Kaplan Nursing: Reading Comprehension

The Reading Comprehension domain of the Kaplan Nursing entrance exam measures how well you extract meaning from short passages. Questions target main idea, supporting detail, inference, vocabulary in context, author's purpose and tone, and passage organization. The passages are not designed to trick you; the answer choices are, so precise reading beats rushed reading.

What each question type rewards

• Main idea: the passage's central claim, not its most memorable detail. Check that a choice covers the beginning, middle, and end.
• Detail: a paraphrase of an explicit statement. Locate the line, then match meaning rather than wording.
• Inference: a conclusion that must follow from the text. If a choice needs outside facts, reject it.
• Vocabulary: the word's meaning in that sentence. Cover the word, predict, then match.
• Purpose and tone: why the author wrote and how strongly the author feels. Extreme adjectives usually signal a wrong choice.

A reliable sequence

1. Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph to map the structure.
2. Read once for the argument's shape: problem, evidence, qualification, conclusion.
3. Answer detail questions by returning to the text; answer main-idea questions last.
4. Eliminate choices that are too broad, too narrow, or too extreme.

Worked example

Passage: For years, hospitals treated dehydration in older adults with intravenous fluids almost automatically. A quality-improvement review found that supervised oral hydration protocols lowered costs and length of stay without raising readmissions. The authors caution, however, that the protocols required hourly intake documentation, a demand some units could not meet. Question: The authors would most likely agree that oral hydration protocols are - Reasoning: The text supports benefit plus a staffing condition, so the best answer is "promising but dependent on adequate nursing staffing." "Always superior to IV fluids" is too extreme; "ineffective in most units" contradicts the findings.

Traps that cost marks

• Choosing a choice because it repeats passage words; wrong answers often do.
• Confusing the topic with the main idea.
• Treating a plausible opinion as an inference; it must be text-supported.
• Missing a qualification such as however or some.