GMAT Reading Comprehension Tips: Strategies, Books, and Sample Papers

Content Curator | Updated On - Jul 19, 2024

Highlights:

Focus on Active Reading: Don't passively read the passages. Actively engage with the study material, underline the key points, and identify the author's purpose.
Understand the Structure: Analyze the passage structure to understand how the author builds their argument. Identify transitions and shifts for better answers.
Focus on Main Ideas: Prioritize comprehension of the main ideas presented in each paragraph and the overall passage.
Manage Time Effectively: Develop a time management strategy to ensure you allocate enough time for reading and answering all questions within the time limit.

Mastering GMAT Reading Comprehension section is crucial for a higher Verbal score. Your reading skills on the main idea, supporting idea, application, logical structure, and style are tested in this section. GMAT reading comprehension passages include four types of questions and consist of 60% of the verbal reasoning section. Following GMAT reading comprehension tips include improving your note-taking and time-management skills. Mark multiple viewpoints and always look for transition words and phrases in reading comprehension. The official GMAT website, prep apps, and coaching classes offer effective and customized classes.

GMAT_Reading_Comprehension_Tips

Table of Contents

Reading Comprehension Tricks
Tips for Answering questions
Best Books
Practice Papers
FAQs

GMAT Reading Comprehension Tricks

GMAT reading comprehension tips helps to improve your answer qualities. GMAT Reading Comprehension Test needs proper practice. Few preparation tips for GMAT Reading Comprehension that will ace your score are as follows:

Set a Time Limit for Reading the Passage

The tips for reading comprehension GMAT include that when you sit down to read a passage you must set a time limit, the initial read-through should not be more than 2 or 3 minutes. When you are reading the passage, try to take some short notes.

Understand the Central Idea

In the initial read-through, you must be able to infer the central idea of the passage. The next step is to understand the purpose of each paragraph in the passage. Each paragraph will usually have a distinct purpose or message, which can be found in the first or second sentence of the paragraph. This will also help you make a mental picture of the main point in each paragraph. This will be of great help when you are reading the questions because you will know where you can find the answers.

Take Your Notes

Make it a habit to take notes with abbreviations. Remember, the point of taking notes is to just remind yourself of the main points so that you can answer the questions. You will not come back to the passage in the future, so you do not require detailed notes.

Check the Options

One of the major difficulties of GMAT reading comprehension is the options of each question appear identical at a glance. So, the candidates are advised to read all the answer choices given so that they can eliminate choices easily.

Look for Transition Words and Phrases

Transition words track the relationship among ideas—as well as among the bits of reasoning and evidence that support or negate them. There are five main categories of transition words that you should know and recognize for the GMAT:

Cause-and-effect: words like “consequently,” “because,” and “thus” and phrases like “as a result.”
Agreeing/further expounding upon the same argument: words like “similarly” and “furthermore” and phrases like “in addition.”
Adding evidence: phrases like “for instance” and “in fact.”
Contrast or opposition: words like “yet,” “however,” and “nevertheless” and phrases like “on the other hand” or “in reality.”
Conclusion: Phrases like “all in all” and “in essence,” indicate what the author is about, to sum up, or conclude their point. “Thus” can sometimes be used as a conclusion word as well.

Mark the Multiple Viewpoints

Sometimes a passage will contain multiple viewpoints—the viewpoint of the author and a viewpoint he/she disagrees with, multiple disparate viewpoints that the author is trying to mediate, etc. Mark and make notes as there will almost be a question or two that tests your ability to distinguish, compare, or apply the different viewpoints presented. So these viewpoints should be a part of your note-making if they’re there, they’re there for a reason.

GMAT Reading Comprehension Tips for Answering Questions

Now that we’ve discussed how to approach reading the passages, let’s get into how to attack Reading Comprehension GMAT questions themselves. Here are a few GMAT preparation tips to remember while dealing with the reading section:

Make Sure You Answer Properly

The GMAT loves to give you answer options that are factually correct given the information in the passage, but which don’t answer the question being asked. For instance, if the question is asking you to identify an “assumption” behind a particular statement, the answer isn’t going to be something explicitly laid out in the passage. Likewise, if you’re being asked to identify a “main idea,” it’s not going to be a piece of supporting evidence.

Stick to Your Point

When answering a factual question, keep in mind that they are the most straightforward kind of question. The “right” answer should always be 100% supportable by the passage alone.

Read All the Answer Choices and Use Process of Elimination

Getting rid of wrong answers is an integral part of the process of getting the right answer. Even if you’re absolutely 100% sure of your chosen answer, you should always take the time to briefly check the other options and make sure you can discount them before moving on.

Familiarize Yourself with Incorrect Answer Types

In your test prep, don’t just find the right answer and move on: practice asking yourself why the other answer options are incorrect. You’ll start to see patterns in the wrong answers that are given, including:

Too broad: In main idea questions especially, you’ll need to watch out for answer options that take the main idea of the passage just a little bit too far. Sometimes this can hinge on a single word: something like “all,” “never,” or “every” that makes it too extreme of a statement given what’s in the passage.
Too narrow: A cousin of “too broad,” the “too narrow” answer options might get at a specific detail but not the main idea, making them incorrect answer GMAT reading comprehension for the main idea question.
Reversed causal or temporal relationship: Some answer options will “flip” a relationship. They’ll say that B caused A when the passage states that A caused B, or they’ll say something came first in the process when it came later on.
Not supported by the passage: The easiest to eliminate, these answer options bring in information or ideas that weren’t mentioned at all in the passage.
Supported by the passage but doesn’t answer the question being asked: As we said above, this is a very common wrong answer type, which is why it’s so important to make sure you fully understand what the question is asking before picking an answer. “Too narrow” falls into this broader category, but there are other kinds of decoy answer options that come up as well: options that are too much inference for a detailed question, options that are too explicit for an inference question, and so on.

Best Book for GMAT Reading Comprehension

There is a huge number of GMAT books in the market. We are here to help you with some books that will enhance your score with GMAT reading comprehension tips and tricks and practice you learn GMAT reading comprehension strategies and shortcuts.

GMAT Official Guide 2021 – Check PDF
Manhattan Prep GMAT – All the Verbal – Check PDF
Kaplan GMAT Prep Plus – Check PDF
McGraw Hill’s GMAT Practice Test – Check PDF

GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Papers

GMAT RC Practice Test 1	GMAT RC Practice Test 2
GMAT RC Practice Test 3	GMAT RC Practice Test 4
GMAT RC Practice Test 5	GMAT RC Practice Test 6

FAQs

Ques: How to practice GMAT reading comprehension?

Ans: To practice GMAT reading comprehension, you need to improve your note-taking and time-management skills. Take regular practice tests and improve your reading abilities for a higher score.

Ques: What is the average time for reading comprehension GMAT?

Ans: There are on average 13 to 14 GMAT reading comprehension questions, and the total verbal reasoning section is allotted 45 minutes to complete. In total, you will face 23 questions in the GMAT verbal section.

Ques: How can I improve my reading comprehension speed on GMAT?

Ans: To improve GMAT reading comprehension, you need to follow:

Do not skim the passage.
Identify the purpose.
Focus on the main details.
Identify keywords and take notes.

Ques: What is the main idea on the GMAT reading comprehension?

Ans: The main idea of GMAT reading comprehension focuses on what information is in the entire passage. To answer a detailed question, you need to know the main idea.

Ques: How to get a 700 plus score on the GMAT?

Ans: GMAT total score ranges between 205 to 805. Achieving a 700+ GMAT score requires candidates to take regular practice tests and read books. You can join in some of the best coaching classes for expert mentorship.

Ques: How many passages are in reading comprehension GMAT?

Ans: GMAT reading comprehension section includes three short passages of 200 to 250 words and one long passage of 300 to 350 words.

Ques: What is the format for GMAT reading comprehension?

Ans: GMAT reading comprehension contains 60 % questions of in the verbal reasoning section. On average you can get 13 to 14 GMAT reading comprehension questions divided into four passages.

Ques: Is verbal difficult in GMAT?

Ans: GMAT verbal reasoning section includes 23 questions and you will be allocated 45 minutes to answer. Candidates with good academic skills can easily achieve a good GMAT verbal score.

Ques: What is a good GMAT verbal score?

Ans: A good GMAT verbal score depends on the university and program you are applying for. achieving a score above 155 is considered a good GMAT verbal reasoning score.

Ques: Is GMAT verbal tough?

Ans: The difficulty level of GMAT verbal is difficult to crack. Candidates with regular practice with sample papers and good academic skills can easily achieve a good GMAT verbal score.

*The article might have information for the previous academic years, which will be updated soon subject to the notification issued by the University/College.