Effective Note taking is a pre-requisite for GMAT Reading Comprehension. Writing notes help us to:
• Organize the content of a passage
• To associate ideas in different paragraphs and infer the main idea
• Focus on the keywords
It is a waste of time to write down facts and sentences in your notes. The best strategy would be to write down keywords that summarize the main idea of the paragraph. Focus on the concept/main idea underlying the facts. Try to create images and association between the ideas. This can increase comprehension of the passage. This process will also save time when you go back to the text.
Movie
Have you noticed how easy it is to read a novel? We imagine a completely new world with each sentence, bringing to life the numerous characters in the plot. When you read the passage, use your imagination to create a movie. Here, the challenge would be to create the movie in 4 minutes (the ideal time to read a passage). You have to isolate yourselves from the testing environment but in a state where you are completely aware of the time.
Warning: If you are too immersed in the text, the chances are that you would take more time than it is prescribed.
Before you recognize the keywords understand the following parts of speech:
Nouns: are the name of a person, place or object. This information helps you to identify the central characters in the passage.
'Common nouns' are whole classes of people or things, e.g. woman, cat, chair, game, ball.
'Proper nouns' name a particular person or thing, e.g. Obama, the 'King', Milan
Verbs: represent action e.g. to carry, smile, run, drink, sing.
Adjectives: describe noun - how they appear or behave, e.g. young, short, clever, beautiful.
Adverbs: describe a verb e.g. swiftly, fully, greatly.
Read the following passage and note down the keywords that would help you with quick recognition and comprehension. Use the keywords to write a 3-line summary.
PASSAGE: Before Reading this article - Why The Apple vs Samsung Verdict Is A Big Mistake, the question that you have to answer is - What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey? Start noting down keywords for each paragraph and complete the passage in 1 minute.
Steps for taking notes for GMAT Reading Comprehension Questions
1) Read one of the articles (preferably from businessweek.com, forbes.com or any online science journals).
2) Note down the keywords.
3) Write down the entire article with the keywords.
4) Practice this for at least 10 articles with a target time of 4 minutes (for passage of 300-500 words).
5) With each article, reduce the number of keywords that you note.
6) At the end of the 10th article, you would see that a fewer number of words is sufficient to create the entire text.
