RC (Reading Comprehension)

RC
• 10 RC questions in each verbal reasoning
section spread across 5 passages.
• Two Short passages (80-150 words).
• One long passage (300-500 words).
• Two paragraph arguments (critical reasoning).
 Nature of the passages
Academic or non-academic and are drawn from
books, magazines, biographies, work of
literature, scholarly journals and text books. The
topics include social science, natural science,
humanities, arts, politics and everyday life
issues, too.
 3 types of questions
• Multiple-choice Questions; Choose 1 answer
• Multiple-choice Questions; Choose 1 or more
answers
• Select-in-Passage
 Components of a Passage
• Some passages introduce the problem and
then explain the author’s solution for that
problem.
• Some passages ask a question and answer it
later in the passage.
• Some passages criticize an old hypothesis and
introduce a new one.
 Problem passages
• What is the problem?
• What caused the problem?
• What are the effects of the problem?
• Are there any solutions?
 Change passages
• What was the old way?
• What is the new way?
• What caused the change?
• What are the effects of the change?
 Four possible building blocks
• The Point
• Background
• Support
• Implications
• The point is the most important piece of
information the author is trying to convey in the
passage. Your job as a reader, is to find this point.
• The background is the information that you need,
in order to understand the point.
• Support is the additional information given by the
author in the form of evidence or examples, in
order to support the main point that has been
made.
• Implications are the after effects of the main
point. They are the end results, the consequences
 8 Types of Questions on RC
1. Main Idea Questions
Main idea questions ask you to identify the main
idea or the primary purpose behind the passage
that is given. Example questions are:
• In this passage, the author is primarily
concerned with…?
• Which of the following would be the most
appropriate title for the given argument?
 2. Tone of the Author Questions
Tone of the author questions asks you to identify
the tone of the author, or the passage. Examples
include:
• The author’s attitude towards contemporary
cinema can be best described as…?
• The passage regards the idea of modern
artistic activity with…?
 3. Specific Fact Questions
These are the questions that ask you to spot
information that is specifically included as a fact or
truth. Specific fact questions will often be
consequential in nature. They usually look like this:
• The author refers to ‘example phrase’ in line 5,
primarily in order to…?
• According to the passage, the critics considered
the ideas found in the novelist’s work to be…?
 4. Implied Questions
Implied questions ask you, as a reader, to identify an
idea which is suggested or implied, either directly or
indirectly. For example, an implied question looks like
this:
• It can be inferred from the passage that, in
evaluating the scientist’s theory, some of the critics
were….?
• The passage suggests that if the predictions of the
geological department were to be true, it would
be….?
 5. Structural Questions
Structural questions, as the name suggests, ask
you to identify the technique, or the writing
style adopted by the author, in presenting facts
or views. For example:
• Which of the following best describes the
structure of the passage?
• Which of the following best describes the
organization of the lines 17 through 23?
 6. Extrapolation Questions
Extrapolate or compare the author’s ideas to other
situations, including situations that are analogous. In order
to answer this type of questions, you must go beyond what is
stated in the passage, draw an inference from the passage,
and then match it with the situations given in the answer
choices. Example questions are:
• Which of the following situations is most closely
analogous to the situation described by the author as an
irony, in lines 11 and 12?
• Which of the following describes a situation that is
analogous to the situation described in the second
paragraph?
 7. Negative or Exception Questions
These are the questions that ask you which of the
given answer choices is not true according to the
author or the passage, or which of the answer
choices with which the author of the passage would
not agree. Examples are:
• The passage states all of the following about
mitochondria, except?
• The author asserts that technology has led us do
all of the following miraculous experiments,
except?
8. Contextual/Definition of a term or word
Questions
These are the questions that test your ability to
work out the meaning of an unfamiliar word,
based on context within the passage. For
example:
• As it is used in the passage, the term
‘convivial’ can be best described as?
• The term ‘inchoate’, used by the author in line
18, refers to?
Critical Reasoning Question Types
• Assumption
• Strengthen
• Weaken
• Flaw
• Explain
• Bold Face
 7 Trap Answers
1. Answer choices that use extreme or
categorical words such as “only, all, always,
every, never and exclusively”
2. Answer choices that make use of
information that doesn’t appear in the text.
3. Answer choices in which facts are distorted.
4. Answer choices that ask you to make
judgments.
 7 Trap Answers
5. Answer choices that include outrageous,
illogical, unscientific, or politically incorrect
statements.
6. Answer choices that are true, but assume
something that is not mentioned in the
passage.
7. Answer choices that cannot be backed by
solid proof from within the passage
 Example
Consider a reading comprehension passage
where the author talks about viral fever that
spread through East Africa due to poor medical
facilities.
1. According to the author, all women in East
Africa suffer from the viral fever.
2. According to the author, women in West
Africa suffer from the viral fever due to heredity.
(West Africa is completely out of scope)
 Example
3. According to the author, women in East Africa
suffered from the viral fever last year, because of
the civil war. (distorted statement)
4. Women in East Africa are more easily prone to
suffer from the viral fever than men. (asks you to
make a comparison/judgment without sufficient
proof)
5. It is the duty of a woman to sit at home and
take care of the household. (Politically incorrect,
gender discrimination.)
 Example
6. Pregnant women in East Africa are prone to
the viral fever, because they probably don’t
exercise much. (an assumption has been made)
7. According to a survey, women in East Africa
suffer from the viral fever more often than
women in West Africa. (no solid proof, or details
of the survey)
 Process of reading the passages
• Read the first paragraph and the first and last
sentences in the other paragraphs.
• Identify Key Words and Signal Words
“First, second, third, furthermore, on the other
hand, for example, namely, for one thing, in
addition, nevertheless, for these reasons,
proponents believe, critics believe, but, however,
whether/if, according to, therefore, consequently, In
contrast, claims, goes so far as to claim, others
argue”
• Recap With a Visual Movie
 Tips & Strategies
1. Start Reading Today
• The New Yorker
• The Economist
• Scientific American
• MIT Technology Review
• The Guardian
2. Read Before You Sleep
3. Paraphrase Extensively
4. Practice in a Timed Setting
 Tips & Strategies
5. Ace Sentence Equivalence
6. Use Error Logs
7. Join GRE Forums and Groups
8. How to Skim the Right Way?
9. Facebook status
10. Look For Keywords
11. Read Aggressively
12. Pause and Play (rest and go)
13. Don’t Read Too Fast
 Tips & Strategies
14. Rephrase the Original Question
15. Be Careful With Multiple Select Questions
16. Embrace the Passage
17. Pay Utmost Attention to Tough Reading
Comprehension Passages
 Speed Reading Techniques
• Don’t Vocalize the Text
• Ignore Useless Words
• Avoid Rereading
• Never Read Modifiers
• “Adolf Hitler, who is widely regarded as a
symbol of violence and killing, is actually a
loving father to his children.”
• Use a Pointing Device
Thank you