Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension: Main Idea Distractors

1. Answer choices that are too narrow/specific, usually details that appear in the passage but are not its main idea. Two examples of this type of distractor are answer choices (A) and (D) in the above question: (A) Arguing in favor of the existence of liquid water on Mars (D) Suggesting that Mars was previously largely covered in water Answer choice (A) is the primary concern of the second paragraph, not of the entire passage. Answer choice (D) is a detail that is mentioned in the last sentence of the third paragraph. The most effective way to deal with this type of distractor is not to read anything beyond the Initial Reading when solving a Main Idea question. 2. Answer choices that are too general or too broad. An example of this type of distractor is answer choice (E) in the above question: (E) Acquaint the reader with Mars and its surface geology

Inference Question Distractors

1. Answer choices that copy information stated in the passage As explained above, Inference Questions are based on what is implied in the passage rather than what is stated in it. 2. Answer choices that stray too far from the passage Inference Questions do not ask about meanings or implications that are remote from the passage. The correct answer is a small step beyond what is explicitly stated in the text.

Initial Reading Tips

1. Long first paragraph: In most cases, read the entire first paragraph sentence by sentence. An exception to this rule is the case of a very long first paragraph. If the first paragraph consists of more than four sentences, it means that the paragraph does not contain only the gist of the passage, i.e., not just the main idea, but also starts going into detail. In this case, stop reading the first paragraph as soon as you realize that the information you are reading is no longer general. 2. Short/friendly Reading passage: Even if you come across a reading passage which is short and is taken from the field you're an expert in, do not be tempted to do what you would intuitively do when you see a reading passage. That is, do not read the entire passage. If you read the entire passage, you'll end up remembering bits and pieces from its content rather than its main idea and structure.

5. Work Order (after the Initial Reading)

1. Read the question carefully. 2. Find the answer to the question either by thinking about it or by looking for it in the passage. 3. Go over the answer choices, looking for one that is similar to the one you found. 4. Go over the remaining answer choices to make sure they're not better.

Reading Comprehension: Work Order

1. Start with an Initial reading of the passage. 2. Read the question stem. STOP! paraphrase the question in your own words and understand what you're being asked. 3. Diagnose the question type (general or specific, based on what is stated or implied) 4. Find the answer to the question: If the question is a general one, the answer is in your initial reading notes - refer to those. No need to go back to the passage. If the question is a specific one, go back to the passage: find the necessary sentence in the passage part and read around it. Do not rely on your memory - go back to the passage. Important - whether you're referring to your initial reading notes or the passage itself - STOP! Paraphrase the answer to the question in your own words before moving on to the next phase: 5. Scan the answer choices, looking for one that is similar to the one you found. 6. Go over the remaining answer choices to make sure they're not better.

Reading Comprehension: Directions

1. Stated vs. implied Some questions need to be answered on the basis of what is explicitly stated in the passage. For example, "Which of the following is mentioned in the passage?" Other questions need to be answered on the basis of what is implied in the passage but is not explicitly stated in it. For example, "Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?" 2. Choosing answers based on the content of the passage vs. my personal knowledge Suppose you're a world expert on bird migration, and you encounter a reading passage about this topic. In any case of disagreement between what you know about bird migration and what the passage states about it, the information in the passage is what you should base your answers on. After all, that's what the test writers based the question on and how they determined which answer choice is correct. Your goal is to choose that answer choice because this is the only way to get the points for it, even if you, as a world expert on the subject, know it's inaccurate or otherwise flawed.

2. Passage Structure

A typical GMAT reading passage consists of 2-4 paragraphs. Few reading passages consist of only one paragraph or of more than four paragraphs. All GMAT reading passages share the same structure: The first paragraph is more or less a summary of the entire passage, similar to the abstract of a scientific journal article. The other paragraphs are structured in the following way: they go deeper into a certain point, issue or aspect pertaining to the main idea of the passage in depth. The beginning of the paragraph announces the exact topic of the paragraph and is kind of a summary of or introduction to the rest of the paragraph. The exception is one-paragraph passages. These passages are not divided into paragraphs. The whole text is one long paragraph. The Last Paragraph Misconception While the first paragraph usually consists of the main idea of the passage, the last paragraph is NEVER EVER a summary of the passage. On rare occasions, the last paragraph will contain a recommendation for a plan of action, but in 95% of the cases, the last paragraph is no different than all previous paragraphs. That is why we treat the last paragraph as we do any other paragraph. We do not read all of it, we do not scan it, and we definitely do not look at the last sentence, expecting it to contain valuable information.

3. Logic over Content

A very important Reading Comprehension skill is focusing on the structure and logic of the passage and not on its content. The content is the shell, the cover. The logical relations between the passage's paragraphs and within paragraphs are the main thing and what most questions deal with. For example, it doesn't matter so much whether the passage is about the way our brain works, paleontology or the solar system. What matters a lot more is how the different paragraphs relate to each other, what each paragraph does (as opposed to the content of each paragraph): introduce a theory, support the point made in the previous paragraph, etc., whether the passage deals with theories, research findings or a chronological review of a phenomenon, etc. GMAC deliberately writes passages from various scientific disciplines. It does so to minimize chances that any test taker will be familiar with all the topics of the passages he or she encounters on the GMAT. Therefore, if you see a passage that deals with microbiology, which happens to be a field you know nothing about, have no fear. The questions that will follow it won't test your understanding of microbiology. They'll deal with structural elements and logic, a much safer ground for most GMAT students. Actually, Reading Comprehension questions try to establish whether we can quickly (1) analyze the structure of a passage, (2) get the gist of it, and (3) extract specific information from it. Focus on the structure and function of each sentence you read rather than on the information it presents.

1. Passage Content Categories

All reading passages are academic and scientific. They discuss topics from the social sciences, humanities, the physical or biological sciences, and such business related fields as marketing, economics and human resource management. Neither the passages nor the questions assume prior knowledge of the topics discussed.

Reading Comprehension: Application Questions

Application questions ask you to apply an idea that appeared in the passage to a context outside the passage itself. For example, you may be asked to apply ideas given in the passage to a situation not mentioned by the author or select a statement that would provide the most logical continuation of the final paragraph of the passage. These are SPECIFIC questions. Application questions are the ones that stray the farthest from the information presented in the text. 1. The author is most likely to agree with which of the following statements about (something that was mentioned in the passage)? FOCUS on Logic over content

Reading Comprehension: One Paragraph Reading Passages

By locating the "first sentences" of such hidden subsections within the single-paragraph passage, we can map a passage with one long paragraph just as we do in a standard Initial Reading. In order to identify the "first sentences" within the long paragraph, we must look for structural words/phrases, such as however, alternately, or for example. Each of these words/phrases indicates that we should stop and read the sentence carefully, treating it as we would the first sentence of each of the paragraphs (beyond the first) in a passage that consists of more than one paragraph. 1) Read the first sentences of the passage (no more than two or three) until you understand the main idea. Stop when you start reading specific information. 2) Scan the rest of the passage, looking for structural words/phrases. Read the sentences which begin with such a word/phrase. Each such sentence points to the beginning of a new subsection and explains its function.

Reading Comprehension: Style and Tone Questions

GMAC puts an emphasis on political correctness. This dictates three principles for answering Style and Tone questions correctly: 1. Moderation - you can automatically eliminate radical answer choices. The author is a cool scientist, and his or her language reflects this fact. 2. Respect for experts and for the people about which the author writes - experts are the author of the passage and any other researcher/scientist mentioned in the passage. Answer choices that portray these people - or anyone else, for that matter - negatively can be automatically eliminated. It is perfectly acceptable for the author to express objection or criticism, but it is unacceptable to show contempt for others or to ridicule them. 3. Respect for mainstream American Values - answer choices that seem to undermine the existing order are outside the scope of a plausible correct GMAT answer. Being innovative or progressive, on the other hand, is fine. The following words violate the above principles, and seeing them in an answer choice is enough to eliminate it: absolute, absolutely, complete, completely, extreme, extremely, total, totally, utter, utterly abusive, agitated, condescending, cynical, denunciatory, derogatory, fervent, harsh, perplexed amusement, astonishment, contempt, disdain, dismay, ridicule, scorn, skepticism

Reading Comprehension: Inference Questions

Inference Questions, as their name suggests, ask you to make an inference based on the information presented in the passage. This means that the answer to these questions is not stated in the passage explicitly, but rather implied in it. Inference Questions measure your ability to understand the author's point when it is not laid out in so many words but rather only suggested. Some inference questions are about identifying the intended meaning of a word or a phrase used figuratively in the text. Inference Questions are usually specific, which means that in addition to the Initial Reading, you may also need to find the detail about which you are being asked. Identify by: The author suggests that... The author implies that.. It can be inferred from the passage that..

Reading Comprehension: Main Idea Questions

Main Idea questions can and should be answered on the basis of the Initial Reading. There's no need to go back to the passage for more information. Reading anything else beyond the sentences you read in the Initial Reading will waste precious time and expose you to supporting ideas, unimportant details and many technical terms that will just confuse you.

Reading Comprehension Overview

Reading Comprehension constitutes a bit more than one-third of the Verbal section. During the 65 minutes you spend on the Verbal Section, you should expect to be presented with 4 different reading passages. Each passage is followed by 3-4 questions, totaling 13-14 questions (out of 36 questions in the Verbal Section). There are 7 Reading Comprehension question types. Some are general, asking about the main idea of the passage or about its structure. Others are more specific, asking about a specific detail mentioned in the passage. You will learn how to deal with each type quickly and efficiently.

Difference between wording and meaning

Reading Comprehension is the difference between words and meaning. Ideas can be expressed in more than just one way. That is, the same idea can be expressed by different words. For instance, how else can we express the idea of the sentence "John is a vegetarian"? John does not eat meat That's right, because the meaning of vegetarian is one who does not eat meat. Sometimes, answer choices to Reading Comprehension questions will use different wording to express the same meaning and vice versa - use similar wording to express a different meaning. It's essential that we avoid automatically choosing answer choices just because they use the same words that appeared in the passage. Rather, we should adhere to the idea that's expressed in the text, bearing in mind that the correct answer could express that same idea using other words.

Initial Reading Example

That was the last stage of the Initial Reading of the passage. It involved reading only 5-6 sentences in the entire passage: the first 2-3 sentences of the first paragraph, the first sentence of the second paragraph and the first sentence of the last paragraph. This both saved you time and allowed you to capture the main points of the passage quickly and efficiently. When you know where to look, finding what you're looking for is easy... The summary of the passage, which you might have written down on the erasable noteboard, looks something like this: First paragraph (main idea): Tomb raiding causes problems for archaeologists and historians. Second paragraph: A specific case illustrating such a problem caused by tomb raiding. Third paragraph: Although tomb raiding is a problem, there is more to it than previously discussed.

4. Initial Reading

The first thing we do when we see a reading passage, before even looking at the question that appears next to it on the screen, is called Initial Reading, a technique for extracting the main idea and structure of the passage with minimum effort and time. Initial Reading involves reading the first 2-3 sentences of the first paragraph and the first sentence in each of the other paragraphs. Note that just like in Sentence Correction and Critical Reasoning, we work at the sentence level: we never read more than one sentence at a time. Working at the sentence level is the key to practicing conscious reading: since we do not read the entire passage off the bat (more on this later), this is a way to make sure we really understand what little we do read. We don't just read - we do something with the information: we summarize it in our head, or on paper; we ask ourselves after each sentence "What have I just learned?" "How does this relate to what I've read so far?" In each of the next paragraphs, only read the first sentence. You have to understand how this sentence is related to the content of the first paragraph. You have to understand what this paragraph is trying to do. How it develops the main idea of the passage portrayed by the author in the first paragraph.

Reading Comprehension: Detail Function Common Distractors

The main distractor is an answer choice which copies the information about the detail, that is, focuses on the content rather than on the function of the detail. Some answer choices focus on the meanings of words that are similar to the word Originally rather than analyze the reason the author uses this word and how this word serves a function in the author's way of conveying his or her point.

Reading Comprehension: Time Allocation

The recommended time per Reading Comprehension passage (that is, answering all 3-4 questions that follow the passage) is approximately 2 minutes 15 seconds per question: about 7 minutes for a passage followed by 3 questions and 9 minutes for a passage followed by 4 questions. What it actually comes down to is about 3-4 minutes doing an initial reading of the passage, following which the questions can be dealt with in 1-1.5 minutes each.

Reading Comprehension: Detail Function Questions

These questions do not ask you what the word means or what the sentence in which it appears is about, but rather deal with the function that this detail serves in the passage. In other words, how the author uses this detail to deliver his or her ideas. For example, a Detail Function questions can ask the following: The author uses the word "simple" most probably to emphasize that... We also need to find the detail about which we're being asked and read the sentence in which it appears. Then we need to think about the correct answer - that is, about the function that this detail fulfills in the passage - and only then do we go over the answer choices and look for one that matches the one we thought of ourselves.

Reading Comprehension: Dealing with questions quickly and efficiently

You need to know the following: 1. Passage Content Categories 2. Passage Structure 3. Logic over Content 4. Initial Reading 5. Work Order