Over the years, GMAT students usually fall into two camps:

1)    “I can read–I don’t have to worry about Reading Comp.”
2)    “Reading Comp is hard and I’ll be happy just to get whatever points I can.”

If you fall into the first camp, think bigger.  Yup, we all can read.  We graduated from college and are making our way through the business world.  However, can you read strategically?  Have you been reading strategically?  If you’re not, you’re giving up points on the GMAT.

If you fall into the second camp, I have news for you: you can improve your Reading Comprehension performance using straightforward methods in strategic reading.

“OK Brian, I got it.  Read strategically.”

Reading strategically involves three primary actions.

1)    Read for keywords and structural words
When we read newspapers, memos, and books, we are trying to consume the “content” of what’s being said.  Content on the GMAT is NOT our friend.  Yes, we have to understand what they are talking about; however, our reading is referent reading (i.e. we can refer back to the passage to find a specific statistic or quote).  Your job is to look for structural words that indicate the author’s opinion.  For example, “In 1922, New York City was the cultural equivalent of Western Europe; but struggled to find its own identity.”  I’ve bolded the structural words.  These words tell us 1) the time period, 2) the relationship between NYC and Western Europe, and 3) the author’s main conclusion.  All three of these points are likely to be targeted in a question on Test Day.

2)    Predict the passage
GMAT passages are predictable.  By using your key words above, you can figure out where the author is likely going in the rest of the passage.  When we predict what is going to happen in the future a couple things happen.  First, we start thinking critically about what the author is truly focusing on and what the author may not care much about.  Second, we get to confirm or reject our prediction.  When we confirm or reject our prediction, it helps to crystallize the concept in our head – an immensely important distinction as we evaluate the answer choices.

3)    Write an Outline on Your Note-board
As we are charg’in through the passage on test day, after each paragraph, we want to summarize our thoughts of the paragraphs based on the keywords above.  Keep in mind that in our outline, we want to include a little bit of structure along with a little bit on content.  This is part of the “passage mapping” method taught in the Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension.

Applying a structured approach to reading comprehension will help ensure you not only increase your percentage correct on test day, it will always ensure you don’t just depend on luck.  You CAN read.  You can also improve your GMAT Reading Comprehension.