for me.\u00a0?<\/span><\/p>\n Then, I started scanning for free readings linked on that Readings page. The first one is an article by Marcy Norton entitled \u201cTasting Empire: Chocolate and the European Internalization of Mesoamerican Aesthetics.\u201d Perfect! (I’m really not sure what that title means. But it sounds GMAT-like!)<\/span><\/p>\n Follow that link and it will take you to Dr. Norton\u2019s article. (I\u2019m not giving you the direct link here. Follow my steps above to find it yourself\u2014so that you know how MIT\u2019s website works!)<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, go ahead and read the first 3 to 4 paragraphs of her article. Look up any words you don\u2019t know. (Note: The GMAT will be nice to you. It won\u2019t expect you to know any really technical or obscure words. But when you\u2019re reading for a university-level class, you\u2019re just expected to look up and learn any words you don\u2019t know\u2014and that\u2019s exactly what you\u2019re trying to recreate here.)<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, you may notice that this article is seriously long\u2014far longer than anything that will show up on the GMAT. Expect that to be the case for all of the academic articles you find. You don\u2019t need to read the article in its entirety (unless you want to). Typically, the introductory material in an article will be most likely to match GMAT-level passages.<\/span><\/p>\n As you read, jot down a few notes to help you articulate the main ideas and main contrasts. Then try to say (aloud!) or write a summary, in your own words, about what the author is trying to say. Don\u2019t focus in on all of the details\u2014your goal is not just to repeat the content. Pretend you\u2019re talking to a friend and trying to summarize the main points of this really interesting article that you read (but your friend didn\u2019t).<\/span><\/p>\n Ideally, in fact, find a friend with whom to have these conversations! If you know someone else studying for the GMAT, you two can help each other. If you have a friend or family member who is naturally good at this kind of stuff, that person can also help you to stretch your GMAT Reading Comprehension skills further.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are some other exercises to try:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 You and your study friend both read the same article, then both summarize in writing. Send your summaries to each other (at the same time!). Where do you agree or say the same things? Where do you disagree\u2014or where do you write about something that your friend doesn\u2019t and vice versa? Then get together to discuss those similarities and differences.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014 You and your already-a-good-reader friend both read the same article, then you summarize the article either in writing or aloud for your friend. S\/he tells you where you did a good job of summarizing and where you might have misinterpreted or missed important points.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014Variation on the above: your friend does NOT read the article ahead of time. You summarize for your friend (and your friend is allowed to ask questions if confused about anything). Then, your friend reads the article to see whether there are any major discrepancies and tells you what you may have missed or misinterpreted.<\/span><\/p>\n If you want to get really serious, you might even try taking a course yourself! Many universities and community colleges run continuing education programs with night and weekend classes. Pick a topic that sounds interesting to you and check the syllabus to ensure that there will be both reading and assignments that will require you to analyze that reading to demonstrate your comprehension. <\/span><\/p>\n Here are some of the other paths that I followed through MIT\u2019s database. This is just a small subset, but these are the kinds of topics that the GMAT tends to use and all have a decent number of appropriate undergraduate-level courses.<\/span><\/p>\n TOPIC: Business. Sub-Topics: Business Ethics; Globalization; Leadership; Management.<\/span><\/p>\n TOPIC: Health and Medicine. Sub-Topics: Cancer; Health and Exercise Science; Immunology.<\/span><\/p>\n TOPIC: Humanities. Sub-Topic: History. Specialty: Any.<\/span><\/p>\n TOPIC: Humanities. Sub-Topic: Literature. Specialty: Nonfiction Prose*.<\/span><\/p>\n TOPIC: Social Science. Sub-Topics: Anthropology; Economics; Sociology.<\/span><\/p>\n TOPIC: Science. Sub-Topic: Biology. Specialty: Developmental Biology; Genetics.<\/span><\/p>\n TOPIC: Science. Sub-Topic: Earth Science. Specialty: Atmospheric; Climate; Geology; Planetary.<\/span><\/p>\n *This one focuses mostly on writing vs. reading\u2026but you\u2019re going to need that for your applications!<\/span><\/p>\n For the science-y\/more technical ones, I would stick to courses whose titles sound pretty introductory. And, in general, go for reading assignments assigned earlier in the course vs. later\u2014unless you actually want to try that whole course.<\/span><\/p>\n Get on out there and start reading! Let us know how it goes\u2014and share any classes you\u2019ve loved or ideas on other sources in the comments!\u00a0?<\/span><\/p>\n Can\u2019t get enough of Stacey\u2019s GMAT mastery? Attend the first session of one of her upcoming GMAT courses<\/a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. I\u2019ve had multiple conversations recently with different students about how to improve GMAT Reading Comprehension skills, and each person had a somewhat different angle or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,874,52871,930,2,25,10],"tags":[53066,53067],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-resources","category-gmat-strategies","category-gmat-study-guide","category-how-to-study","category-reading-comprehension","category-verbal-on-gmat","tag-gmat-reading-comprehension-skills","tag-improve-gmat-skills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13900"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14026,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13900\/revisions\/14026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13900"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhat is<\/em>\u00a0That One Thing?<\/h4>\n
So\u2026I Need to Recreate My College\/University Studies?<\/b><\/h4>\n
How Do I Practice This?<\/b><\/h4>\n
![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/sk-410-image-1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/sk-410-image-2.png\")
<\/p>\nI Read It. Now What?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Any Other Tips?<\/b><\/h4>\n
Get Ready\u2026Get Set\u2026<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"stacey-koprince\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2015\/06\/stacey-koprince-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Stacey Koprince<\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California.<\/strong> Stacey has been teaching the GMAT, GRE, and LSAT \u00a0for more than 15 years and is one of the most well-known instructors in the industry. Stacey loves to teach and is absolutely fascinated by standardized tests. Check out Stacey\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"