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in terms of the number of paragraphs and viewpoints presented. Usually one paragraph represents one viewpoint. Frequently, reading comprehension passages will contain two viewpoints and it may be helpful to try and simplify everything into simple black-and-white terms. For example, take a hypothetical passage written about personality development. Ask yourself what is the relationship between, say, the three paragraphs of the passage. Perhaps the first paragraph is the introduction, the second paragraph is how sociologists view personality development, the third paragraph is how biologists view personality development … now you’ve got it!

4. Eliminate common wrong answer choices including out of scopes, distortions, and opposites.

There are three common wrong answer choices in reading comprehension. These include “out of scope,” “opposite,” and “distorted” answer choices. Note that although “irrelevant” answer choices are possible (and common wrong answer choices among critical reasoning problems), they are not common wrong answer choices in reading comprehension.

Reading Comprehension Snapshot

There is an obvious difference between the kind of casual reading that takes place when reading a newspaper and the kind required when one encounters reading comprehension in an exam format. There are essentially five areas to cover when discussing strategies to tackle reading comprehension passages and accompanying multiple-choice questions. Mastering reading comprehension involves an understanding of passage type, passage content, and passage structure, as well as passage question types and common wrong answer choices.

I. Passage Type

i) Social science

ii) Science

II. Passage Content

i) Topic

ii) Scope

iii) Purpose (equals main idea)

III. Passage Structure

i) Transition or guide words

ii) Number of paragraphs and their function

iii) Number of viewpoints and their relationships

IV. Passage Question Types

i) Overview questions

ii) Explicit-detail questions

iii) Inference questions

iv) Tone questions

v) Passage organization questions

V. Common Wrong Answer Choices

i) Out of scope

ii) Opposite

iii) Distortion

iv) Irrelevant

v) Too general

vi) Too detailed

Passage Type

There are three basic types of reading comprehension passages — social science, science, and business/economics. Since business and economics passages read more similar to social science than science, they fit easily under the umbrella of social science. The fundamental difference between social science and science is that science passages tend to be objective and generally exist to describe. Social science passages tend to be subjective and usually exist to argue. Social science (which deals with people, societies, and their institutions) is typically the domain of ideas, opinions, and conjecture while science (which deals with nature and the universe) is typically the domain of phenomena, theories, and details.

Viewpoints, and the flow of ideas and viewpoints, are generally more important in social science readings than in science readings. In terms of understanding a social science passage, it is critical to understand the author’s stance — “what side the author is on.” A fitting analogy is to say that social science passages are “river-rafting rides” where the goal is to not fall off our raft amid the twists and turns. Science passages are “archeological digs.” Once we determine where to dig, we must keep track of the small pieces — we must be able to memorize and work with details.

Passage Content

Obviously, the better we understand what we have read, the better our chance of answering questions related to the subject at hand. In breaking down passage content, we can subdivide everything into three areas, namely topic, scope, and purpose.

Topic is defined as “the broad subject matter of the passage.” Scope is defined as “the specific aspect of the topic that the author is interested in.” Purpose is defined as “the author’s main reason for writing the passage