[Official Guide (OG) Study Notes] Reading Comprehension

• Article lengths range from approximately 200 words (short) to 350 words (long), covering fields such as social sciences, humanities and history, life sciences and physics, marketing, economics, human resources, and other business topics. No specialized background knowledge is required.
• RC questions may take slightly longer than average, but good test-takers know how to save time on SC to balance out the time spent on RC.
• Choose the best strategy for you: some prefer to read the passage thoroughly the first time, while others prefer to skim; some even look at the first question before returning to the passage.

What Does RC Measure?

• The ability to understand complex writing. (The OG explicitly states that all GMAT question types require very strong reading comprehension skills.)
• The ability to understand the author’s intent and the logical relationships between different pieces of information in the passage.
• The ability to infer beyond facts and statements.
• The ability to understand quantitative reasoning in passages (e.g., percentages, ratios, trends, probabilities, statistics), but without requiring advanced mathematical knowledge.

Question Types

1. Main Idea Questions (Main Idea)

• Every passage has only one main idea.
• Common patterns for incorrect answer choices:
  • Overgeneralization.
  • Similar but incorrect topic. (Dustin’s note: e.g., if the passage discusses “why sth happen” and the option states “how sth break out.”)
  • Outside the scope of the passage. (Dustin’s note: e.g., if the passage states “during the 19th century” and the option states “throughout the history.”)
• When reading the passage, paying attention to whether the author is “stating,” “arguing,” or “evaluating others” can help improve performance on Main Idea questions.
• Argumentation Passages (presenting one’s own ideas or evaluating others’ ideas):
  • Main Idea questions will either restate the author’s conclusion or describe it.
  • Argumentation passages have four different tones:
    1. Prescriptive: advocating for one’s own ideas
    2. Evaluative: evaluating the merits of others’ arguments
    3. Causal: establishing specific cause-and-effect relationships
    4. Interpretative: discussing the interpretation behind a certain event or theory
• Exposition Passages have four different tones:
  1. Narrative: sequentially presenting historical events
  2. Reporting: objectively presenting others’ positions or viewpoints
  3. Descriptive: describing various characteristics of objective things
  4. Informative: presenting any objective facts without taking a stance

2. Supporting Idea Questions (Supporting Idea)

• Like Main Idea questions, they do not require any additional inference or speculation.
• Any detail in the passage may be questioned.
• Correct answers are almost never literal restatements of the passage.
• Information that may be asked includes:
  • What are the premises of the argument?
  • What is the attitude actually mentioned in the passage (e.g., what was someone refuted by)?
  • What examples did someone provide to support or counter-examples to challenge?
  • What background information was used to set up the argument?
  • Partial information from a certain explanation or description?
  • What are the thoughts of the subject the author is commenting on?
  • What information is used to strengthen the conclusion?
• It is strongly advised against attempting detail questions without first reading the passage; it is very risky and time-consuming.

3. Inference Questions (Inference)

• Unlike Supporting Idea and Main Idea questions, the answer is not explicitly stated in the passage; test-takers need to infer it logically.
• Inferences can only be made based on the specific information provided in the passage. Therefore, even a factually correct statement may not be the correct answer choice; conversely, an incorrect statement might be the correct answer choice (e.g., if the question asks you to infer from the ideas of a refuted scholar).
• An inference might require combining information from several paragraphs, not just a single sentence.
• When finishing the passage, pay attention to implied meanings, such as:
  • Possible causes
  • Possible consequences
  • General to specific inferences (e.g., if the passage states “all reptiles have a certain characteristic” and “crocodiles are reptiles,” you can infer that “crocodiles have that characteristic”)
  • Which statement the author might support/oppose
  • The author’s implied attitude towards a certain statement
  • The implied meaning behind a certain word or phrase
• Common sense might be used (e.g., if the passage states “something happened during a blizzard,” you can reasonably infer that “the temperature that day would not be hot”), but never specialized knowledge.
• Some questions are difficult to categorize as “Supporting Idea” or “Inference” based solely on their phrasing, but don’t worry; as long as you have a good grasp of the relationships between the various pieces of information in the passage, you’ll be fine.

4. Application Questions (Application)

• These questions require applying information from the passage to a similar, new situation, testing the test-taker’s ability to generalize and apply reasoning.
• All five answer choices will describe scenarios different from the passage, so you cannot simply eliminate options by saying “the passage didn’t mention this information.”
• Application questions have four types of phrasing:
  1. Analogies: Asking what role a certain piece of information plays in the passage is similar to which of the following? Or which option is similar to the strategy/purpose/relationship in the passage?
  2. Principles, Policies, Procedures: Asking which plan can solve a problem? What method did the author use? Who is the method applicable to?
  3. Rhetorical Strategies: Asking which example illustrates the author’s point? How would the author respond to a rebuttal? How would the passage most likely continue?
  4. What-if Scenarios: Asking what would be the consequence if something happened/didn’t happen? If certain evidence changed, what would be the impact on the conclusion?

5. Evaluation Questions (Evaluation)

• Evaluation questions have two types: analysis and critique.
• The words used in the correct answer choice may be completely different from those appearing in the passage.
• Analysis: To determine the author’s writing intent for a certain part of the passage (function questions), the relationships between pieces of information, the structure of the passage, etc.
• Critique: Similar to CR questions, no specialized background knowledge is required.

6. Style and Tone Questions (Style and Tone)

• Asking about “the author’s attitude/writing style,” the options are usually adjectives or noun phrases.
• Please judge based on the context of the passage, not just one or two keywords.
• Other question types may also require judging tone and writing style.

RC Test-Taking Strategies

• Don’t expect to understand 100%, and don’t use external background knowledge you’ve learned to solve questions.
• How you start is up to you, but you must thoroughly analyze the entire passage, as questions may test you on any specific detail within it.
• You can pay special attention to keywords and phrases, but avoid missing the forest for the trees; always remind yourself to:
  • Consider how objective facts lead to subjective arguments
  • Consider how one argument transitions to another
  • Consider which are main conclusions and which are supporting arguments
  • Consider how conclusions are derived
• Read the question stem carefully. Even if an option’s statement is true according to the passage, it cannot be the correct answer if it doesn’t address the question.
• When reading the answer choices, don’t choose halfway; make sure you’ve read all five options before making a selection.
• Always remember, the key to RC is comprehension, not speed.