What Did You Just Say!? Advanced Reading Comprehension Strategies
“High levels of alpha-synuclein disrupt the flow of proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum, the site of protein production in the cell, to the Golgi apparatus, the component of the cell that modifies and sorts the proteins before sending them to their final destinations within the cell.”
Are you serious? Who talks like that? Answer: The GMAT. A high verbal score on the GMAT involves successfully navigating the maze of words otherwise known as reading comprehension.
Have you ever turned on the TV and heard some “expert” ramble on about a subject while throwing around technical buzzwords like confetti? After a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to comprehend what was said, you walk away feeling less smart. I know I certainly have. Yes, we all can feel a little inadequate at the mercy of long sentences and big words; however, there is a fundamental law of life which states: The more words someone takes to say something and the more jargon the person uses, typically, the less they know about that subject.
Concision + Simplicity = Comprehension.
This law is all around us in our jobs, politics, the stock market, and, of course, that know-it-all friend of ours. The bottom line (and the key to GMAT Reading Comprehension) is that when you force yourself to state something in simple terms without buzzwords, you force yourself to comprehend it. I tell my students to picture themselves talking to their kid brother or sister. It’s a great test – if you explain something to a child, you probably will keep it brief and simple – which forces you to get to the core meaning.
This technique is most useful at the paragraph level with GMAT reading comprehension. At the end of every paragraph, pretend that your annoying little brother is tugging on your shirt and saying “what does that mean!?!” The more you practice distilling the jumbled, wordy mess of jargon into the gold of simplicity and concision, the better at reading comprehension you’ll become.
Ok, I know it was painful the first time around, but let’s try this technique on the first sentence. Take a minute and try and put it in your own words. Here are 3 of my top 10 secrets for mastering this technique (more to come in a MGMAT classroom near you).
- Don’t try and swallow it all in one bite. Break it up.
- Your pen is your friend. Jot down any relevant notes as you split it up.
- Simple abbreviations should be used as substitutes for jargon.
While there is certainly no right answer, I top-tier student of mine (with an actual little brother) came up with the following, “Lots of AS messes up the proteins traveling from the ER to the Golgi. Oh and by the way, the AS is where protein is made. And the Golgi is where they are changed along their journey….Now go outside and play!”
If you want to tackle the really tough GMAT Reading Comprehension passages, this technique will help you get there. That said, just like mastering the rest of the GMAT, it’s all about practice, practice, practice! Oh, and thank you for staying with me after reading what may be the most cumbersome introductory sentence ever written.
