What is the best practice for complex passages on GMAT?

Answer 1

This question actually gets to the heart of Reading Comprehension. Because we almost always reading, in our normal lives, for detail, we employ that same approach on the GMAT. However, reading a passage that we have no clue on the topic (and that we likely care even less about) for detail makes no sense. We will understand so little of te detail and take so much time trying to pack those details into our heads, that it really is a waste of time.

So, the key to reading the passages, whether they be difficult or on a subject we are familiar with, is to read at the 30,000 ft level. Read the passage to get the geography of it rather than trying to get the details. If we can read the passage and get what the passage is about, what the author is saying about the topic, how the passage is organized and why the author wrote it, we have done our jobs. Questions asking about detail can then be dealt with by going back into the passage (here is where knowing how the passage is organized helps) and re-reading to answer that question.

The key to Reading Comprehension is really "how" we read rather than can we understand all the detail in a passage.