This skill involves rewording the paragraph in your own words.
While reading a paragraph, you need to observe
- the main points of the paragraph.
- an “opinion” or a “feeling” statement (for example: Author's opinion)
A summary should be 1 or 2 lines long.
Lets take an example
Example 1
There are times when the night sky glows with bands of color. The bands may begin as cloud shapes and then spread into a great arc across the entire sky. They may fall in folds like a curtain drawn across the heavens. The lights usually grow brighter, then suddenly dim. During this time the sky glows with pale yellow, pink, green, violet, blue, and red. These lights are called the Aurora Borealis. Some people call them the Northern Lights. Scientists have been watching them for hundreds of years. They are not quite sure what causes them. In ancient times people were afraid of the Lights. They imagined that they saw fiery dragons in the sky. Some even concluded that the heavens were on fire.
Summary:
The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, are bands of color in the night sky. Ancient people thought that these lights were dragon on fire, and even modern scientists are not sure what they are.
Notice:
There are times when the night sky glows with bands of color. The bands may begin as cloud shapes and then spread into a great arc across the entire sky. They may fall in folds like a curtain drawn across the heavens. The lights usually grow brighter, then suddenly dim. During this time the sky glows with pale yellow, pink, green, violet, blue, and red. These lights are called the Aurora Borealis. Some people call them the Northern Lights.Scientists have been watching them for hundreds of years. They are not quite sure what causes them. In ancient times people were afraid of the Lights. They imagined that they saw fiery dragons in the sky. Some even concluded that the heavens were on fire.
1. The lines in blue is factual information.
In GMAT they rarely ask you questions based on factual information. So this part can be ignored.
2. The line in red is the main idea.
The whole paragraph talks about Aurora Borealis. So main idea can be “description of Auora Borealis”
Further
3. You can notice two opinion statements. These lines are underlined.
Opinion 1: Scientists are not sure, what causes them
Opinion 2: Ancient people are afraid.
So the summary of this paragraph has two components: main idea+ opinions.
Some paragraphs may not have opinions.
Note*
In your preparatory phase, take notes. Write down the summary of each paragraph. When you start taking computer adaptive tests, you wont have time to jot down the summaries on paper. Instead, you will be able to frame the summaries in your mind.(To reach this stage, you need to do extensive practice though.)
What next?
Skill 2: Observe the structure of the passage
It is imperative you observe the structure/layout of the passage.
You need to identify the link/relationships that connect the lines in the paragraph.
For example a paragraph may follow this structure
- Line 1: Conclusion (main point, author is trying to prove)
- Line 2: Reason 1
- Line 3: Reason 2
- Line 4: Example
Or
- Line 1: Claim ( a view without evidence)
- Line 2: Counter conclusion (main point, author is trying to prove)
- Line 3: Reason 1 for the counter conclusion
- Line 4: Example for the counter conclusion
So on and so forth
This skill(identifying the layout) is essential to ace the critical reasoning and the reading comprehension section of the exam
Let us take an example and observe the layout
Read the passage and write the layout
Purebred cows native to Mongolia produce, on average, 400 liters of milk per year; if Mongolian cattle are crossbred with European breeds, the crossbred cows can produce, on average, 2,700 liters per year. An international agency plans to increase the profitability of Mongolia’s dairy sector by encouraging widespread crossbreeding of native Mongolian cattle with European breeds.
The layout of the passage is as follows:
Purebred cows native to Mongolia produce, on average, 400 liters of milk per year; if Mongolian cattle are crossbred with European breeds, the crossbred cows can produce, on average, 2,700 liters per year. An international agency plans to increase the profitability of Mongolia’s dairy sector by encouraging widespread crossbreeding of native Mongolian cattle with European breeds.
1. Underlined line in brown is the objective /conclusion
2. Line in red is the plan/ reason which leads to the conclusion
3. Line is green is a hypothetical opinion
Note*
To tackle a critical reasoning question, you need to identify the conclusion first.
So layout here is
- Line 1: claim
- Line 2: conclusion
- Line 3: plan
Lets take a complex passage
Rain-soaked soil contains less oxygen than does drier soil. The roots of melon plants perform less efficiently under the low-oxygen conditions present in rain-soaked soil. When the efficiency of melon roots is impaired, the roots do not supply sufficient amounts of the proper nutrients for the plants to perform photosynthesis at their usual levels. It follows that melon plants have a lower-than-usual rate of photosynthesis when their roots are in rain-soaked soil. When the photosynthesis of the plants slows, sugar stored in the fruits is drawn off to supply the plants with energy. Therefore, ripe melons harvested after a prolonged period of heavy rain should be less sweet than other ripe melons.
Now draw a layout
Check your answer here
Can you see how the lines are inter-connected?
Line 1 leads to line 2… which leads to line 3…and so on.
The last line is the conclusion.
So focus on the layout of the paragraph
Skill 3: Identify clue words
There are clue words which are strategically placed in the given paragraph. These words can help you identify the relationships between lines.
Some of the clue words are
And,because,hence,thus,therefore, yet….
Lets take an example
I got fever because I ate ice cream.
Here “because” indicates a cause and an effect.
I ate ice cream is the reason ..I got fever is the effect
Now lets take a sentence correction question
A peculiar feature of the embryonic mammalian circulatory system is that in the area of the heart the cells adhere to one another, beating in unison yet adopting specialized orientations exclusive of one another.
Here the clue word is “yet”
“beating in unison” yet “ adopting specialized”
Here “yet” is used as a conjunction . It means but or nevertheless.
In-spite of beating together the heart cells adopt different orientations which are not related
What next?
These are 3 of the 10 major skills you need to hone while preparing.
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