Reading Comprehension
What the section tests
Reading Comprehension asks you to read short passages - often narrative, procedural, or report-style prose - and answer questions about main idea, stated detail, inference, vocabulary in context, tone, and the author's purpose. Passages are short but dense; the difficulty usually lives in the answer choices, not the text.
Concepts to master
- Main idea versus supporting detail: the main idea covers the whole passage; details answer who, what, when, or how much.
- Inference: a conclusion the passage supports but never states outright. If a choice needs information the passage does not supply, it is speculation, not inference.
- Vocabulary in context: the meaning of a word as used in that sentence, not its most familiar dictionary sense.
- Purpose and tone: is the writer explaining, persuading, reporting, or warning? Watch for evaluative words.
Traps
- True but unresponsive: a choice that is genuinely in the passage but does not answer the question asked.
- Absolute language: always, never, all, none - usually wrong unless the passage says so.
- Half-right choices: the first clause matches, the second does not.
- Outside knowledge: an answer that is true in the real world but unsupported by the text.
Rule of thumb
Read the question stem first, predict the answer in your own words, then eliminate choices that do not match your prediction. Test every word of the surviving choice against the passage.
Worked example
Passage: "After auditors found repeated omissions in use-of-force reports, the department rewrote its reporting policy and required supervisors to review every report within 48 hours." Question: What is the primary purpose? A choice saying "to describe how audits are conducted" is related but off-purpose; the correct answer is "to explain why a reporting policy changed."