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Reading Comprehension questions can sometimes seem like a blur, but with this guide, you’ll be sure-footed. In business school, you will be expected to read quite a lot — and much of what you read will be quite sophisticated. That being said, the skills you need to comprehend these texts are the same skills you have been using for years.

Reading Comprehension will be included in the Verbal section of the GMAT. Although the format is multiple choice, the questions do a great job of measuring your ability to read and comprehend material written in the English language. Thes questions challenge you to also reason and evaluate arguments within the material, as well as correct sentences to show your breadth of grammatical knowledge.

When you come across these questions, they will be mixed in with the Critical Reasoning and Sentence Correction questions. You will have 75 minutes to complete this section. So to average that out, you should give yourself about a little over a minute for each question. The tricky part is that for the reading comprehension questions, you’ll need time to also read the passages, so plan on sticking to a time schedule while you’re working on them.

» So, what’s the format anyway?

For each question, you’ll be given a passage up to 350 words in length. The topics covered are varied, including subjects like biology and social sciences and also cover areas of business such as human resources or marketing. Following this passage, you’ll be given a question.

The questions will ask you to interpret what you can from the given passage and make informed decisions, assumptions and representations from it.

» What do I need to know?

The GMAT measures and evaluates your ability to do the following:

• Understand words and statements. They won’t ask you for specific terms, however you need to grasp the general and overall meaning of the passages you’re confronted with. Also, in order to put the whole picture together, you must be able to understand everything you read.

• Understand logical relationships between points and concepts. This means working on the arguments of the passage and understanding them. You need to have a critical eye in order to see through the arguments and to realize what is strong or weak about specifics within them.

• Draw inferences from facts and statements. An inference is basically an assumption made. You are therefore asked to come to some sort of a conclusion based on the information you’re given within the passage.

• Understand quantitative concepts as presented in written material. Although this section is separate from the mathematical portion of the GMAT, you may be required to go through some simple math in order to come to a written conclusion.

• According to the Official Guide for GMAT Review, there are six kinds of reading comprehension questions:
  1. Main Idea
  2. Supporting Ideas
  3. Inferences
  4. Outside Context
  5. Logical Structure
  6. Style and Tone

» Main Idea:

Thinking of the passage as a whole. This kind of question is getting you to see the whole picture. They may ask you to recognize the main idea in the paragraph, rephrase it or see what the author’s objectives were in this piece. The purpose of the passage can also be touched on in this question, so make sure that you can easily summarize as you read, or better yet, pick out the main points as you go along. To play a little game, why not come up with a catchy headline or title for the passages you read? Something that is both to the point and let’s you remember the main points of the passage.

» Supporting Ideas:

Thinking of the passage in small parts. Just as the title says, you should be able to figure out what the supporting statements that are being made are. Not only should you be able to point them out, but distinguish them from the main point. This differs from the first type of question also because it asks you to retrieve details from the paragraph rather than assume the details to come to conclusions or summaries. You could be asked in these type of questions, certain facts, specifics on content or supporting details.

» Inferences:

Ideas that are implied in the passage. Sometimes the author of the passage will indirectly make statements, and it is through these types of questions that you should be able to figure out what they are. These questions are tricky, since you have to read between the lines in order to figure out what the author is implying rather than stating. In order to correctly answer these questions, take the statements made piece by piece. It may also help to come up with alternatives to the statements they are making, or something that might have been said in passing but might indicate a larger statement. You should be able to look for the subtle meaning in these types of questions.

» Outside Context:

Applying what you’re given and taking it farther. These questions measure your ability to discern between what is given and situations that could be mentioned as a parallel example to the passage. This is the area to put your thinking cap on in terms of other alternatives. You may have the suggest an example that is similar to the one given, or add additional points to the author’s argument. Or take the author’s stance farther by assuming points that they would agree with or disagree with. These types of questions are a little different than inferences since you are not assuming based on what you’re given, you’re assuming beyond what you’re given.

» Logical Structure:

Logically speaking. Thinking on how the passage is constructed, or what does the structure of the passage do for the impact of its writing? Think of the author’s persuasion of the audience, or the reasoning behind what they’re saying. This type of question looks to identify the assumptions the author makes, their personal bias and figuring out rational arguments that would refute them. This shows the marker not only that you can comprehend the information given, but look at it critically.

» Style and Tone:

All about expression. These questions test you on what the vocabulary of the passage give off as an overall tone or style. Consider the word choices made by the author. Why would they use one word as apposed to another? What is the meaning behind that word that adds weight to what is written? This type of question gets you to think into the meanings and choice of words connecting to what the author is trying to say.

» Additional Verbal Material:

» Reading Comprehension I LESSON

» Critical Reasoning LESSON

» Sentence Correction LESSON

» Verbal Practice I EVALUATION

» Verbal Practice II EVALUATION