The 4 Steps to Success on GRE Reading Comprehension

Let’s have a look at a sample reading comprehension passage and question.

This is the basic set up you will see on Test Day. On the left hand side of the screen you will see the passage, with about every 5th line numbered. And on the right you will see the question. Now, don’t read this passage just yet we just want to cover the setup as it appears on the GRE.

Very often you will have a scrolling feature on the right hand side of the passage box so that you can scroll up and down to see the entirety of the passage. This passage is short, so it doesn’t need a scroller. Because the GRE is a computer-based test, we are only able to see one question at a time, and once we have confirmed our answer to a question, there is no way to go back and change it. Thus, we must carefully consider the question we have at hand and not be in a rush.

Now, before we answer this particular question, lets consider the key steps to answering these questions effectively…

Step 1: Read the question first, so you know what you are looking for. This is an important step because it orients us to find relevant information in the passage. It is the case that we will have to read the passage as a whole, but since a question is right there on the screen and you know you’ll have to answer it, it is best to read it first to know what you are looking for. Simply read the question stem to get a feel for it.

Try not to look at the answer choices as all but one of them will be inaccurate or incomplete. We do not want our minds to be clogged up with wrong answers.

So, if we return to our passage, our first step is to look at the question, and we read “The main purpose of this passage is to _________.” As we will talk about in a few moments, this is a tip off to a global question, which means we want to keep in mind the passage as a whole and not a certain sentence or detail within the passage. So now we can read the passage knowing that we are interested in the whole passage and to discover the author’s intention rather than focusing on a detail or unfamiliar vocab word.

After we have taken a look at the question, the Step 2 is to read the passage CRITICALLY. The kind of reading we need to do on these questions is different from the kind of reading we may be use to. Instead of reading for information, we want to carefully consider why the author is writing and what he is doing with what he is saying.

If we were to read the newspaper with our morning coffee, for example, chances are we are reading passively. We are simply perusing the text for information, not critically examining it.  By contrast, on GRE Reading comprehension questions, we cannot simply read passively and without questioning, we must read analytically and ask lots of questions.

For example:

1. What is the author’s main point in this paragraph? We should always be able to restate the main point of a paragraph in a few words.
2. How does this main idea relate to other ideas in the passage? We want to be aware of the ordering and movement of the passage.
3. What transitional words show development in the author’s writing? We want to be aware of the structure of the passage.
4. What is the author’s tone? Is the author generally positive, generally negative or generally neutral?

For the passage as a whole, we want to identify very distinctly the subject matter, the aspect or scope of the subject matter, and the intention of the author.

Lets walk through our original passage to see how this works.

Wheat has been cultivated from time immemorial. At first it was roughly crushed and consumed in the form of a thick soup, or in cakes baked on an ordinary hearth. Many centuries before the Christian era, the Egyptians were acquainted with the means of making fermented or leavened bread; afterwards this practice spread into Greece, and it is found in esteem at Rome in the 2nd century B.C. From Rome the new method was introduced among the Gauls, and today, it is found to exist almost the same as it was practiced at that period, with the exception, of course, of the considerable improvements introduced in the baking and grinding.

Now, what is the main point of this passage? Well, as a general overview, it talks about how wheat was prepared at first, then how the Egyptians used it, then how the Greeks and Romans used it, and then how it is used today. This looks like a chronology, or a history of on the preparation of wheat.

So, we know the scope of the passage is a history on the preparation of wheat. (Notice how we simply took into account the paragraph as a whole to come up with this. We were not tied to one sentence or detail.)

Next, we want to ask ourselves, “What was the intention of the author? Why did the author write this? In other words, what was the author DOING with this history on the preparation of wheat?”

It is helpful to think it terms of tone: positive(+), negative(-), or neutral(=). If the tone is positive, we would say the author is praising, promoting, or encouraging. If the tone is negative, the author would be undermining, criticizing, or disparaging. If the tone is neutral, the author would be describing, explaining, or reporting. Which is the author doing here?

The is simply reporting (=) or describing (=). There is little indication that he is overtly positive or negative. Thus, we have a good summary of this paragraph. The author is reporting a brief history on the preparation of wheat. This is a delightful summary of the passage, and will serve us well when we get to the questions.

Note that we are not interested in minor details. If a question later on asks us about what the Egyptians did to wheat specifically, we would know where to look, but as we read through, we are not concerned with such details.

Always, always, always determine the intention or purpose of the author while you read the passage. It is the best way to read critically and will help you immensely on the questions.

The third step in reading comprehension is to read the question and predict the answer based WITHOUT looking at the answer choices. You will base your answer on your critical analysis of the passage and your discerning of its structure. Thus you will be in a good position to predict. Also, you do not want to fill your head with a bunch of wrong answer choices without a filter. Use the critical reading you did previously to sift through untenable answers.

Finally, read each answer choice and test them against your prediction. Again, the directions are to choose the best answer, so you need to make sure you look at every answer choice before confirming it and moving on.

Fortunately, we already have our prediction on hand from our critical reading: to describe the history of the preparation of wheat. Thus, this should be an easy question. Which answer choice matches our prediction?

The correct answer is Choice D: chart some of the history of wheat as a food.

Notice that none of the other answer choices fit the purpose of the passage as a whole, and some are way off. Choice C for example, has a negative tone exhibited by the word “undermine” but we knew that the passage did not have a negative tone to it. Choice B indicates a positive with the word “credit”, so we can eliminate it as well. Choices A and E are outside the scope of the passage.

So you see how easily the best answer choice pops out at us if we have critically analyzed the passage first. Use this strategy as you are practicing, and answering the reading comprehension questions won’t be nearly as intimidating!

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Posted on 05. Dec, 2011 by Ryan in Verbal