Page 2 - reading comprehension passages for mba entrance exams

Commented by

2014-09-04 19:58:23

Taking the discussion ahead, a candidate should be able to read at a speed of anywhere between 350 - 400 words per minute. This should be the ultimate goal a candidate has to set for Reading Comprehension passages. The speed depends on how much information one is able to understand and capture. This is why vocabulary, phrasal verbs, idiomatic phrases and foreign words play a critical role. You can take any newspaper or magazine and start by targeting a speed of anywhere between 130 - 150 words per minute. Count the number of words first and mark it. Keep a timer and time your reading. Analyze where you stand with respect to understandi

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Taking the discussion ahead, a candidate should be able to read at a speed of anywhere between 350 - 400 words per minute. This should be the ultimate goal a candidate has to set for Reading Comprehension passages. The speed depends on how much information one is able to understand and capture. This is why vocabulary, phrasal verbs, idiomatic phrases and foreign words play a critical role. You can take any newspaper or magazine and start by targeting a speed of anywhere between 130 - 150 words per minute. Count the number of words first and mark it. Keep a timer and time your reading. Analyze where you stand with respect to understanding the article or news. Each and every practice should necessarily be done with a new article. Once you achieve a reading speed of around 140 words per minute, you can look at another exercise.Take any article and read it upside down. Initially you will find it very difficult. However this the most powerful and proven way to get your confidence growing in Reading Comprehension
I will now come to the types of questions which are asked in Reading Comprehension:
Central theme
The central theme or main idea is what the passage is all about
Suitable title for the passage
Unless you understand the theme \ gist of the passage, it is difficult to get this question right
Writer of the passage
The question asks you to identify the profile of the person who has written the passage, as in, a doctor, a layman, an article from a journal or magazine, a newspaper editor and so on
Specific questions
These questions are definite and finding the answer is comparatively easy. However one has to be very careful while selecting the right answer option, since all options may seem to be right
Meaning of a word \ phrase
In this, a particular word or phrase may be mentioned in the question and you are expected to identify the right answer option taking into account the context in which the word has been used
Tone of the passage
The tone means the feeling which you get after reading the passage. Do you feel that the passage is critical \ biased \ balanced \ and so on
The different types of questions mentioned above is to give the candidate an idea on how to go about preparing himself. Reading Comprehension can also come in various forms like, identifying the last sentence of a paragraph, sentence completion (wherein the middle part of the passage is left blank), summary questions and critical reasoning questions

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Taking the discussion ahead, a candidate should be able to read at a speed of anywhere between 350 - 400 words per minute. This should be the ultimate goal a candidate has to set for Reading Comprehension passages. The speed depends on how much information one is able to understand and capture. This is why vocabulary, phrasal verbs, idiomatic phrases and foreign words play a critical role. You can take any newspaper or magazine and start by targeting a speed of anywhere between 130 - 150 words per minute. Count the number of words first and mark it. Keep a timer and time your reading. Analyze where you stand with respect to understanding the article or news. Each and every practice should necessarily be done with a new article. Once you achieve a reading speed of around 140 words per minute, you can look at another exercise.Take any article and read it upside down. Initially you will find it very difficult. However this the most powerful and proven way to get your confidence growing in Reading Comprehension I will now come to the types of questions which are asked in Reading Comprehension: Central theme The central theme or main idea is what the passage is all about Suitable title for the passage Unless you understand the theme \ gist of the passage, it is difficult to get this question right Writer of the passage The question asks you to identify the profile of the person who has written the passage, as in, a doctor, a layman, an article from a journal or magazine, a newspaper editor and so on Specific questions These questions are definite and finding the answer is comparatively easy. However one has to be very careful while selecting the right answer option, since all options may seem to be right Meaning of a word \ phrase In this, a particular word or phrase may be mentioned in the question and you are expected to identify the right answer option taking into account the context in which the word has been used Tone of the passage The tone means the feeling which you get after reading the passage. Do you feel that the passage is critical \ biased \ balanced \ and so on The different types of questions mentioned above is to give the candidate an idea on how to go about preparing himself. Reading Comprehension can also come in various forms like, identifying the last sentence of a paragraph, sentence completion (wherein the middle part of the passage is left blank), summary questions and critical reasoning questions

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Commented by

GIRISH SESHAMANI | Guide-Level 11

2014-09-03 15:07:50

Ms. Prerna, This is in continuation to what I had written earlier. As I have mentioned, in the first section you have to make Verbal Ability your strength and in the second section, you have to strike a balance between Quantitative Aptitude and Data Interpretation. I would not recommend group study, since each person in the group differs in terms of his intellectual ability. Lot of time is lost in coming to an agreement. However, if you can identify a mentor or one person who can guide you, that will be the best option

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Commented by

Prerna Gupta | Contributor-Level 10

2014-09-03 09:55:17

Hi Mr Girish, thank you for your valuable suggestion. I am sure it will help me to practice and prepare reading comprehension section for the entrance.
I would also like to ask how to practice for Quantitative ability and logical reasoning (particularly quantitative ability as I am weak in this section) as they happen to consume maximum time while attempting the paper. And how effective the practice will be if we do it in group.
Please suggest

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Commented by

Kamaraju pulugurtha Online teaching of English, on retirement | Guide-Level 14

2014-09-03 08:48:59

Reading Comprehension is an individual activity, without involving interaction with others. This leads to several problems in the class room and it is important that the learners are to be convinced of their activity. Reading requires a lot of patience and it has to be cultivated as a habit by all.

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Commented by

GIRISH SESHAMANI | Guide-Level 11

2014-09-01 18:12:09

If we take the reading comprehension passages which used to come around 3 - 5 years back, we can see that the questions were very much on the simpler side and fairly straight forward. From 2011 onward, reading comprehension passages have undergone a sea change. The questions demanded that the candidate read and understand the entire passage, which meant that the reading and comprehending speed was critical. I have made a mention about vocabulary earlier. We will now look at idiomatic phrases and phrasal verbs. Idioms add beauty to the English Language. It is essential to understand the meaning of the idiom precisely. Just to cite an ex

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Commented by

GIRISH SESHAMANI | Guide-Level 11

2014-08-28 18:52:50

Let us first look at Reading Comprehension. I would like to start with vocabulary. As mentioned earlier, vocabulary forms the crux of the English Language. Being a CAT trainer, I see students, who had their education in convent schools \ metropolitan cities, having a false sense of superiority. The harsh reality is the fact that our learning stops the moment we enter college. To be identified with the peer group, slang becomes a prerequisite, at the college level. On an average, the number of words we use at the school level is anywhere between 1500- 2000. The learning stops here. The general feeling or perception is, 'I can easily cra

...more

Let us first look at Reading Comprehension. I would like to start with vocabulary. As mentioned earlier, vocabulary forms the crux of the English Language. Being a CAT trainer, I see students, who had their education in convent schools \ metropolitan cities, having a false sense of superiority. The harsh reality is the fact that our learning stops the moment we enter college. To be identified with the peer group, slang becomes a prerequisite, at the college level. On an average, the number of words we use at the school level is anywhere between 1500- 2000. The learning stops here. The general feeling or perception is, 'I can easily crack the Verbal Ability section'. It is only after going through the actual test, that students get shocked. They realize that the gap is huge. Lot of coaching institutes suggest mastering the roots, prefix and suffix, while others give a list of close to 1000 words with their meanings and ask the students to memorize it. However, this exercise by itself, is superficial. For instance, if we take the word, 'mono' as a prefix, we can only interpret that the word 'mono' means 'one' or 'single'. We have many words with 'mono' as the prefix, as in, monogamy, monotheist, monotony, and so on. Purely mastering the prefix is in no way going to help. The same principle applies to suffix. If we take the suffix 'cide' which means killing, we have words like homicide, fratricide, regicide and so on. To master vocabulary, there is only one proven method. The first is to get into the habit of reading. The reading need not be related to academics. It can be a magazine, journal,and so on. We are bound to come across words whose meaning we do not know. Let us take a sentence in which we assume that the student does not know the meaning of the word 'appalled'. 'The manager was appalled by the decision taken by the top management'. The first step is to guess the meaning of the word 'appalled' taking the entire sentence into consideration. In most cases, the guess is very close to the precise meaning. The next step is to look up the dictionary and understand the precise meaning of the word, after which a new sentence is to be made, using that word. The student should identify a person who has an excellent command over the English Language. The new sentence with the usage should be discussed with this person. Once this process is followed diligently, the student will never forget the meaning of the word, in his entire lifetime.

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Let us first look at Reading Comprehension. I would like to start with vocabulary. As mentioned earlier, vocabulary forms the crux of the English Language. Being a CAT trainer, I see students, who had their education in convent schools \ metropolitan cities, having a false sense of superiority. The harsh reality is the fact that our learning stops the moment we enter college. To be identified with the peer group, slang becomes a prerequisite, at the college level. On an average, the number of words we use at the school level is anywhere between 1500- 2000. The learning stops here. The general feeling or perception is, 'I can easily crack the Verbal Ability section'. It is only after going through the actual test, that students get shocked. They realize that the gap is huge. Lot of coaching institutes suggest mastering the roots, prefix and suffix, while others give a list of close to 1000 words with their meanings and ask the students to memorize it. However, this exercise by itself, is superficial. For instance, if we take the word, 'mono' as a prefix, we can only interpret that the word 'mono' means 'one' or 'single'. We have many words with 'mono' as the prefix, as in, monogamy, monotheist, monotony, and so on. Purely mastering the prefix is in no way going to help. The same principle applies to suffix. If we take the suffix 'cide' which means killing, we have words like homicide, fratricide, regicide and so on. To master vocabulary, there is only one proven method. The first is to get into the habit of reading. The reading need not be related to academics. It can be a magazine, journal,and so on. We are bound to come across words whose meaning we do not know. Let us take a sentence in which we assume that the student does not know the meaning of the word 'appalled'. 'The manager was appalled by the decision taken by the top management'. The first step is to guess the meaning of the word 'appalled' taking the entire sentence into consideration. In most cases, the guess is very close to the precise meaning. The next step is to look up the dictionary and understand the precise meaning of the word, after which a new sentence is to be made, using that word. The student should identify a person who has an excellent command over the English Language. The new sentence with the usage should be discussed with this person. Once this process is followed diligently, the student will never forget the meaning of the word, in his entire lifetime.

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READING COMPREHENSION PASSAGES FOR MBA ENTRANCE EXAMS

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