ISEE Reading Comprehension: Six Passages, Thirty-Six Questions
What the section tests
Reading Comprehension (Upper and Middle Levels: 36 questions in 35 minutes) presents six passages - humanities, social studies, and science - each followed by questions on main idea, detail, inference, vocabulary in context, author’s purpose, tone, and passage organization.
Core rules
- Two question families. “According to the passage” and “The passage states” require a detail you can point to. “Suggests,” “implies,” and “most likely” allow one small step beyond the text, not a leap.
- Read for structure. The first and last sentence of a paragraph usually carry its claim; transition words mark the turns in an argument.
- For vocabulary in context, substitute each choice back into the sentence and keep the one that preserves the original meaning, even if it is not the word’s most common definition.
- Answer the question asked. A choice can be true and still wrong because it addresses a different question.
- Treat “EXCEPT” and “NOT” items as elimination tasks.
Worked example
Suppose a passage explains that street trees cool pavement, absorb stormwater, and correlate with lower asthma rates nearby, then notes that they also raise pollen counts and buckle sidewalks. A main-idea question offers: (A) Trees reduce asthma. (B) Cities should plant more trees. (C) Street trees deliver real benefits alongside real costs. (D) Pollen is a serious health problem. A is a supporting detail, B is a recommendation the author never makes, and D falls outside the passage’s scope. C covers both halves of the passage and is correct.
Traps that cost marks
- Choosing an answer because it is factually true rather than because the passage supports it.
- Strong wording: always, never, all, prove rarely matches an exam passage.
- Confusing the author’s view with a view the author merely reports (“critics contend that…”).
- Reading the questions first and then hunting only for keywords, which produces detail answers for main-idea questions.