Not surprisingly, one of the best ways to prepare for GMAT reading comprehension is to read, preferably a quality reading list of GMAT-style material. If you’re only a few weeks away from taking the GMAT, you should probably stick with the GMAT RC passages.
However, if you are a few months away from taking the GMAT exam, you can take the time to read the GMAT exam. If reading isn’t your thing, that’s all the more reason to read — to hone your mind for the reading you need to do for the GMAT.
What to read for GMAT
First, which subject areas are relevant? All passages on the GMAT Reading Comprehension fall into one of the following four domains:
1. Physical Sciences
2. Biological Sciences
3. Social science
4. Business
A good GMAT reading plan should cover all four domains and include all material written in high-level English. You may get stuck reading a Wikipedia article on a scientific topic you don’t understand, but there’s no guarantee that the grammar or vocabulary choice will be of the highest quality.
The easiest field to recommend is Business, which has more reading comprehension passages in the Official Guide than any of the other three categories.
If you plan on going to business school, getting an MBA and pursuing a career in business, you already read the Financial Times daily and The Economist weekly. I also recommend Bloomberg Businessweek.
If you’ve never studied economics before, it’s worth buying an economics textbook or other introductory books, such as Yoram Bauman’s comic Introduction to Micro and Macroeconomics.
The latter two books may not be the highest level of English usage, but if you lack a strong background in economics, these books will be a good way to catch up.
Scientific America is an excellent resource for both the physical and biological sciences. If you have a relatively weak science background in general, it might be good training to read Scientific American articles for similar passages on the GMAT. If you’re more ambitious, grab a textbook (borrowed from a friend or the library) and force yourself to read a few chapters.
In the social sciences, most current publications (e.g., Psychology Today) are not academic enough. The New York Times occasionally covers academic social science topics; especially when the Sunday NYT Book Review is reviewing a book on social science, it can be good reading.
Unfortunately, there is no equivalent of The Economist or Scientific American here. If you want social science reading practice, I’m going to have to relegate you to academic journals. Go to a good academic library and read well-respected social science journals.
Yes, it will be very boring and brain-intensive, but if you can take it, anything the GMAT throws at you will look easy. You might also try this open-access list of online academic journals.
The New Yorker and The Atlantic are particularly well-written journals. Each is slightly more literary, so these topics appear less frequently on the GMAT, but due to the very high quality of the writing, these still provide excellent practice for serious reading.
How to read for the GMAT
You know that GMAT reading comprehension almost always asks a question that is a “main idea” question, so no matter what you read, get in the habit of summarizing the main idea and what each paragraph does. This is the absolute minimum.
Ideally, find a GMAT reading buddy or partner. Then, while you’re all wrestling with the same essay, you can question each other about the main ideas, discussing perspective, tone, and details.
If you’re ambitious, you could even start writing each other’s GMAT reading practice questions. (If you practice finding four tempting and believable-sounding wrong answers for each question you write, the process will give you insight into the patterns the GMAT uses to create wrong answers.)
With the information listed above you would be properly equipped with the knowledge on how to excel in the GMAT with the help of Mangoosh.
