Reading Comprehension
Reading Comprehension on the OAT tests your ability to understand passages drawn from science and general academic prose. You must identify main ideas, supporting details, inferences, tone, vocabulary in context, and the author’s purpose without relying on outside knowledge.
Core rules
- Read for the passage’s structure: claim, evidence, qualification, and conclusion. The main idea is broader than any single detail.
- Correct details must match the passage exactly in scope. A statement can be true in real life but unsupported by the text.
- Inference questions require a conclusion that follows necessarily from stated evidence, not speculation.
- Vocabulary-in-context questions ask for the meaning that fits the sentence, not the most common dictionary meaning.
- Tone words such as cautious, critical, or enthusiastic must be justified by word choice and qualification.
Worked example
Passage: “Neighborhoods with mature tree canopy were 2–3°C cooler in summer than nearby treeless blocks. The study did not test whether planting trees would produce the same cooling.” Question: Which conclusion is best supported? Answer: Mature canopy is associated with cooler summer temperatures, but causation by planting is not established. The second sentence explicitly limits the claim.
Traps
Avoid extreme wording such as always or never; avoid choosing a true fact not stated in the passage; avoid confusing the author’s example with the main claim; avoid overreading a correlation as proof of cause.