Reading Comprehension

Class Location: The Internet.

Description: This class will prepare you for taking the Reading Comprehension section of the GMAT.

Objective: Learn what will be on the Reading Comprehension portion of the GMAT test.

The purpose of the GMAT reading comprehension section is to see how well you understand implications, meanings, and structures in the passages. You will likely see two to four passages from 200 to 400 words in length on the verbal section. Each will be followed by four questions, but due to the GMAT now being computerized, you will only see one at a time.

You will likely encounter passages of these three varieties: business, science, and social science. We recommend a slightly different strategy for each kind.

Business:

Business passages generally have difficult structures, and will include questions requiring you to infer information and find the authors' mood or opinion. There may also be compound words you have never heard of, but they are not hard if you break them down into their parts.

Science:

In these sections about biology, chemistry and medicine, you should first speed read or skim your way through to understand its structure and outline.

These are boring passages, but they are also very factual and direct so they are likely to be the easiest passages to answer the questions. You are unlikely to come across inference questions here. Instead you will probably have to answer several factual questions directly from the passage.

Social Science:

These will often be about history, politics and geography and will be the most enjoyable reading in the section. This is good, because you will need to read them slowly to answer all the inference questions that follow.

4 Types of questions

1. Factual questions will likely be the easiest to answer, but also the most time consuming. Be careful to watch for curveball questions, namely ones that refer you to a specific line of text. You will actually need information from the preceding few sentences in order to answer correctly.

2. Inference questions are not looking for stated facts, but your ability to conclude something from information. They may ask you to make a judgment about the author's opinion, or guess what other conclusions the author might draw. These are usually the hardest.

3. Main idea questions ask you to find the overall theme of the passage, but many have difficulty here. All of your answer choices may have been discussed, but that does not make them the central theme. You can generally eliminate the choices that emphasize factual information. Also, choices that are too narrow or broad are usually incorrect. More likely the answer will be one that contains key words and concepts from the theme presented.

4. Tone questions are ones that ask you to describe the tone of the passage. Remember that tones are more likely to be positive or neutral than negative and science passages are most likely neutral.

Here are some additional tips to help you do your best on the reading comprehension section of the GMAT:

Use your scrap paper to roughly outline the article and make short notes. Read your first question before the passage to narrow your focus. Know the three types of passages and identify it as you begin. If looking for a factual answer, be sure to read the sentences ahead and immediately following the given line. Don't quickly draw conclusions with fact questions that use Roman numerals for the answer choices. Answer choices that are interesting or odd facts can generally be eliminated, because they spice up the passage but are not of any further value. Practice over and over.