Reading comprehension questions on the GRE are designed to be tricky. If you don’t know what to look for and how to decipher the passages, you will end up getting many of the answers wrong. However, the good news is that we know a good deal about how GRE crafts its questions. Below you will find some key strategies that will help you tackle reading comprehension questions with ease.

Reading Comprehension Question types

Although reading comprehension questions can take multiple forms, the two broad question types you will see are:

• Generic questions
• Specific questions

Generic Questions

To identify a general question, look out for the following phrases:

• The main idea of the passage is….?
• The passage is primarily concerned with….?
• The passage as a whole can best be described as….?
• Which one of the following best describes the author’s attitude….?
• The author’s attitude toward the….?

Whenever you see one of these phrases in a question, the correct answer would always relate to the overall gist of the passage.

General questions are best answered when you first read the passage and get an overall idea of what it is talking about. In most cases, you should be able to answer these questions without having to reread the passage. In fact, it is not generally a good practice to reread the passage as it can be very time consuming.

Hence, after the initial read, think about how you feel about the passage. Try to articulate the main point in your own words and then go straight to the answer choices.

Here is where the process of elimination comes in. GRE is known for including at least two answer choices that have nothing to do with the passage. Most people would be able to spot these effortlessly. Eliminate the answer choices that have no relation to the passage or are totally out of the scope passage and you will be left with fewer answer choices to chose from.

The strategies listed later on in this article will help you arrive at the correct answer choice after you have eliminated a couple of choices. However, in some instances, you will still find that you have two answer choices left after using the strategies. In this case, try to assign points to the answer choices based on how many paragraphs an answer is related to. If an answer choice relates to the first paragraph, assign it 2 points. Then give it an additional point if it relates to another paragraph and so forth.  Usually, the answer choice with the most points is the correct answer.

Moreover, when you are left with two very close options to chose from, look for a particular word that makes an answer choice seem less likely. GRE is known to throw in a single word that can make an entire option false. You just need to read carefully and look for that single word.

Strategy for General Questions: Whenever you are stuck between two answer choices, assign scores based on how many paragraphs an answer choice relates to. Also look for a single word or phrase that makes an answer choice seem wrong.

Specific Questions 

To identify specific questions, look for the following phrases:

• The passage suggests that…?
• The passage implies which of the following about….?
• The author of the passage suggests….?
• It can be inferred from the passage that….?
• According to the passage, which of the following is….?
• Which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between the second paragraph and the last paragraph?

You can see that these questions have to do with specific details from a passage. They deal with specific parts or paragraphs of the passage. Since you are being asked about specific things from the passage, it is unlikely that you will remember the details after the initial read. Hence, you need to reread the specific part of the passage to answer specific questions.

Begin by reading the question carefully and then scan the passage to find those keywords that are mentioned in the questions. Do not read the answer choices before locating the specific part of the passage. Once you locate the specific part of the passage, then read that part and eliminate the answer choices.

Strategy 1 for Specific Questions: Read the question and identify the keywords. Then, scan the passage to locate the specific part of the passage. Read only that specific part and eliminate answer choices.

For example, let’s say you are presented with the following questions:

In the passage the author conjectures that a cause of the deep rift between fiction and poetry in the United States may be that?

Now let’s imagine that that you have scanned the passage and have arrived at the paragraph where the author discussed the causes of the rift. Since you know that the second paragraph talks about the cause of the rift between poetry and fiction, you just need to now read that paragraph thoroughly.

Keep in mind that sometimes you will need to find synonyms in the passage. The wording used in a question or in the options is not always identical to what is in the passage. For example, if a question asks something about vaccuum chamber, the passage may use the words air tight or sealed chamber.

Once you find the relevant keywords in a paragraph, scan the surrounding sentences, and you will find the answer. It is important that you don’t look at the answer choices before you know what the answer is. Reading the answer choices can cloud your judgement, and that is the last thing you need. Once you know in your hear what the answer is, consult the answer choices and match them to what you know the answer is.

However, If you cant come up with the right answer no matter how much you try. Don’t get fixated on it. Instead, eliminate as many answer choices as you can and then make a guess and move on.

Strategy 2 for Specific Questions: Find one or two proof sentences that directly answer the question and make a selection based on them.

Strategies for All Reading Comprehension Questions 

The following strategies are broadly applicable to all types of reading comprehension questions.

Strategy: Justify each word in an answer choice.

The good news is that one answer choice on any GRE question always completely answers a question. GRE never assumes outside or prior knowledge. Every question can be answered completely by what’s in the passage.

Due to this reason, every word in the “correct” answer choice must always be true and directly related to what’s in the passage. If you cannot justify all the words in an answer choice, then it is not the correct answer.

Consider the following answer choices:

1. A choreographer defies convention and choreographs dances that combine elements of both ballet and jazz dance.
2. A choreographer combines non-traditional ballet and traditional jazz dance to devise something nonconventional.

The above two answer choices are virtually identical except for the word traditional and non-traditional. If the passage doesn’t mention these words in relation to the ballet and jazz dance, then the second option cannot be justified. Hence, the answer choice should be eliminated.

Strategy: Justify extreme words

An important thing to keep in mind is that GRE prefers neutral or moderate language. Therefore, words such as “all” and “never” are a good indicator for an incorrect answer choice. Hence, you can easily eliminate answer choices that use extreme or broad language.

However, on the rarest of occasions when such an answer is correct, you have to justify the answer a 100% by consulting the passage.

Strategy: Infer as little as possible

Always remember that a reading comprehension question will never ask you to make assumptions. Instead, you may be asked to infer something from the passage, and there is a clear distinction between the two.

An inference is an informed deduction that is based on the evidence presented in the passage. In fact, you are supposed to infer so little that the inference seems obvious. Moreover, Inferences will always be supported by the information in the passage. Therefore, you should always eliminate answer choices that make a logical leap or assumption not supported by the passage.

The correct answer is the one that can be confirmed by the language in the passage and nothing more. In fact, whenever you read something like “the passage suggest…” or “the passage implies…”, rephrase the language in your mind as “the passage states just a little differently…”.

Strategy: Preview the question

You will always see a single question on the screen right next to the passage on the revised GRE. And you can skip between questions and come back to earlier ones. However, previewing all the questions associated with a passage is not a time-efficient practice. But what you can do is quickly skip through the questions to see how many there are and then read the very first question.

Previewing the first question like this gives you a good idea of what to expect in the passage. You will know beforehand what the passage is going to talk about, which will make it easier to identify keywords. However, never read the answer choices to any question prior to reading the passage.