Reading Comprehension and Written Communication
Reading comprehension on this exam rewards precision, not speed-reading. Know these concepts: the main idea (the single point the passage exists to make), supporting details (facts that back it up), inference (a conclusion the text implies but never states), the author's purpose (to inform, persuade, describe, or instruct), tone (neutral, critical, sympathetic), passage structure (compare–contrast, cause–effect, problem–solution, chronological), and vocabulary in context, where a familiar word shifts meaning depending on its neighbours. Written communication questions test clarity, conciseness, grammar, and register: subject–verb agreement, pronoun reference, parallelism, misplaced modifiers, and punctuation.
The common traps are predictable. First, a choice that is true according to the passage but does not answer the question asked. Second, extreme language - "always", "never", "all" - where the text says "often" or "some". Third, word-matching distractors that recycle the passage's vocabulary while reversing its logic. Fourth, scope creep, where a choice is broader or narrower than the passage. Fifth, grammar options that sound natural but hide an agreement or modifier error.
Rule of thumb for main-idea questions: cover the choices, state the passage's point in your own words in one sentence, then select the choice closest to your sentence - never the one that merely repeats the most words.
Worked example: "The officer, along with two supervisors, ___ the report." Remove the interrupting phrase "along with two supervisors". The subject is "officer", which is singular, so the verb is "was reviewing", not "were reviewing". Interrupting phrases between subject and verb are the single most common agreement trap, so isolate the pair before judging.