Reading Comprehension and Literary Analysis
Reading Comprehension and Literary Analysis asks you to read closely, infer meaning, and explain how an author’s choices create effects. The exam tests literal understanding-main idea, sequence, vocabulary in context-and interpretive analysis: theme, characterization, tone, structure, figurative language, and the use of textual evidence.
Core rules
- Distinguish topic (what the text is about) from theme (the insight it offers about life or human behavior).
- Treat every inference as a claim that needs a textual warrant; quote or paraphrase the detail that supports it.
- Track shifts in tone, point of view, and chronology; these often mark the author’s purpose.
- Name devices precisely-simile, metaphor, personification, irony, foreshadowing-and explain their function, not just their presence.
Worked example
A narrator says, “I straightened the photograph on the desk and told my brother I had not touched it.” Asked what the detail suggests, a strong answer notes the contradiction between the careful gesture and the denial. The straightening implies guilt or a wish to control appearances; the denial implies concealment. The reasoning moves from observable action to plausible motive, then qualifies it with “suggests” rather than “proves.”
Traps that cost marks
Retelling the plot instead of analyzing; choosing a theme that is really a topic; making an inference the passage does not support; identifying a device without explaining its effect; ignoring a final line that reverses the tone.