Studying abroad has become a popular alternative to continuing with our Indian education system. But, after the increase in the number of people opting to pursue their higher studies abroad, many competitive exams got introduced to filter the applicants.
One such immensely popular exam is GMAT (or Graduate Management Admission Test). This test is meant for students interested in graduate management programs, like MBA.
More About GMAT
GMAT is, primarily, an English exam which tests your reading, analytical, writing, and quantitative skills in the language. It is not a measure of your business aptitude, rather an analysis of your capabilities to solve problems, use of logic in certain situations and critical reasoning.
The total time limit for the exam is three and a half hours in which you have to complete four sections. Each section must be given equal importance for a decent score.
Sections Of The GMAT exam:
The following points will relate the divisions of the GMAT and the approximate time allotted for each:
- Analytical Writing Assessment: This section consists of questions that analyse argument and should require 30 minutes to be completed.
- Integrated Reasoning: This part focuses on reasoning skills and interpretation of graphics and tables. 30 minutes are assigned to this section.
- Quantitative: It is a measure of one’s problem-solving abilities. It takes 75 minutes.
- Verbal: Reading comprehension, critical reasoning and sentence correction are the core elements of this subdivision, which takes about 75 minutes.
Why Is It Necessary To Improve Your Reading Speed?
With such time pressure to complete the paper, most examinees commit mistakes or skip questions. As you have read earlier, only 75 minutes is allocated to complete the verbal section which consists of reading comprehension questions.
So, it is vital that your reading speed is enhanced to match the deadline for solving this section accurately.
The verbal section consists of 41 questions among which 13-14 questions are of reading comprehension type. It consists of long paragraphs which may have 300 to 350 words and short passages have 200 to 250 words in total. Long passages have four questions, and short ones have three questions related to the passage.
How To Improve Your Reading Skills?
Often, in the haste of completing a passage, students miss out on the actual information that is conveyed by the passage. Therefore, it is integral to read the passage carefully, rather than quickly.
What is highly recommended is to time your reading of the reading comprehension passages during practice. Read more and more paragraphs to enhance your reading speed so as to take 2.5 minutes for a short passage and 3.5 minutes for a long passage.
On an average, most people have found the reading speed of 200 words per minute is good enough for the test-takers to complete the verbal section under the time limit.
However, it is better to read the passage carefully and identify the key points of the passage. This section, in fact, tests how you will perform when you have to read memos and articles as an MBA graduate.
So, your goal must be to follow the argument explained in the passage and not memorise it. Map the critical points by jotting down the important parts of the passage. Use shorthand writing or any other method of your convenience to achieve this.
When you have to answer questions, you can easily refer to your notes and answer with ample time to spare. After all, it’s easier to improve your writing speed than your reading speed!
So, with plenty of practice, you can easily achieve high scores in GMAT and enrol yourself into your dream college. Ivy League education is just a few passages away!
LSI: how to improve your reading skills, necessary to improve reading speed, achieve high scores in GMAT, enhance your reading speed, pursue higher studies abroad, studying abroad
LINKS:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-reading-comprehension-technique-read-carefully-once/
http://www.beatthegmat.com/reading-speed-t16909.html
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/introduction-to-gmat-verbal/
http://www.mba.com/global/the-gmat-exam/gmat-exam-format-timing.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Management_Admission_Test
