Reading Comprehension and Written Communication
What the questions test
Reading items ask you to identify the main idea, locate supporting details, draw a limited inference, recognize the author's purpose and tone, and define a word from its context. Written-communication items ask whether a sentence is clear, concise, grammatically correct, and written in a tone suitable for an official record.
Concepts to know
Separate main idea from detail. Watch transition words (however, therefore, although) because they signal contrast and causation, which is where inference questions live. For writing, review subject-verb agreement, pronoun reference (who is 'he'?), modifier placement, parallel structure, and concision. Reports should be factual, objective, and free of opinion or slang: write 'The door was open' rather than 'Someone stupidly left the door open.'
Traps
- Answer choices that are true statements but do not answer the question asked.
- Extremes ('always,' 'never,' 'all') that overstate the passage.
- Restatement offered as inference; an inference must follow from the text but not be stated outright.
- EXCEPT and NOT questions, where you must find the one choice the passage does not support.
- A detail answer chosen for a main-idea question.
Worked example
A paragraph explains how a new visitor-screening step works, listing the steps and who performs each. The question asks for the passage's main purpose. An answer saying 'to argue that screening is effective' fails - the passage never evaluates it. The correct answer is 'to describe a procedure,' because it accounts for the whole paragraph. Rule of thumb: the right main-idea choice matches the passage's scope, and every part of it is supported by the text.