Many people preparing to take the GRE give Reading Comprehension little attention. There are a few reasons for this. One is that they’ve been reading since they started school as children, so the idea that they need to practice reading now seems ridiculous. “I know how to read!” they think. “So why put limited study time into reading?”
Another reason is that the correct answers to Reading Comprehension questions can seem subjective. A test prepper might take a practice test or try some practice questions and think, “I’m never going to understand why this answer is better than that one. I’m just never going to grasp how the testmaker thinks. Better to invest my study time elsewhere.”
Yet another rationale is that learning all the words that might appear on the Verbal section seems like such a daunting task (see the previous section of this chapter for tips to make it less intimidating) that test takers allocate all their Verbal study time to vocabulary, with none left over for reading.
Let’s rebut these one at a time:
If you have taken a practice test and answered almost all the Reading Comprehension questions correctly, then by all means, invest your preparation efforts elsewhere. If that is not the case, read on.
The GRE will present you with academic passages, most of one paragraph but some of several paragraphs, and it will ask you predictable types of questions about certain features of the text. The GRE is primarily concerned with your ability to grasp the main idea of what you read, differentiate fact from opinion and one person’s opinion from another’s, make supported inferences based on the text, and understand how the author has developed her ideas or the structure of the passage. The GRE will also ask you to analyze the logic of arguments. While some questions will test your ability to accurately identify a fact or idea in the passage, the test is always open-book. That is, as questions come up on the right side of the screen, the passage will always be available on the left side of the screen for you to research.
Note that the GRE is not interested in testing your ability to learn facts about philosophy or physics or physiology. Thus, you are not studying to learn something about a topic, as you are accustomed to doing in school. Passages are often full of details that you will not see a question about, so time spent learning them is time wasted.
In fact, if the word reading triggers you to begin studying, as you would if you needed to take a test or write a paper for class, then don’t think of this task as “reading.” Instead, think of it as attacking the passage.
Attacking the passage means interrogating the passage, actively asking the same questions the test is likely to ask you. What’s the author’s point? Why is the author comparing X to Y? What is the author’s attitude toward Z? By asking these questions as you read, you will be ready for the questions the test asks you. Watch a GRE expert take apart a science passage:
There is no doubt that dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years, since the last Ice Age. What is less certain is the process of domestication that brought wolves, a predator of livestock and a danger to humans themselves, into the family as helper and companion.
GRE expert’s mental paraphrase: What is the author’s topic? Domestication of dogs. What is the author’s position? Apparently, that we don’t know exactly how Spot got to sleep on the bed.
Attacking the passage means focusing on key words that signal important ideas and changes in a passage’s direction, which are often the targets of questions. Focus on these sentences, making sure you understand what the author is saying. Key words also indicate when the author is using an example to illustrate a main point or breaking an overall process into a sequence of events or steps. You can read these sentences more lightly, simply noting where the information is if you need it.
There is no doubt that dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years, beginning during the last Ice Age. What is less certain is the process of domestication that brought wolves, a predator of livestock and a danger to humans themselves, into the family as helper and companion. One widely accepted theory is that Paleolithic humans captured wolf cubs and raised them to serve as alarms when other large predators, such as cats in the Smilodon genus, approached. However, …
GRE expert’s mental paraphrase: Sure enough, “One … theory” indicates that there is more than one idea about this. Then “However” signals a contrasting theory. It will be interesting to see whether the author takes a side.
Attacking the passage means mentally paraphrasing as you read. GRE passages are often written in dense academic language, which makes answering questions about them harder. You can make answering questions easier by recasting the concepts in the same language you would use to explain them to a friend.
There is no doubt that dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years, beginning during the last Ice Age. What is less certain is the process of domestication that brought wolves, a predator of livestock and a danger to humans themselves, into the family as helper and companion. One widely accepted theory is that Paleolithic humans captured wolf cubs and raised them to serve as alarms when other large predators, such as cats in the Smilodon genus, approached. However, some paleoanthropologists are skeptical that humans would have befriended members of a species they viewed as inimical and sought to decimate. These scientists posit that some wolves—those best at reading human body language indicating hostile or tolerant intent and at adopting submissive, ingratiating behaviors such as tail wagging—approached early human settlements, first to scavenge and then to solicit handouts.
GRE expert’s mental paraphrase: So some scientists think taming wolves was our idea. But others think buddying up to us was actually their idea.
Attacking the passage means taking notes, or making a Passage Map. Writing down the passage’s broad Topic, its narrower Scope (the aspect of the Topic the author’s interested in), and the author’s Purpose, as well as the key ideas from each paragraph, will accomplish three goals. First, by digesting these important elements of the passage so you can briefly jot them down in a few words, you will ensure you really understand them. Second, if you capture the essential elements of the passage in your map, you can answer many questions just from your notes, saving time. Third, just as a road map tells you how to get to your friend’s house, your Passage Map will tell you where to find that detail the GRE is asking about, again saving time.
There is no doubt that dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years, beginning during the last Ice Age. What is less certain is the process of domestication that brought wolves, a predator of livestock and a danger to humans themselves, into the family as helper and companion. One widely accepted theory is that Paleolithic humans captured wolf cubs and raised them to serve as alarms when other large predators, such as cats in the Smilodon genus, approached. However, some paleoanthropologists are skeptical that humans would have befriended members of a species they viewed as inimical and indeed sought to decimate. These scientists posit that some wolves—those best at reading human kinesics indicating hostile or tolerant intent and at adopting submissive, ingratiating behaviors such as tail wagging—approached early human settlements, first to scavenge and then to solicit handouts. Natural selection then favored those wolves most pleasing to humans, specifically those most friendly and trainable, as these animals would elicit the most food and shelter; their descendants are today’s dogs, from Chihuahuas to Great Danes. Thus, if we accept that wolves took the initiative to join their lives with ours, it is not a much greater leap to believe that our species have coevolved such that those humans with traits that best satisfied wolves benefitted most from wolves’ protection and passed on those canid-friendly characteristics to their offspring. It is no wonder that so many people love dogs.
GRE expert’s Passage Map:
Topic: Domestication of wolves/dogs
Scope: Theories of how it happened
Purpose: To argue for idea that wolves approached humans
Theory #1: Humans caught wolf cubs, used them for protection
Theory #2: Wolves chose to hang out near human settlements, get fed. If true, then we “coevolved”—people selected for wolf-pleasing traits. People ♥ dogs → theory #2.
Attacking the passage does not mean reading faster. It means reading at a speed that allows you to do all of the above: interrogate the text, spot key words and focus on the important ideas they highlight, mentally paraphrase, and map the passage. At first, this may mean reading more slowly than you will read on Test Day, given the Verbal section’s timing. However, as you practice, you will get faster. Even better, when you are thoroughly prepared to answer the questions, they will take much less time, thereby saving you time overall.
Bottom line: If you read the passage but then can’t answer the GRE’s questions about it, then reading it didn’t do you much good. Instead, attack the passage using the strategies briefly introduced here and discussed in much greater depth in chapter 7. Then also use the approaches in chapter 7 for analyzing the questions, researching and predicting the answers, and avoiding common types of wrong answers to master Reading Comprehension.
It can be hard to put away old reading habits in favor of attacking the passage. Fortunately, you don’t need to practice this skill only when you’re studying for the GRE.
In fact, you can practice anytime you are reading for school, for work, to keep up with current events, or any other reason. Approach the textbook chapter, memo, article, or whatever it may be as though you were taking the GRE. By practicing this type of reading whenever you have a chance, you will soon work past the initial awkwardness, and reading this way will become second nature. Plus, you are adding to the total time you are investing in your GRE score.
Then when you practice with GRE-type passages and questions, like the ones you’ll find next in this chapter and throughout this book (Chapter 7: Reading Comprehension, Chapter 8: Verbal Reasoning Practice Sets, Chapter 25: Practice Test), as well as in your online practice tests (MSTs), you will see significant improvement!