Goals
Whenever we start a specific type of problem, we want to have certain goals in mind (depending, of
course, on what that problem type is). Reading comprehension (RC) is no exception.
First, we have some timing goals. I aim to complete an initial read-through of an RC passage in 2
(shorter) to 3 (longer) minutes. This is not very much time – in fact, I’m not reading every last word
or detail carefully. I’m just trying to get the main ideas (and, note, what we do for the GMAT is
definitely not what we would want to do if we were reading something for school!).
I try to answer “general” questions (e.g., main idea) in about 1 minute and “specific” questions in
about 1.5 minutes (up to 2 minutes for the longest ones).
Next, we have some goals for the initial read-through of the passage. Every passage has a topic and
what I call The Point. The topic is what you would probably expect: the basic topic under discussion
in the passage. The Point is the main reason the author is writing this specific passage (you can also
think of The Point as the thesis statement). For instance, a passage topic might be the curious
decline of bees in recent years (entire hives have been dying, losing the ability to find their way
back to the hive, and so on). The Point might be that, out of three possible causes (all mentioned in
the passage), a certain fungus is the most likely cause (according to the author). Back to our Goal:
when I read the passage, I need to make sure I understand The Point, not just the topic.
Further, I also need to make sure I understand the purpose of each paragraph. These passages
follow the same rules we’re supposed to use when we write an essay: each paragraph should have
one distinct purpose or message. Often, that message is delivered via a topic sentence, usually the
first or second sentence of the paragraph. (Note: there is one exception. Some passages consist of
only one long paragraph. When this is the case, split the paragraph up into halves or thirds: for
example, the first half explains the plight of the bees and the second half speculates that pesticides
are the cause.)
Finally, as I alluded to earlier, I also need to make sure that I do NOT dive fully into all of the detail
in each paragraph. That “NOT” was not a typo. I’m trying to read this passage in 2 to 3 minutes
maximum; I don’t have time to try to fully understand, let alone remember, all of the detail. My goal
is to have a very basic idea of the kind of detail and to know in which paragraph the different kinds
of detail reside – that’s all.
Wait – I do NOT want to understand the detail?
Not much. This is where we can take advantage of the fact that the GMAT is a standardized test. An
individual test-taker is given only some (3 or 4) of the questions that were written for that passage.
That little piece of knowledge has major implications for how we conduct the initial read-through.
I know that I’m going to have to understand The Point, because that permeates the passage and all
of the questions. I also know that I will not get asked about every detail on the screen, because I’m
only going to see some of the questions that were written. So why learn all of that annoying detail
unless I know that I’m going to get a question about it? I won’t know that until the question pops
up on the screen. Ergo: I don’t want to learn all of the detail ahead of time.
Instead, as we discussed above, my goal for the detail is to know in which paragraph it resides. That
way, if I do get a question about the chemical mechanism by which the pesticide affects a bee’s
nervous system, I’ll immediately know that I can find that detail in paragraph 2. I won’t actually
know how to answer the question yet; I’ll have to read that detail now to see whether I can figure it
out.
Note: did you hit a tough word you don’t know? Skip it. (Later, if you need that word, you can try to
figure it out from the context – but only if you actually need it.) Is some sentence really convoluted?
If it’s the first sentence of a paragraph, use your SC knowledge to find the subject and verb, just to
get a basic understanding of what it says. If it’s a “detail” sentence, skip it. (If you need that
sentence later, you can try to work through it at that point – but, again, only if you actually need it.)
The Initial Read-through
Most of the time, The Point can be found in one discrete sentence somewhere in the passage
(though sometimes we have to combine two sentences to get the full Point). Most often, The Point
can be found in the first few or last few sentences of the entire passage, but it can show up
anywhere.
So, a new passage pops up on the screen and we, naturally, start reading. Read the first sentence,
then stop. Can you rephrase it it in your mind (put it into words that you can understand very
easily)? Then do so and jot down a note. Do the same with the second sentence. If, after reading
the first sentence, you can’t rephrase or aren’t sure what the passage is saying, try reading the
second sentence. Keep reading, little by little, until you get enough of an idea of what’s going on to
jot down a note.
Once you think you understand the purpose of that first paragraph, you can start skimming the rest
of the paragraph. While you skim, you’re trying to make this distinction: is this information simply
detail that goes along with or supports whatever I decided was the purpose of this paragraph? Or is
this information something new: does it represent a new idea, a contradiction, or a change of
direction? If it’s just detail, you may or may not decide to write something down (probably not). If it
represents a new idea or change of direction, then pay a little more attention and, if appropriate,
take some short notes.
Do the same with the other paragraphs, though you can be a bit more aggressive about skimming.
If, for example, you think you understand the purpose of the second paragraph after reading only
the first sentence, that’s fine. Start skimming (but take note of anything that represents a new
direction).
When you’re done, take a moment to articulate The Point to yourself. Is that already in your notes?
Put a star next to it. If it isn’t in your notes, jot it down.
Taking notes
Your notes should be heavily abbreviated – much more aggressively abbreviated than notes you
would typically take at work or school. In fact, if I look at my notes for a passage a few days later, I
should have a lot of trouble figuring out what they say (without using the passage as a reference).
How can we get away with abbreviating this heavily? Again, we’re taking advantage of the nature of
this test. You’re going to spend perhaps 6 to 8 minutes with this passage and then you can forget
about it forever. You don’t need to commit anything to long-term memory, nor do you need to take
comprehensive notes from which you can study in a week (as you often have to do for school). Of
course, if you’re just practicing, you are going to review your work later, but you should still practice
as though it’s the real thing.
Analyzing your work
Everyone already knows that it’s important to review your work on the problems you do, but did you
know that it’s also important to review how you read and take your notes? When you’re done with a
passage and the associated questions, start your review with the passage itself. When you were
done reading (but before you answered questions), what did you think The Point was? What did you
think the purpose of each paragraph was? Did that knowledge or understanding change as you
worked your way through the questions?
If you misunderstood something after the first read-through, why do you think you misunderstood
it? Did you read too quickly and overlook something? Did you not take the time to rephrase what
you read? Was the language too hard – were there words or idiomatic expressions that you didn’t
know? How could you do this better next time?
Next, match your initial notes to your current knowledge of what information is contained in the
passage. Were you able to find the right paragraph easily when answering a specific question? If
not, why not? What should you have jotted down on the initial read-through to make that easier?
Conversely, did you have too much information jotted down? Maybe you were able to answer a
specific question just from your notes, or maybe you had a lot of detail written down that you never
had to use. If so, you wrote down too much information and likely spent too much time on the initial
read-through.
Could you have abbreviated even more? Write down what that might have looked like. In general, if
you feel your notes were fairly far from your “ideal” for any reason, then re-write the notes the way
you should have written them the first time.
Take-aways


(1) You do NOT want to learn or comprehend every single thing that the passage says. (Note: this is not
what to do once you actually do get to b-school. There, do try to understand everything clearly!)
(2) Know your goals:



(a) Find The Point
 (b) Find the purpose of each paragraph
 (c) Know where (in which paragraph) to find different kinds of detail
(3) Practice sticking to your timing and practice abbreviating heavily.
(4) When you review your work, also review how you read and took notes on the passage.
Start reading GMAT-like texts now
It’s obvious that a reading comp passage won’t be as thrilling as your favorite Dan Brown novel, but the
GMAT actually makes RC passages boring on purpose. The test-makers go out of their way to make the
text complex, and they like to use natural science and social science topics with which potential businessschool students may not be familiar. To prepare yourself, start reading real-world texts that mimic GMAT
passage structures. The Economist, Scientific American, and The Wall Street Journal are good places to start,
and magazines like Time and Newsweek feature editorial articles that can help you learn to recognize
authorial arguments. Get comfortable with this type of writing now so that the passages on test day
seem familiar and manageable.
Take notes
Writing quick notes will keep your brain naturally engaged and help you move through the passage
deliberately (at Knewton, we call this process Active Reading). Jot down a quick summary for each
paragraph and note the main ideas or theories mentioned in the passage. People often skip this notetaking step because they worry it takes too much time. But think about it this way: It’s much better to
take a few extra seconds to jot down helpful notes than to waste potential minutes staring blankly at the
screen. Plus, your notes will provide useful pre-phrases for some of the broader reading comprehension
questions, which can actually help you save time in the long run.
Fast-forward to test day. What should you do if you’re in the middle of a reading comprehension passage
and your brain is starting to wander?
Don’t panic
Try to stay calm; panicking about your lack of focus will only make it harder to come back to the
passage. Be patient with your brain – it’s working hard! If you feel glazed eyes starting to set in, look
away from the passage. This might sound counter-intuitive – why am I turning away from the thing I’m
supposed to be reading? – but think of it as hitting a reset button on your brain. Look away from the
screen, take a deep breath, and then return to the passage. You’ll be amazed at how much a few quick
seconds of break time can center you back on the task at hand.
Return to something interesting
Once you’ve taken those deep breaths and are ready to come back to the passage, don’t start reading
the same sentence that tripped you up the last time. Go back a few sentences, or even to the previous
paragraph, to the most recent idea that interested you. Your brain will be much more likely to reengage
on an interesting thought than on one that was difficult to understand. Then, you can use your notetaking skills and Active Reading to stay focused throughout the rest of the passage.
With these tools, you’ll be able to beat – or avoid – glazed eyes syndrome. Did you make it through this
post without falling asleep? Then you’re well on your way to reading comprehension success!
Patterns among incorrect Reading Comprehension
answer choices
Despite this perception, there are some discernible patterns that RC incorrect answer
choices follow. Learning these patterns and mastering them can be a huge boon on test
day!
1) Emotional tone
The tone of virtually everything on the GMAT verbal section is balanced, measured, and
reserved. This is the tone of most professional business writing. Think, for example, if a
business executive described a colleague or competitor in flamboyantly emotional language:
that executive would probably be risking a law suit! Even strong praise and strong criticism
has to be couched in subtle, understated language. Everything in the RC passages will
reflect this balanced tone, and all the correct answers will have this balanced tone. Any
answer choice that has any emotional charge to it must be incorrect. Examples of answer
choices with this flaw:
“that the sponsor of the new bill despises people who exploit the poor.”
“that the factory workers’ union was elated by the new retirement package.”
Without even knowing the passage or the question, we can tell these would be wrong
answers. The words “despises” and “elated” connote very strong emotions, and this is far
too strong for the tone of GMAT RC.
2) Unrealistic scope
Philosophers and religions throughout history have regularly made universal claims about
life, the universe, and everything. Even natural scientist make universal claims within their
subject area: “every electron in the universe has a spin of 1/2.” The claims in the business
world are far more modest. The modern global economy is an extremely complicated
system: no one thing is ever the only “cause” of a vast system of changes. No economic
rule holds in every case without exception. The claims in economic discussion tend to avoid
universal or universalizing claims. Therefore, any answer choice which extends an
argument to an unreasonable extent is quite likely to be an incorrect answer. Examples:
“as the price of an item rises, the demand always decreases.”
“the President’s policy is responsible for all the economic problems of American cities.”
“every employee in the factory is opposed to management’s surveillance plan.”
Again, we need neither the passage nor the specific question to recognize these as incorrect
choices. The first seems to invoke a law of economics, but fails to account for
its exceptions. The second discusses something that account for “all the economic
problems” — any modern post-industrial economy is far too complex for any one factor to
account for “all the economic problems” of anything. The third one is particularly
interesting: it’s easy to imagine that a surveillance plan would be unpopular, that perhaps
the majority of employees didn’t like it, but we always have to be careful when talking
about “everyone.” There are often folks who are completely clueless: eight months after
the surveillance plan has been in operation, they still may be totally unaware of it. There
are also folks who are deliberately contrary, and enjoy disagreeing with everyone else.
Unless the passage indicated explicitly that 100% of the employees, every last one,
responded in the same way, it’s a vastly unwarranted assumption that all the members of
any group would agree unanimously on anything.
3) Very fancy language
Sometimes, the GMAT will try to intimate you with fancy language. One pattern of incorrect
choice involves high-level vocabulary and specialized terminology. The answer will not be
correct, but it will be a potent distractor, because folks think: “gee, I don’t even know what
those words mean, but they certainly sound clever! That must be right.” This one is less
universal, but when you see an answer choice loaded with difficult words, that should
certainly send up red flags. For example:
“the author inveighed against the hermeneutical underpinnings of the CEO’s assertion.”
Regardless of the passage, regardless of the question, I can guarantee this choice would
never be a possible correct answer in any conceivable GMAT RC context. But, gosh, doesn’t
it sound fancy? That is precisely what will tempt many GMAT takers to choose it. The word
“inveigh” is not only difficult but also fails according to the first criterion discussed: it is
emotionally too strong. The word “hermeneutical” is incredibly obscure, relevant in only
certain abstruse academic fields, and does not pertain to anything discussed in the modern
business world.
If you see an answer choice loaded with words you don’t know, in your
mind, mark it tentatively as wrong, and return to it only if every other answer choice fails
miserably.
4) New idea
This can be a tricky one. Sometimes, a RC answer choice will mention or discuss something
that wasn’t mentioned at all in the text. This new idea will be clearly related, in some way,
to what was discussed, but never explicitly mentioned. For example, suppose the passage
is about the difficulties related to the Civil War that Lincoln faced during his presidency.
Then, a brand new idea, not discussed in the passage, could concern: the challenges of any
other wartime president, or the challenges Lincoln faced concerning domestic issues only
tangentially related to the war. The new idea has to be “close” to what was discussed in the
passage — that’s what makes it tempting — but technically, it was never explicitly
mentioned.
Ideally, you will read the RC passage thoroughly once, summarizing in brief notes, and
thereby be familiar enough with the content to recognize immediately such an answer.
Assuming you are in the habit of reading thorough the first time, then if you read an answer
it triggers a “Gee, I don’t remember that being mentioned” feeling, don’t doubt yourself and
immediately accuse yourself of overlooking it. Rather, know this is a pattern for incorrect
answer choices.
5) Doesn’t answer the question
This can be the most devious type of wrong answer. This will be a statement that is 100%
consistent with the passage, completely supported by the author’s discussion.
The trouble
is: it doesn’t actually answer the question posed.
Suppose, once again, the passage is about the difficulties related to the Civil War that
Lincoln faced during his presidency. Suppose the passage explicitly discusses General
Burnside‘s inadequacy as a Union general, for example, at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Now, if the individual question concerns, say, the challenges resulting from disagreements
among members of Lincoln’s cabinet concerning matters of the war, then an answer choice
along the lines of “Lincoln was highly critical of General Burnside’s performance at the Battle
of Fredericksburg.” Well, that issue was certainly explicitly discussed in the passage, it is a
completely supported assertion, but it has absolutely nothing to do with disagreements
among Lincoln’s cabinet. That is a hypothetical example of this very tricky type of GMAT RC
wrong answe
Understand the power of this underappreciated approach to RC!
Cognitive vs. Affective
Most discussions of preparing for the GMAT focus overwhelmingly on cognitive skills:
learning, understanding, remembering, thinking strategically, deducing, etc. Most GMAT
strategies and skills are cognitive in nature. While affective considerations are clearly less
important, they merit some attention. Human beings are profoundly emotional beings, and
as logical as we may strive to be, emotions essentially inform our all of thoughts and
actions.
Consider two people who walk into the GMAT with roughly the same intelligence and roughly
the same level of preparedness. Suppose person A feels optimistic, confident, buoyant, and
simply relishing the opportunity to take on the invigorating challenge of the GMAT. Suppose
person B walks in feeling depressed, pessimistic, anxious, and simply dreading the
oppressive onus that the GMAT represents. Even though these two people start from
roughly the same cognitive levels, the vast affective difference between them might be
enough to cause a score difference of a couple hundred points. Self-fulfilling prophecies
have been documented in psychological research for years, so the person whose emotions
are all “tuned in” to success will have an enormous advantage to the person whose
emotional outlook is bleak and unpromising.
Reading Comprehension and Your Emotions
In many ways, one’s affective orientation is an overall concern on the GMAT, important but
not specific to any part of the test. Confidence and optimism will help you more than
anxiety and self-doubt, and that’s true more or less irrespective of individual question type.
The one GMAT question where the focus of your emotional energy is a crucial consideration
is Reading Comprehension.
On GMAT RC, you are going to have to read short (200-250
word) and long (300-450 word) passages, difficult academic passages, and you are going to
have to answer sophisticated questions about the content.
You need to get as much as
possible out of the passage you read. When do you get the most out of what you read?
When you are interested in what you are reading.
“Great,” you may think, “you want me to be passionately enthused about deathly dull topics
like, say, the problems of archeology as a discipline, or the cardiovascular system of
snakes!” Well, consider this. First of all, each passage of GMAT RC comes from an actual
academic source, so believe it or not, for each passage, someone out there is genuinely
passionate about that seemingly dry subject. Furthermore, we all have had the experience
of a gifted teacher or lecturer turning us on to a topic that previously we considered with
little interest. It turns out, whether you find a topic interesting has little to do with the
actual cognitive content of the material; it has more to do with presentation, and it has a
great deal to do with how emotionally engaged you are — or how emotionally engaged you
allow yourself to be.
Turning On
Albert Einstein said: “There are two ways to live: as if nothing is a miracle, and as if
everything is a miracle.” For those who know anything about Einstein’s biography, clearly
he himself lived very much in the latter mode. The word “miracle” is an awfully strong
word, so we could paraphrase the “two ways” — “as if nothing is interesting, or as if
everything is interesting.” It turns out, the difference between those two has very little to
do with our external circumstance and very much to do with our fundamental emotional
orientation.
Neurobiologists talk about “top-down” and “bottom-up” circuitry in the brain; “top-down”
goes from the higher cognitive centers to the lower perceptual centers, and “bottom-up”
goes from the perceptual centers to the cognitive centers. When we are looking closely at
our surroundings, trying to figure out what we’re seeing, we are using bottom-up circuits.
When what we are seeing is deeply familiar and known, already mapped, we tend to use
top-down circuits. Top-down circuit match stimulus to past patterns, and the emphasis is
on what has already been experienced. Bottom-up circuits tune into the cutting edge of the
present moment. Infants and young kids, trying to figure out everything, are almost
constantly in their bottom-up circuitry, and that creates a great deal of the magic and
wonder of early childhood. Adults, especially unexcited jaded adults, are almost exclusively
in top-down circuits. Top-down circuits are useful and efficient, because you don’t want to
have to refigure out everything each new time you see it, but the price of overdoing this
efficiency is that the world can become weary, stale, flat and emotionally unprofitable.
The demands of the adult world cause us to lean heavily on our top-down circuitry, and
many people simply default to it 100% of the time, but that’s not the only choice. Through
practice, we can train ourselves to exercise regularly our bottom-up circuitry. This is
exactly what mindfulness practice does. Zen Buddhism is also about getting out of one’s
head, one’s preconceptions, and focusing more on one’s unmediated perceptions, with the
consequence of shifting us to a predominance of bottom-up circuitry. When we start to
notice what is new, even ephemeral, in our familiar environments, we start to feel
interested and excited again. As Hopkins says, “There lives the dearest freshness deep
down things.” Once we become consistent in mindfulness practice, such that it informs the
majority our day, then we are in bottom-up circuitry most of the time, and the world can
become exciting, magical, and full of wonder. This adds some genuine neurobiological
depth to the words of the ancient Chinese sage Mengzi: “The great person retains
connection with her or his child’s heart.”
Practicing Curiosity
As always with the brain, we need to practice to get good at something. If you want
expand your access to your innate bottom-up circuitry, you have to practice curiosity.
Sometimes, curiosity involves actually doing a little research and finding out, but more
often, it just is a doorway to imagination and open-ended wonder. Top-down processes are
aligned with those parts of the brain that want to get clear answer and leave no questions
hanging. Bottom-up circuits are all about the messy open-endedness of ongoing life as we
experience it. Curiosity involves toning down the inner skeptic and allowing one’s self to be
surprised by one’s immediate experience. The more one practices, the more vital and
interesting the entire world becomes.
If you practice curiosity consistently, you will have a powerful skill on which to draw when
you read GMAT Reading Comprehension. If you read with genuinely curiosity and wonder,
you will get far more out of Reading Comprehension, and be far more successful on those
questions, even if you haven’t learned any additional RC strategies. Yes, those strategies
are also useful, but even the best RC strategies are not going to make up for the profound
edge genuine curiosity gives.
The consistent practice of curiosity, and the consistent practice of experience the world in a
bottom-up mode, will help you immeasurably on GMAT RC. In fact, it will give you a GMAT
experience much more like Person A than Person B of the second paragraph. It will also
make you happier and more satisfied pretty much across the board in life. Not bad, for a
Reading Comprehension strategy!
ACCURACY
Some things I don't recommend you do:
1) Taking para notes: I had joined the Princeton Prep center in New Delhi - they advocate jotting
down quick notes like you're currently doing for each para so you can refer back quickly for
questions. I tried this on my first attempt, all I can say is its a bad idea. It slows you down and
caused me to have timing issues (I almost never have timing issues now on Verbal). This is an
individual preference though. To reach that point where you can quickly summarize paras in your
head required reading practice (let me get to that below).
2) Falling for a trap answer: I've noticed RC will very often list an answer which has a direct text
quote, you'll think "hm that's corroborated right there I'll pick it" in a rush, whereas the answer is a
bit more subtle or elusive. Being constantly weary of these trap questions during RC and double
checking whether that specific answer meets all the demands of the question is crucial.
3) Second guessing not always good: That said, if you always second guess you might miss an
obvious answer because you tell yourself its too easy! Practice will cure that. OG 12, 11 or 10 is a
MUST do. On top of that, I haven't bought extra books but I have taken Manhattan tests and done
some of the free online ones.
4) Picking options which state 2 points: These are more subtle traps. I noticed in the OG
verbal supplement answers, for a question I got wrong, that I'd picked an option which was only
half right. It made two claims, one of which was substantiated and the other which was bogus. Be
careful of answers which state more than two things.
What you should be doing:
These strategies would differ from person to person, but RC in general is the hardest section to
improve upon for most of us, and may not simply involve blind practice:
1) If you have some time before you write, get into the habit of reading newspapers/good
magazines. When somebody who'd scored well first recommended this, I didn't value its importance
since its an obtuse approach. Do it like this: Read a newspaper article, build your redaing speed
over time, ensure after a while that yuo do NOT need to re-read to absorb info, as you go from one
para to another, summarize the previous para real quick in your head, maintain flow of info between
paras. This overall approach has helped me greatly.
2) Core strategies for different passage types: My colleague who just got a 740 recommended
having core strategies, i.e. categorizing the passage into "science" vs "business" vs "humanities/art".
I need to pick her brain a bit more on this, but she mentioned that if its science, the majority of
questions tend to be literal, therefore, don't read the passage too much in depth. Science passages
are meant to bog you down with detail. Read one quickly and summarize paras in your head e.g.
para 1 introduced hypothesis on enzyme function, para 2 talked about alternative enzyme etc., so
when the question asks "How does enzyme A inhibit.." you'll know where to go back and check.
Humanities/arts: These are generally a tougher read, require more time, and have more "inference
based questions. Spend more time on these understanding overall point, what is the tone of the
author, has he taken a side on the argument etc. Business/econ: Not so sure about these ones.
Read in depth too I guess as they generally involve concepts.
3) Beware of questions that start with "According to the author/passage": Alarm bells should go off
when it says that, I just finished RC from t he supplement today, and I got one of these wrong.
When I checked the answer, it literally took a direct quote which I'd missed to substantiate the
answer.
4) Make notes on answers you got wrong. Do you have an answer sheet for OG practice? What I do
is I keep one sheet with numbers. Recently for RC, every questions I get wrong, I'll make a quick
note on it as to why I got that wrong. That means reviewing the OG answers in depth, which
is key!!, and which also really pushes lazy people like me who hate to read in depth into answers.
5) Read the first question quickly before diving into passage: This is a mixed one. Try it, see if it
works, sometimes its one of those "by saying ABC in para 2 does the author mean"/"Which one of
the following is NOT a benefit the author mentions" or something, which makes you focus during
the read on that point.
6) Practice OG questions in sets of 3/4 passages each under a timer (~1:45 per question). Doing a
lot of RC in one go takes endurance., which the GMAT will of course test you on. I feel anymore
than that number in one go and your wasting your time. Analyze mistakes IN DEPTH. Make
notes for types of errors you made, on that sheet for back reference (i JUST started this as Im
exhausting my OG resources ).
7) Timing: Referring to the timing point above, I checked my per questions RC time on Manhattan,
and I was spending between 2:30 - 3:20 minutes on the first RC question (as I was reading the
passage), and then above 1 min on the rest. To have more time to read the tougher passages, you
need to perfect SC/CR so you minimize time there. This one's obvious I wont elaborate.
I hope this helps. RC is subjective I feel and has to vary from person to person, depending on how
familiar they are with quickly summarizing/analyzing large amounts of text. Try some of the above
points, and keep in mind good prep material is hard to come across for RC, so use the OG stuff well.
Aximili
_
Links
https://gmatclub.com/forum/download.php?fid%5B%5D=137&submit=Search
http://www.gmatpill.com/gmatpill-releases-reading-comprehension-pill-video-guide-rc/
https://gmatclub.com/forum/reading-comprehension-question-directory-topic-difficulty-129341.html