Important Tips for Reading Comprehension

1. Understand the given topic in your own words

I remember when we used to write essays or ‘compositions’ in school. We always started out making a road map of key words which reflected our ideas. After we came up with a skeleton for the essay, we began putting it together; filling in all the blanks with sentences and words. We kept just two things in mind – never lose track of the ideas and their sequence, and use big words with impeccable grammar. It was guaranteed we’d get good marks on our essay.

A reading comprehension passage in the GRE, is just that. It is a thread of ideas – basic ideas, with big words and embellishment that sometimes confuse the readers, rather than helping them understand what exactly is being talked about. The way we can begin understanding what is being said, is to try and get the passage back into it’s simple form. That is your first tip.

Don’t lose the structure of the passage. When a passage is split into paragraphs, it means that each paragraph is based on a different aspect of the topic. For example, the first paragraph may deal with a certain theory, the second paragraph may tell you how the theory came about, and the third paragraph outlines the objections that this theory faces from various quarters.

The ETS Website gives us a few guidelines to follow. They are the people who make the test, so it would be prudent to listen to what they have to suggest:

• Try to distinguish main ideas from supporting ideas or evidence.
• Try to distinguish ideas that the author is advancing from those he or she is merely reporting.
• Try to distinguish ideas that the author is strongly committed to from those he or she advances as hypothetical or speculative.
• Try to identify the main transitions from one idea to the next.
• Try to identify the relationship between different ideas. For example:
  • Are they contrasting? Are they consistent?
  • Does one support the other?
  • Does one spell the other out in greater detail?
  • Does one apply the other to a particular circumstance?

To do #1: Read the passage quickly, once – This is called skimming. Then read it slowly. Write down keywords and ideas in simple form; each paragraph is a main idea or collection of actions. Find them, understand how the keywords link to the next. If you understand the relationships between keywords or actions and their consequences, half your work is done. This is summarizing the passage in your own words.

2. Understand what is being asked in the RC Questions

The same principles apply here too. Interpret the questions into your own words! Don’t just read the questions and try to find similar words in the passage and try to answer – this is the wrong way to go about it. The ETS people know that test takers employ this (wrong) strategy, so they construct questions in such a way, that people solving the Reading Comprehension in this fashion almost always get the answers wrong. The best way to tackle them is to INTERPRET the questions into your own words. Compare with the ideas that you have earlier summarized from the passage.

Don’t read the answers as soon as you finish reading the questions. I know this may seem counter-intuitive because some questions end in “which of the following” or some similar phrase. When this happens, replace the “which of the following” with a “what”. This will help you get the right answer from your earlier summary. Even questions that seemingly force the test taker to look at the options and then compare with the passage can be approached in this fashion. You have to remember that as long as your summary is perfect, all the answers can be obtained from it.

Some answers have words which are directly taken from the passage, but are actually the wrong choices. When someone has just gone through the passage, these are words that tend to stick in memory. When the same words are repeated in the answer choices, it seems like the choosing that option would be the correct thing to do. Again, a trap.

To do #2: Read the question, interpret it into your own words and try getting the answer from the basic summary you have constructed. It is important that you understand EXACTLY what you need to do. The options all reflect various levels of understanding of the passage and questions, that is why even the wrong options seem right till you whittle the topic and its questions down to their skeletons.

3. Don’t get influenced by personal opinion and external factors

Passage topics in the GRE Reading Comprehension section are taken from a vast and diverse variety of subjects. Some of these topics you may already be familiar with, and sometimes you may not agree with the views of the topic that is presented to you. Remember that this is only a test of your understanding, and not whether your own opinions reflect those in the passage.

You may feel strongly about a certain topic, but stick to the subject and the context of the topic in the passage. Your answers should be pertinent to the questions asked, and the basis of your answers should be the passage itself! This is yet another way ETS frames the answer options to RC questions in order to trap test takers into choosing the wrong answer. Remember, ETS is not testing you on your opinions, but on your understanding and analysis.