Thursday, July 9, 2020
Why Active Reading Matters When Studying for the GRE
We all read so much these days -- texts, lists, ads, articles, more ads, email. But really what weââ¬â¢re doing here (for the most part) is skimming. Weââ¬â¢re looking for the information we want, not caring much about what falls by the wayside, and moving on. In this blog I want to teach you a tactic -- we call it ââ¬Å"active readingâ⬠-- that will help start to turn off that impulse in your head that says ââ¬Å"BORING -- time to skim.â⬠Now itââ¬â¢s time to take some of that reading work youââ¬â¢ve been doing every day and put it within the context of the actual GRE. As Iââ¬â¢ve said before, the only way you can truly improve your performance on the critical reading section is by training your brain to read in a way that might becompletelyforeign to you. Why should I care about active reading? I know that this might feel like the kind of thing that youââ¬â¢ll never use again, but Ipromiseitââ¬â¢s going to make you a more efficient, detail-oriented worker, no matter what you plan to do in the next chapter of your life. Whatever your next step is, there will be a time when youââ¬â¢re called on to read a dry report or make sense of a too-long proposal and whittle it down to bare bones, so honestly,this is a transferrable skill. Once you master active reading, youââ¬â¢ll know how to: Mine a passage for relevant information Find main ideas Discern an authorââ¬â¢s perspective Discern their style of argumentation Pinpoint potential biases. How to start active reading right now: Get a paper copy of a passage- it can be from your GRE book, or an article from the newspaper or publication youââ¬â¢re reading. Take a pen or penciland make sure that it touches each and every word on the page as youââ¬â¢re reading. This will really help to keep your eyes from skimming past potentially relevant information and will slow you down -- in a good way! Press the pencil down tounderlineany group of wordsthat strikes you as important information or a potential main idea -- this might not seem totally natural at first, but youââ¬â¢ll get the idea. And finally, I want you tocircleany word that either you donââ¬â¢t know(to add to your vocab list) or words that belie authorialtone(more on this in our next email). After every paragraph, jot a little note to yourself, say, 4 or 5 words, that will help you to remember what that paragraph was about. And itââ¬â¢s as easy as that. Need an example? Here it is: Still feeling lost on how to approach the GRE verbal section? We can help. Reach out today to get matched with a tutor as soon as tomorrow. ;
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