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Topic: Reading
Strategy
Used: Don't Sweat the Details
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To do well on the Reading session, you must develop a method
for handling questions quickly without getting bogged down with
your reading of the passages.
Don't waste time reading and re-reading parts you don't
understand. As long as you have a general idea of where the
details are, you don't have to really know what the details are.
Remember, if you don't get a question about a detail, you don't
have to know it. This is a place where marking up the passage
comes in handy. You can always circle or underline details that
seem like they may be important. Furthermore, as long as you have
made a note of the paragraph topic, you should be able to go back
and find the details. Details will always be consistent with the
paragraph topics.
Consider the following
example:
- The following is the first paragraph of a passage:
The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a
burial place for his favorite consort, Arjumand Banu Bagam. She
was known as Mumtaz Mahal, "the Elect of the Palace."
Construction began soon after her death in 1631. The Taj Mahal
and the surrounding complex of buildings and gardens were
completed around 1653. However, the Taj Mahal is much more than
an expression of love and loss. It's a breathtakingly symmetrical
representation of heaven.
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This passage is full of dates, names, and all sorts of other
useless information. All those details are not sweating over
unless there is a question about them, in which case you'd
zero in on the specific detail to answer the question.
By skimming the details and focusing on the gist of the
passage we can quickly zero in on the answers to main idea
questions. Reading passages strategically can save a
considerable amount of time once you get to the
questions.
Other Strategy
Sessions:
