GMAT Ninja RC Ep 1: How to approach GMAT Focus Reading Comprehension

How should you approach a Reading Comprehension passage on the GMAT Focus or Executive Assessment? Read one paragraph at a time, or read the whole passage in one go? Should you take notes? What should you focus on? What questions should you ask yourself as you're reading?
This is the video for you if you've ever asked any of these questions. In this video, Charles -- the original GMAT Ninja, and owner of a perfect 800 GMAT score -- will show you a process for working through Reading Comprehension passages. He'll talk you through the things you should (and shouldn't) do to succeed in RC.
This is video #1 in our full-coverage series of GMAT Reading Comprehension lessons. For updates on upcoming videos, please subscribe!
Want more GMAT and EA test-prep tips and advice?
Subscribe to our KZbin channel: / gmatninjatutoring
For more information about GMAT tutoring: www.gmatninja.com/
For updates on this series and our other projects: / gmatninja
For more on Charles Bibilos and his love of international food and contributions to ornithology textbooks: www.gmatninja.com/charles-bib...
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
Passage 1 - Jon Clark's study of...
13:16 Paragraph 1
17:03 Paragraph 2
21:19 Paragraph 3
24:51 Paragraph 4
29:09 Question 1
32:49 Question 2
37:04 Question 3
Passage 2 - Conodonts, the spiky phosphatic...
42:56 Paragraph 1
47:55 Paragraph 2
53:00 Paragraph 3
57:32 Question 1
1:01:21 Question 2
1:06:33 Question 3
Here are links to the passages covered in the video:
Passage 1 -- Jon Clark's study of...
gmatclub.com/forum/jon-clark-...
Questions covered in the video: #1, 5 & 7
Passage 2 -- Conodonts, the spiky phosphatic...
gmatclub.com/forum/conodonts-...
Questions covered in the video: #1, 2 & 3

[@albertofalcone238]

Thank you GMAT Ninja team! I watched basically all of your videos/series (RC, SC, CR, Quant, ...) and it was extremely helpful. I was able to go from low 700s to high 700s (while working FT) just in a couple of months. I honestly believe this is the best prep material out there, and I would highly suggest anyone interested in improving their GMAT score to subscribe to the channel. Great work!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Oh wow, that's amazing, Alberto! Congratulations on the spectacular score. When you score THAT high, you're obviously incredibly talented, and I'm not sure that we deserve much credit for it. But I'm honored that you've taken the time to write this, and I'm glad that the videos have helped a bit. Congratulations again, and good luck with your applications!

[@nikitajit641]

Hey @Alberto Did you only prepare from this channel?? Can you please suggest me what all resources you followed.

[@albertofalcone238]

@@nikitajit641 Hi! I personally did 10-30 exercises a day from the GMAT official books (2022 and 2021) + GMAT Ninja videos to enhance my skills (besides only exercising)

[@cushi3113]

hi @@albertofalcone238 did you do 10-30 questions including all sections or per section?

[@MrShubhamg]

​@@albertofalcone238Congratulations on getting such a score. One thing though, I have attempted GMAT and I found that the level of questions in actual GMAT and GMAT Official Guides is quite different. The OGs look easier than what comes in GMAT.

[@VolleyballChick801]

I took a gmat practice test yesterday and missed almost every single RC question with incredibly low confidence. Today after listening to this vid I got 70% of the questions right and the ones I missed were the “2nd choice” answers. Very very grateful for this video.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this, Hannah! That sounds like a wonderful sign -- I'd be willing to bet that your reading skills are perfectly sound, and you'll probably be in great shape once you get comfortable with your approach to passages. Have fun studying, and please keep us posted on your progress!

[@canadakevin100]

Hey this video helped me a lot! I went all the way to a 93 percentile in RC. Thanks a LOT ! Words cannot express my gratitude.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Congratulations, Kevin! I'm honored that we could help a bit. And thank you so much for taking the time to comment -- it makes our day.

[@user-jg4kl3dk1v]

It is always such a treat to watch videos with Charles in it. Yes, my brain feels like mashed potatoes right now but I can also feel the fog lifting as far as RC passages are concerned. Thank you so much for these videos!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Haha, thank you so much for the kind words! I'm honored that we could make your brain feel like mashed potatoes, as long as it's a productive mashing. ;) Have fun studying, and please keep us posted on your progress!

[@darrendeng6513]

Thank you so much! This is much better than the lectures I had before, even the paid ones. Look forward to seeing more

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you for the kind words, Darren! I'm glad that we can help a bit, for the right price. :) Have fun studying, and let us know how things go for you!

[@finnbalor1090]

This channel deserves million subscribers

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much, Finn! I'm blushing. Have fun studying, and keep us posted on your progress!

[@RegularGuy9526]

It's amazing to see how paraphrasing can simplify a complex looking passage. Thank you Charles.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you, Jainam! I'm glad that the video helped a bit. Have fun studying, and please keep us posted on your progress!

[@manhduyluutran9775]

When it comes to Verbal Gmat Ninja is just the goat

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you! 🐐

[@sarthaksinha507]

Thanks a lot GMAT Ninja for walking us around in a unique way.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much for the kind words, Sarthak! Have fun studying.

[@hemantgairola]

Thank you, Charles. The simple tip of paraphrasing each paragraph's summary is helping me immensely. I feel a lot more confident.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you, Hemant! I'm glad that the video helped a bit. Have fun studying, and let us know how things go for you!

[@sotirisapostolopoulos9257]

Hello GMAT ninja team ! i would like to really thank you for your big help to my GMAT journey. Your videos, especially in RC and SC helped me achieve my target score of 700 (Q48 V38) with 3 months prep while working full time long demanding hours and not being a native speaker ! Words cannot describe my gratitude for your youtube series and the fact that you offer so much quality for free is something that has earned my utmost respect . Keep up the good work and keep helping people to get one step closer to their dreams ! will definately recommend your channel to anyone starting his gmat journey!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Congratulations, Sotiris! Thank you so much for the kind words. I'm honored that we were able to help a little bit without obliterating your wallet. Good luck with your applications, and if you're ever anywhere near Denver, Colorado, please reach out!

[@itsak117]

i just started with this RC series and i REALLY want to thank you for the material and the explanations. i struggled A LOT throughout the video but blatantly kept going back until i grab the explanation and i truly am better as i finish this video than i was when i started it. great explanation and thank you for the material again.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm honored that you've enjoyed our videos, but you deserve TONS of credit for your perseverance -- I think most people would give up after struggling with this type of video. It's truly enjoyable to see that type of spirit. Seriously, please keep us posted on your progress -- we're rooting for you! - Charles

[@itsak117]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring I would like to acknowledge that if i make it someday, you people have huge thing to do with it undergirding via fundamentally sorted material. so humble of you to reply

[@dwadeshsehgal9040]

For all the aspirants out there ditch everything else and listen religiously to this guy, it will get you the result for sure.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

You're awesome, thank you so much for the kind words!

[@adityasharma7847]

Thankyou so much for simplifying things. The tutoring is better than the paid ones :)

[@karollinemm]

Wonderful explanations and technique, thank you!!!

[@Milansinh]

It's an amazing explanation by the Tutor, Clears so many doubts, and gives a strong method for solving RCs.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much for the kind words. Have fun studying, and please keep us posted on your progress!

[@ananyasharma7553]

I am so glad for these videos , the GMAT material online is quite expensive and out of such a vast ocean it is so difficult to choose these material, even after paying we are not sure if this is going to help us, here I found on point tips, the exact flow of how to improve and just the material needed to score good and understand the exam. Thank you so much for your help.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much for the kind words, Ananya! I'm glad that we could help a bit. Have fun studying, and keep us posted on your progress!

[@wisamey]

again... Charles is K I N G ! I was always stuck at 700. couldnt get it up for the life of me! mainly problems with speed. But just following your playlist on Quant and Verbal... opened my eyes to a lot of my shortcomings. and improved my speed A LOT! But it remains to be seen if this will improve my score... will keep you posted !

[@boozer8002]

update

[@hckonvicted]

This is helpful in so many ways. Especially for students like me who have been wandering in search of a good insight video on RC. Thanks, Charles! You are the OG.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much, Himanshu! I'm honored that we've been able to help a bit. Have fun studying!

[@hritikgoelYT]

Thanks GMAT Ninja Team for solving tough passages , so easily

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you, @DilliWalaBitu. Have fun studying, and keep us posted on your progress!

[@vishalpanda5156]

The God is back ! Waiting eagerly

[@shadmanjahin3623]

Very Insightful. Totally changed my view towards approaching RC!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much for the kind words. Have fun studying, Shadman!

[@chukwuemekaokorieibe5336]

Thank you so.much for this video. May God bless you

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much, Chukwuemeka! Have fun studying, and please keep us posted on your progress. ❤🙏🏼

[@Frederick7419]

I just started watching your videos and I'm enjoying it. Thanks

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you for the kind words! Have fun studying, and keep us posted on your progress.

[@eastsidelakerfan]

This second passage is so, so, so challenging for me! I've repeated it daily for 5 days in a row and still having a hell of a time coming up with repeatable processes to get this one. Moving on from this one starting tomorrow (with a blow to my confidence)

[@Prathmesh-tr3mx]

What actually is bothering you the language ,vocabulary ??

[@karimkaan8700]

Thank you so much for all the tips

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you for watching, and have fun studying!

[@shukhratrasulov5891]

Thank you a lot for sharing this content. Very helpful.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you, Shukhrat! Have fun studying.

[@prasoongupta8971]

I attended the first session of RC today and I really loved the teaching skill and it is really helpful. Looking forward to have similar good content for other videos.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you for the kind words, Prasoon! Enjoy the rest of the videos -- many of them feature tutors who are much, much better than the guy in this first video. ;) - Charles

[@niralijoshi8499]

Hi Charles.....your videos are really very helpful for me in handling scary RC passages thank you :)

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I'm glad that we could help a bit. Have fun studying!

[@dommcquiter9219]

Hi Charles - love this video! Question, how long would you estimate it should take to read a long vs short passage? I struggle to know when I'm spending too much time so any approximate guardrails you recommend would be helpful

[@sahildhawan22]

Hi Team, another doubt: In the vertebrates passage's 2nd question (the 2nd paragraph in the passage serves primarily to...): did we pick up option E because we are looking at 2nd para in silos? Because even I felt option B) explained the overall purpose better.

[@yashvashisht7140]

T his is my first time I scored 100% on RC Thanks

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Awesome! I'm glad that you're heading in the right direction, Yash. Have fun studying, and keep us posted on your progress!

[@nehashashidhar462]

Thank you Charles . You are literally the best. I got most of them right. I have my test in a week, any suggestions I can carry on ? Thank you for making my journey easy. Xoxo

[@shrutiv8409]

This was very very helpful

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you!

[@amanjoshi4472]

Great lecture ☺️

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much!

[@rheasoni8739]

Hi, thank you for these videos they have been incredibly helpful. However, just a suggestion as a test-taker, it would be beneficial if I had access to all the videos in the series before D-day (2 weeks to go!) Thanks once again :)

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you for the kind words, Rhea! We're still producing the RC videos, sadly. So the best we can do is release them weekly over the next month or so. In case it helps at all, we also have a huge pile of older verbal videos available here: www.gmatninja.com/videos/gmat/verbal. Good luck with your test in a couple of weeks! We're rooting for you.

[@anshlaroia9443]

Hey rhea! How did your exam go? :D

[@jonno.alexander]

Aced the first example, absolutely flunked the second science one. What's worse is that I found both to be fascinating topics, and despite enjoying them, I didn't get the second one! I guess it goes to show that I'm adaptable to enjoy things I actually don't understand. lol.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Jonno, this is a wonderfully rare type of comment, and I find it encouraging. Sure, it's always frustrating to struggle with a passage, but relatively few GMAT or EA students find these passages interesting. We hear a ton of complaints about how boring this stuff is; we hear very few students say that they consistently find these passages compelling. And this is just my opinion, but I deliberately chose two passages that I don't think are particularly fun (or easy), even by GMAT standards. Honestly, if you can enjoy this type of reading, you'll become really good at it at some point. Maybe that improvement happens quickly, and maybe it will take a really long time. But if RC doesn't feel like a chore, I think there's a very good chance that you're going to make a big leap at some point. I'm fascinated to see what happens. Please keep us posted, and let us know how things go for you! - Charles

[@sudhanshujha2394]

Greetings Charles....Thanks for uploading videos they are super helpful.... One request PLEASE organise QnA session on your channel catering for gmat verbal which will be helpful for non-native speakers.. Thank you!!!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you, Sudhanshu! At the moment, we don't have any plans to do live Q&A events on the GMAT Ninja KZbin channel -- we did some live premieres in the past, and they were sparsely attended. As you probably know, we do a fair number of live events on the GMAT Club channel, which has cultivated a nice audience for that sort of thing. So keep an eye on GMAT Club, and you'll likely see me there again before too long. I hope that helps a bit, and have fun studying!

[@AnujaPonkshePandit]

Hi Charles, thank you so much for these videos! Just had a doubt wrt the approach to RC vs. CR. In the CR series, the GMAT Ninja team emphasizes to think and conclude using the author's words, and not let our own words/lingo creep in. Would you recommend the same strategy for RC? Or does RC work better if we're paraphrasing in our own words to save time? Thanks a ton!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

They're completely different question types, so yes, the approach is different. In a short little CR passage, you can get into trouble if you skip words or paraphrase, as discussed in all of our CR videos. If you tweak the meaning of a sentence on CR -- especially if it's a conclusion or a paradox or another core element of the passage -- your odds of missing the question increase exponentially. That's why we push students to ask themselves "their words or mine?" at every turn on CR. On RC, it makes no sense to apply the same approach in quite the same way. If you try to obsess over every sentence at such a granular level, you're going to (A) drive yourself nuts, (B) burn a ton of time, and (C) miss the big picture of what the author is REALLY trying to say. So in our RC videos, we push you to look for the author's purpose and point of view at every turn. I'm not saying that precision isn't important on RC. If you misread things, that's bad. But paraphrasing can be a perfectly good thing on RC, as long as it helps you understand the things that really matter (the author's purpose and the overall structure of the argument, among other things) -- and as long as your paraphrasing of the passage is fundamentally accurate. But you don't want to "boil the ocean" by obsessing over every little modifier on RC, the way you might on CR. I hope that helps a bit!

[@adityagawhale]

Hi Charles, 1) the statements you chose from a para, to write in your summary (Para 3 of 1st passage), and what I wrote as a summary of that para (TD -believe in tech influences society/order) were very different, does it impact the answer in any way ? I mean different people will choose to focus on different parts of a para and their summaries for each para might be inaccurate if they skip some important sentences from the para. So taking this into consideration, would this 'summary of each para' approach work for everyone, regardless of how they summarize the para ? 2) If the para is very big and we miss something in our summary (as it has to be in few words), would that again affect the meaning of the entire passage ? 3) Even though none of my summaries of paras from 1st passage matched yours, I still got the main purpose of the passage question correct. Was it just a fluke, or does the summary method work regardless of the summary being inaccurate at times ? (cause my summary didn't match yours and it felt like I missed some important points from the paragraphs)

[@SK-pv7np]

Hi i've been watching these series of videos, it's really helpful, thank you! One question please. I always struggle understanding the meaning/function of "adjectives" in the options, for example in Q1 option (C) mentions "successful" challenge but the passage doesn't mention if the challenge is "successful". Or, from some other passages i saw before, the option says 'A had a "significant' impact on B" but the passage mentions nothing similar to the word "significant" in the passage. ...Should i just assume these words are not critical deciding the answer?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

I'm glad to hear that the videos have helped! It sounds like you're trying to take an oversimplified, "reductionist" approach to RC, and it's not likely to work well. We can't possibly make a broad statement that certain types of words aren't important to determining the answer. It simply doesn't work that way. In the example that you cited (Q1, answer choice C), it doesn't really matter whether the passage uses the word "successful." We could make it very obvious that something is "successful" without using that word, or even a synonym. For example, think about this sentence: - "S.K. studied hard for the GMAT, and scored a 760; that score is sufficient to earn admission to any MBA program in the world." Could we say that your GMAT studies were "successful"? Absolutely. Did that word appear anywhere in the sentence? Nope. Did a synonym? Nope! In other words: shortcuts and "word matching" simply don't work on RC. That's why you don't see us mention that sort of thing in our videos -- we focus on reading systematically, focusing on the author's purpose and overall argument. That's a hard skill to develop, but it's an essential one if you're shooting for a high verbal score on the GMAT or EA. I hope that helps!

[@Ivanmvpq]

thank you!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you for watching, Ivan!

[@MrShubhamg]

Great content. I got benefitted from your content. Its really helpful. One question though - from where can I practice for the exam? The level of OG questions is quite low from actual GMAT (I took one and couldn't score well). Please suggest from where should I practice questions for SC, RC, CR, and QUANT, including 700-800 level questions

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Sorry that I'm late to the party here, and thank you for the kind words! The short(ish) answer to your question is that official GMAT questions are always the best practice material, since they're retired exam questions, produced in exactly the same way as current test questions. The only real limitation of the GMAT Official Guide (and other sources of official practice materials, including the online question packs and the quant/verbal/DI books) is that they cover a wide range of difficulty levels. If you're GREAT at everything, then sure, half (or more) of the OG questions might feel easy to you, and maybe you'll only get a workout towards the end of each section of the book. But if you didn't get a great score (whatever that might mean to you) on the actual exam, then it seems unlikely that the OG questions would universally be too easy for you. Maybe you didn't do the harder ones towards the end of each section of the OGs? Or maybe you're making a ton of score-killing careless mistakes on the actual exam? If you're truly crushing EVERYTHING in the OGs, then the real problem is definitely careless errors of one sort or another -- and it's not really going to help to do more hard questions. But if you truly need harder questions, you could consider the GMAT Advanced book as a starting point -- it only has 300 questions (and I don't think that they were particularly well chosen), but at least they're hard. For CR and RC, LSAT questions are a great way to get a challenge. For SC, you'll want to stick exclusively to official questions, so you'll be limited to the OGs. And I suppose that there's no shortage of third-party quant practice resources out there if you really need harder questions -- Ian Stewart has written some pretty cool practice sets that push the envelope for students pursuing an elite quant score. But again: if your scores are low, it's not because the OGs are too easy for you. It's either because you haven't done the harder OG questions, or you're making a bunch of unforced errors. I hope that helps a bit, and have fun studying!

[@Radiancehaute]

great video

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Thank you so much! Have fun studying.

[@hiteshmandhan5685]

Awesome

[@mamoako1521]

7:20 Efficiency ❤

[@aryanmishra7555]

Hey Charles! Thanks a lot for putting out this amazing video. I have been following the practices that you mentioned in this video. The only problem that I face is, in some passages, especially related to topics I'm not familiar with, it becomes hard to judge whether the information that I am reading is "just a fact" per se or something related to the author's main point. It's only when I read the next paragraph that I'm able to make sense of the idea being highlighted in the previous passage. But by that time, I feel like I wasted time writing the pointers for the previous paragraph and the panic sets in. What is your advice to tackle this issue? Also, I've found that I can understand CR by spending more time breaking down the prompt mentally rather than writing or "creating a map". Do you think I should invest time in writing in RC or adopt a similar approach as I do for CR? Thanks a lot, guys!

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

In all honesty, it's hard to give great advice on this sort of thing without watching your brain at work, but I'll give it a shot. On RC, it's often the case that reading, say, the 2nd paragraph will deepen your understanding of the 1st paragraph. To be fair, sometimes it's unclear exactly why the author is writing a certain paragraph, and that purpose becomes clearer only after reading subsequent paragraphs. I could be wrong here, but don't think that's really at the heart of your struggles, though. It sounds like you're getting intimidated by unfamiliar topics, and letting that intimidation change the way you read. We say this sort of thing quite a bit in the videos, but keep in mind that RC passages never assume that you have a background in a certain topic -- everything you need is in the passage. So if you're struggling disproportionately on passages in certain topic areas, that's often more of a psychological thing. You're reading certain types of passages differently because you're uncomfortable, and that's often the root cause of all sorts of struggles. There's no magic bullet for this sort of thing, unfortunately. I'd argue that as long as the language itself in a certain passage isn't fundamentally beyond your reading abilities (and to be fair, some passages are just brutally hard, and will kick almost anybody's butt), you should be able to come up with some sort of useful, accurate synopsis of each paragraph, as shown in our videos -- regardless of the topic. So I guess the bottom line is this: if you're not fundamentally getting clobbered by the language in a paragraph of passage, there shouldn't be anything holding you back from getting SOMETHING useful in terms of a summary of the author's purpose. I think your last question is about whether you should write things down or just go through the process in your head? If so, that's potentially fine. As discussed in this video (and in the first video in our CR playlist), written notes really help some people, and really don't help other people. The important thing is to break down the passages in the ways that we describe -- and you can do so accurately and systematically in your head, that's great. If writing notes helps you to be more systematic in your approach, then you'll want to write notes. Experiment a bit, and see what works better for you. I hope that helps a bit!

[@rajeshwarsingh3432]

small world

[@sahildhawan22]

Hi Charles and GMAT Ninja, thanks a lot for this lecture! 🤗 I solved Question 2 of first passage a lot differently. By understanding the primary purpose, I zeroed down on the options rather than specifically focusing on the second para where constructivism is introduced as the mainstream. Is my thinking correct while solving like below: My answer: b) because: a) Clark strikes out balance while refuting constructivists so no b) Yes c) No he didn’t believed that instead he said society would influence tech as tech is not just cold hard machine! d) No, in fact it would be faster rate if constructivists weren’t popular e) Can be but Clark believed in balance. So no. My another doubt is: In 2nd para, we have the highlighted statement going against the primary purpose of the whole passage. Sociologists has said that technology would be a determinant of social change and NOT obscuring this statement. Right?

[@sudhanshujha2394]

Greetings Gmatninja, Which magazine shall cater to social science and humanities passages as scientific American caters to science passages, have gone through publications of American Journal of Sociology but can u suggest sth crisp as scientific American... Thank you!!!

[@punitmishra6560]

Hi, my question is unrelated to the video. Do you recommend reading questions first before reading the passage for "GRE"? I have received this advice from multiple sources but I find reading questions first futile as I don't remember questions while reading passage and anyway, I have to reread the part of the passage while answering a question.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

I think you answered your own question, Punit! I don't really think it helps much to read the question first on RC on any exam. How is that going to make you more effective at reading the passage? That's the sort of advice that sounds really nice in a test-prep course, but I don't think it helps -- and it might even waste some time, or cause a little bit of a logjam in your brain. So you're spot-on: if it's not working for you, there's absolutely no reason to do it. Semi-related: we'll start releasing GRE videos early in the new year. Probably too late to help you personally, but if you're still studying in a few months, keep us in mind. I hope that helps a bit!

[@punitmishra6560]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring helps a bit? It helps a lot. I know I can trust your advice!!! And thank you for all the stuff you do for free including answering this question. You didn't have any incentive to answer this but still you did. Thank you.

[@adamwilliams4489]

The very last question is confusing to me. It doesn't appear in the passage that ostracoderms not being the earliest vertebrates was a question resolved by the 1981 discovery. It seems to me that the passage indicates the age of conodants was well known to be greater than that of the ostracoderms well before 1981. What am I missing?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

The key here is the phrase "earliest vertebrates." You're correct that prior to the 1981 discovery, researchers knew that conodonts were about 520 million years old. They also knew that ostracoderms were younger (400-500 million years ago), and that they were jawless vertebrates. Here's the thing: prior to the 1981 discovery, researchers didn't actually know anything about conodont anatomy ("both the nature of the organism to which the remains belonged and the function of the remains were unknown"). They didn't yet know whether conodonts were vertebrates. But in the third paragraph, we find out that conodonts were "among the most primitive of vertebrates." Since conodonts are older than ostracoderms, (B) has to be true: researchers discovered that ostracoderms were not the earliest vertebrates. Until 1981, it wasn't clear that conodonts were vertebrates at all. I hope that helps!

[@ansilagupta3662]

Hey I have a doubt in the last question it is mentioned in the 2nd paragraph that "many definitive characteristics of vertebrates.... were predatory" and from the 1981 discovery we can say that vertebrates were predators. so why is option D incorrect.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

There are a couple of problems with (D). First, the 2nd paragraph focuses on theories that aren't necessarily true. Here's the relevant chunk of that paragraph again, with a few things emphasized in caps: "However, other paleontologists ARGUED that many of the definitive characteristics of vertebrates, such as paired eyes and muscular and skeletal adaptations for active life, would not have evolved unless the first vertebrates were predatory. Teeth were more primitive than external armor ACCORDING TO THIS VIEW, and the earliest vertebrates were predators." In other words, we don't know that eyes and other adaptations were predatory -- it's just a theory presented by some "other paleontologists" before 1981. Also, the 1981 discovery doesn't tell us anything about whether "paired eyes and adaptations for activity are definitive characteristics of vertebrates". The third paragraph tells us that conodonts were vertebrates and that they were predators. We don't know whether they had paired eyes, and we definitely don't know whether the paired eyes and adaptations were "definitive characteristics" of vertebrates. We just know that conodonts were predatory vertebrates, and that's pretty much it. I hope that helps!

[@vaibhavagrawal]

Hi Charles, I have a question regarding the scoring system. If, in one passage, I answer two questions correctly and one question incorrectly (or vice versa), will the entire passage be marked as incorrect, or will I be awarded the marks for the correct questions?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Apologies for my slow response! Each RC question is scored separately. So if you answer two out of three questions correctly on a passage, you'll get credit for those two correct answers. I hope that helps a bit, and have fun studying!

[@eastsidelakerfan]

I'm feeling a bit demotivated. Each question in that second passage required fairly significant DETAIL, as opposed to big picture, from the passage. All 3 of them. I wrote 14-word summaries of each paragraph (already on the longer side). And my notes included nothing relevant to the questions. I got all 3 questions wrong. The first question, I was confident in my answer but it was wrong. The other 2 questions I was completely lost.

[@shubhshinde4438]

Thanks a lot for the video. I do have a query about understanding the big sentences. I'm somewhere good in listening and talking, but this kind of advanced formal lines and some huge sentences troubles a lot to understand and visualise in by brain what exactly does the passage says and many times I get confused on some off topics like the telephone exchange question. would you please tell the best I could do to understand what does the passage says like you understood while making notes of passage. please help and thanks once again for your effort.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

I'm not 100% sure that I'm interpreting your question correctly, but it sounds like you're saying that the language itself is giving you trouble, and that you're struggling to understand more complex sentences and paragraphs...? If that's correct, there's no magical solution, unfortunately. It's possible that this is an issue with your overall reading precision -- not necessarily an issue with the way you approach GMAT-specific passages. If that's the case -- and again, I might be misinterpreting your situation -- then you might simply need to get better at reading in general. That's the sort of thing that can take quite a bit of time, but it's certainly doable. For more, you might want to check out these articles: - Beginner's guide to RC: shorturl.at/XU1Vn - How reading fiction can help your RC performance: shorturl.at/qEQlt - How reading nonfiction can help your GMAT score: shorturl.at/nGFLX Apologies again if I've misinterpreted your question, but hopefully that's a good starting point. Have fun studying!

[@shubhshinde4438]

@GMATNinjaTutoring yes you got it right, and thank you once again. The links you sent me are having an error after opening.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

@@shubhshinde4438 Hm, it looks like the parentheses were messing with the links. I just reformatted my earlier post -- are those links working for you now? Just let me know if not, and have fun reading and studying!

[@siddharthaparakh3832]

ahh i didn't know tom cruise teaches too!! such an all rounder he is

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Haha! The Tom Cruise comparisons are definitely more flattering than the Adam Sandler comps. :) Thank you for making my day!

[@amitgoyal3703]

Can you suggest good practice test series for GMAT ?? Alongwith AWA analysis

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

The only legit practice tests out there are the six official ones, available at mba.com. The creators of the GMAT spend several thousand dollars creating, testing, and refining every test question; even the best test-prep companies can't spend more than a tiny fraction of that amount if they want to stay in business. So only the official tests will give you an experience (and score) that's anything like the real thing. If you really feel like some extra practice with quant timing will help, it's OK to do some non-official quant tests from whichever company you'd like, as long as you don't take the score TOO seriously. I wouldn't recommend using non-official verbal questions for any purpose, though. If you're looking for AWA analysis, this official mba.com might help: www.mba.com/exam-prep/gmat-official-awa-practice. Generally speaking, AWA isn't a huge factor in graduate admissions, so as long as your score is decent, it may or may not be worth much of your time. I hope that helps a bit, and have fun studying!

[@eastsidelakerfan]

Given that nearly all of the concepts in the second passage are somewhat unfamiliar (invertebrate, conodonts) how am I supposed to know that the fact that they aren't invertebrates is important (the first question from the passage)? It feels like superfluous detail to me. The point of the passage that I understood was "Conodonts were marine animals first thought to be defense-first animals. But later evidence showed they were predatory." To get more specific from there feels to me like I do indeed need to memorize all of the specific detail. I don't know how I could pick up on how the vertebrate / invertebrate distinction is important vs all of the other detail in the passage.

[@zelihaotgoz371]

I have a specific question. I try to estimate how any hours I should study for GMAT Focus. I dont have any problem with Quant. I got 6.5 from IELTS reading. How many hours should I study for Verbal section to make 95% of the verbal questions correct? It would be so helpful if you could answer.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Unfortunately, that's an impossible question to answer, just because there are tons of different factors that could hold your verbal score back, and plenty of other factors that will determine the speed of your progress. There's absolutely no way for anybody to know how many hours you might need to achieve any particular goal. This video might be a good starting point, though: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3evi4qZbLKrebM. Some weaknesses are harder to fix than others, and the video will give you a sense of how to think about all of that. I hope that helps a bit, and have fun studying!

[@niweditaburnwal8307]

Hi, I have one doubt. I have always heard from mentors including you that we should not bother about the details while reading the passage but then you have gone through and tried to understand all the details while the first reading. I am really confused how to approach a long passage . Please guide. Thanks.

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Whoa, no decent test-prep expert is ever going to tell you to "not bother about the details" or that you don't need to understand them. We'll tell you not to OBSESS about the details -- and that's a completely different message. If all you understand from a passage is "factfactfactfactfact", you're not reading the right way. You'll need to zoom out a little bit and think about the big picture -- and if you're OBSESSING over every single detail, you're going to struggle to understand the author's overall purpose, and how the author's main ideas fit together. But that doesn't mean that you can ignore the details. You're going to have to understand most of them to gain an understanding of the big picture -- and you'll see us model that in all of our RC videos. Do you need to understand every single detail? Not always -- often, it's very possible to understand the author's overall purpose and the structure of the passage while missing a few details. But you'll still need to understand most of them, depending on the passage. The bottom line: the big picture matters enormously, and if you're TOO focused on details -- or if you're SOLELY focused on details, without taking the time to understand how the argument fits together -- you'll get yourself into all sorts of trouble. But you're going to have to understand a large proportion of those details in order to optimize your understanding of the author's overall purpose. And again, you'll see that reflected in our process in all of the RC videos. I hope that helps a bit!

[@niweditaburnwal8307]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Thanks a lot. Got your point. Igot to ask you one more thing. I have been practicing RC for a long time. I am able to solve the passage comparatively faster. But still I take more than average time. What can I do to reduce my solving time. Any strategy or solving approach.

[@aceanyconcept337]

Please recommend reading materials for GRE for those planning to take the test

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

It depends on what you mean by "reading materials", exactly. If you're referring to GRE-specific guidance that will help you understand the exam more deeply, I don't know that I can recommend specific reading materials, but these videos cover pretty much everything on the GRE: www.youtube.com/@GRENinjaTutoring. If you're asking about practice questions for GRE reading comprehension, the GRE official guides are obviously indispensable, but if you plan to study quite a bit, you might need additional practice questions. If that's the case, you could turn to LSAT RC, or this an older edition of the GRE official guide: amzn.to/3LDsIVc. It's out of print now, and the format of the questions is different. But the RC questions in that old guide (or the LSAT) will still help you get better at powering through the types of passages you'll see on your GRE. If you're asking about reading materials that will help you improve your reading skills in general -- not necessarily on GRE-specific texts -- then this article is a good starting point: www.gmatninja.com/gmat/articles/verbal/reading-fiction-to-improve-rc. The language is GMAT-focused, but it applies equally to GRE. I hope that helps a bit, and have fun studying!

[@siddharthaparakh3832]

Hi Charles, Greetings! I am confused which RC series to pick up, I guess one is this series of RC, the other is on gmatclub forum. Can you guide me? THanks

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

I think you're probably referring to the four-video RC series that we did on GMAT Club back in 2020? It definitely included many of the same ideas as this current series on the GMAT Ninja channel, but all four of the 2020 videos were filmed live -- so they're arguably less efficient than the series on the GMAT Ninja channel, and they're certainly less polished. The current series (full playlist here: tinyurl.com/2yxbxj4e) also includes a couple of extra videos -- six instead of four. If you feel like it's useful to see us work through more examples, you'll probably prefer the longer series on the GMAT Ninja channel. But again: the principles taught are very, very similar in both series. Bottom line: the punchlines are very similar in all of our RC videos. From there, it's just a question of personal taste: if you like the spontaneity of the live videos with that big-nosed Adam Sandler lookalike, start on GMAT Club. If you prefer a series with a little bit more length, a little bit more polish, and a couple of different tutors, stay on the GMAT Ninja channel. I hope that helps a bit!

[@siddharthaparakh3832]

​@@GMATNinjaTutoring Thanks very much Charles for your reply and for sharing the link, it would be easy to explore videos in spontaneity. Also, the link that you referred to is leading me somewhere else, just confirming it refers to the same set as this video is a part of? PS: TOM CRUISE is whom I am more familiar with but Adam Sandler is the joint winner for sure!!!! ahahhaha

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

@@siddharthaparakh3832 Haha, thank you so much! I preferred the Tom Cruise comparisons until my wife told me that she finds him totally unattractive. So I guess I'm good with the Adam Sandler thing now. ;) Sorry for the bungled link! That's embarrassing. Here's the correct link to the full 6-video RC playlist: tinyurl.com/2yxbxj4e. I also edited my original response, so hopefully it's correct there now, too. Have fun studying!

[@siddharthaparakh3832]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Thanks very much, Charles!! and Sandler is the best!! 😂

[@rickpalmer3041]

How do we know it's the mainstream way of thinking? Also, how does the GRE RC compare to GMAT? Thanks in advance

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Are you referring to the first passage in the video? If so, check out the last sentence of the second paragraph: "This position represents the new mainstream called social constructivism." I'm not quite sure what you want to know about GRE RC vs. GMAT RC, but the two test essentially the same skills. The biggest difference is arguably the passage lengths -- the GRE has some funny mid-length passages that are somewhat of a hybrid between GMAT RC and GMAT CR. You can read more about GRE RC here: www.gmatninja.com/gre/articles/basics/how-to-approach-gre-reading-comprehension. I hope that helps a bit!

[@rickpalmer3041]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring yes and thank you

[@jagjotsingh7378]

2/3 &3/3

[@andrewjohn8213]

I need a verbal tutor, am really struggling in RC section

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

I hear rumors that these guys are sorta decent at GMAT tutoring: www.gmatninja.com/gmat/tutoring. ;)

[@mamoako1521]

14:22 The Goal

[@mamoako1521]

TS: 17:00 , 21:18

[@frederickkingjnr]

I find it funny that i got all the answers here but i was gasping for air in the critical reasoning playlist lol

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Haha! That might not be a bad thing -- if you're strong on RC, good things will eventually happen on CR, too. But let's see what happens when you get to video #6 in this series. I struggled badly on a couple of those questions when I was preparing the video, so prepare for some pain -- you could miss quite a few in that video, and still be in great shape on the GMAT. :) Have fun studying, Frederick!

[@siddhantmukerjee2101]

Hey, How Many Videos in RC?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

The initial series has six RC videos, and then we'll move on to CR immediately after the RC series is published. It's always possible that we'll add more videos if we think we missed something, but six videos should be more than enough for RC. :)

[@xsdfghjkhvcbj]

Q3 is wrong and it should be D. The passage didnt imply that 1981 was when Conodants were first discovered. Only the ‘other remains’ (including teeth) were discovered in 1981. This implies that Conodants were previously known. Therefore, B is incorrect because it was ALREADY known prior to the 1981 discovery. D is right because paragraph 2 mentioned eyes etc ‘would not have evolved unless first vertebrates were predators’. Then paragraph 3 goes on and confirms that from the findings of 1981. Happy to discuss further but I hold a very strong opinion of this.

[@xsdfghjkhvcbj]

Happy to be convinced otherwise but Ive looked at this for a long time and consulted others who agree with me as well

[@mdavisblack8263]

👍🍻

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

❤️🥨🍺

[@sims_ran]

Don Johnson, Sonny from Miami Vice?

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Pretty much identical: www.pinterest.com/pin/132293307790731652/

[@sims_ran]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring Nice! :D

[@avyagarg3980]

Can you please suggest which LSAT tests are the most GMAT like in nature? The ones I’ve used are barely of any help as they’re old . Also where to get familiar with humanities passage reading? @gmatninja

[@GMATNinjaTutoring]

Two thoughts here. First, LSAT and GMAT RC passages differ in plenty of superficial ways, but both exams test exactly the same thing: your ability to read with precision and draw reasonable inferences based on your reading. You could even argue that the LSAT is better training in some ways, because the RC passages are generally longer and harder than their GMAT brethren -- so GMAT passages feel easier after you've used the LSAT for a while. For more on why we like the LSAT so much, check out this article: www.gmatninja.com/gmat/articles/verbal/5-reasons-why-the-lsat-can-help-your-gmat-score. The second thought is that the older LSAT exams might actually be better than the newer ones for RC. Newer LSATs have a thing called comparative reading, which really doesn't resemble anything on the GMAT. So you're better off with older LSATs for the GMAT (or EA) -- anything before PrepTest #50 is fine. Here's one book that we like, but there are plenty of others: amzn.to/3YFTMa7. For humanities passages, this video is a good place to start: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJfIeHemrayUpac. This older video covers many of the same ideas, albeit with a far less interesting beard: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nHzXmnhsr8yAoas. I hope that helps!

[@avyagarg3980]

@@GMATNinjaTutoring thanks a lot !! Yes I’ve seen this humanities video but need more help getting familiar with the text and the way it’s written and the old English and play of phrases so I Dont accept the literal meaning and get used to phrases and word play. Literally stuck on passages cuz of context and word play issues