Reading Comprehension
What reading comprehension items test
Passages are short and factual-procedures, incident summaries, policy excerpts, brief arguments. Questions ask for the main idea, a specific detail, an inference, the author's purpose or tone, or the meaning of a word in context.
Separate the levels. The topic is what the passage is about. The main idea is the point the author makes about that topic. Details support the main idea, and a detail-based answer is the most common wrong answer. Inferences are small, defensible steps from stated facts-never outside knowledge or personal opinion.
Read for structure. Transition words map the passage: however, although signal contrast; therefore, as a result signal conclusion; first, then, finally signal sequence. Purpose is usually to inform, explain, persuade, or describe-ask which verb fits the whole passage, not one paragraph.
Traps.
- Answers that are true but do not answer the question asked.
- Extreme wording: always, never, all, only-rarely supported.
- A reversal of cause and effect, or of who did what to whom.
- One sentence's detail presented as the main idea.
- Choices requiring information the passage never supplies.
Worked example. A passage describes how a department changed its report-review process and concludes that error rates fell. Question: "The author's primary purpose is to…" An answer like "describe a change and its result" fits the whole passage; "prove that supervisors cause errors" imports a claim never made, and "explain how to write reports" covers only one sentence.
Rule of thumb. For every answer, point to the words in the passage that support it. If you cannot point, eliminate.