GRE Reading Comprehension Strategies for Exam Preparation

Whenever you watch a movie or read a book, what is the first thing that you do subconsciously or to a very limited extent deliberately?

You try to classify the movie or the book into its genre. You call it a comedy, thriller, action, horror and so on.

Then what if your friend asks you what the movie or the book was about, then do you narrate the whole plot with every detail or do you just put the whole thing in one or two sentences? In the case of ordinary mortals, which most of us are (though some of you may take exceptions to this) try to summarize the whole thing in one or two sentences, which try to capture the whole essence of the plot.

This is also exactly the case with reading comprehension questions that you encounter in your test.

First of all you read the passage and then classify it as science, business, social, political, socio-economic and so on. Then the next thing is that you hunt for the main idea, i.e. you try to capture the whole essence of the passage in one or two sentences.

The sad part is, in your test, the grilling doesn’t stop just here. You are put through a whole plethora of tortuous questions, which attempt to put your entire reading prowess to test.

Here are the 4 main reading skills tested in reading comprehension questions on GRE:

1. Main Idea: This involves the following:Selection of the main thought in the passageAbility to decipher the general significance of the passageAbility to select the best title for a passageLearn to distinguish between a main idea and supporting ideas

2. Specific Details: This involves the following:Ability to understand the author’s explicit statementsTo get the literal meaning of what is writtenTo identify details

3. Inference: This involves the following:Ability to weave together the ideas of a passage and to figure out their relationshipsTo draw correct inferencesTo read between the lines and to figure out the implications of statements

4. Tone/Mood: Ability to determine the tone/mood that is dominant in the passage – humorous, sarcastic, sad, and so on.

Here are some general pointers that will help you increase your accuracy in Reading Comprehension Questions.

1. As you read each question, determine its type: Main idea, specific detail, inference or Tone/Mood

2. Make notes for the important parts of the passage on your scratch paper3. Refer back to your notes or the passage, when in doubt4. Read the passage carefully, before you start answering the questions5. Get the meanings of tough words from the context or the ecosystem around it6. Pay special emphasis on the transitional words in the passage

Transition Word SignificanceAlthough

Opposition/Contrast

HoweverIn spite ofRather thanNeverthelessButYetDespite

On the other handTransition Word SignificanceMoreover

SupportBesidesAdditionallyFurthermoreIn factTransition Word SignificanceTherefore

ResultConsequentlyAccordinglyBecauseWhenSo

7. Your personal opinions do not matter, so, never answer a question based on your opinions.

8. After reading the passage, read each question carefully9. Work on your vocabulary to enhance your reading comprehension score10. Work out a plan to deal with questions that ask you find statements that strengthen

or weaken an argument in the passage or statements that the passage does not provide any information about

Some quick strategies to eliminate wrong answer choices:

1. Out of scopeEliminate those answer choices that are nowhere supported in the passage

2. Direct contradiction Eliminate all the answer choices that are in direct contradiction with the information given in the passage

3. Mix and MatchEliminate all the answer choices that match with the language but not the meaning of the passage, or those options that simply try to mash up two disparate ideas from the passage

4. Extreme wordsBe cautious with those options which have extreme words. Most often, answer choices with extreme words are not your probable answers. Extreme words are words like always, never etc.

5. True but irrelevantThe may be some options which appear to be true with reference to the content of the passage, but it does not have any significance in light of the question. Beware! These are traps.

In the next post we will discuss the structure of Argument Passages.

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