Five Habits for Any Reading Comprehension Question
What's the best general approach to reading comprehension questions?
Underline precisely what the question is asking before reading the options, be able to point to the exact line in the passage that supports your chosen answer, eliminate the obviously wrong options first, check that your answer is the most direct and specific response (not just a true but roundabout one), and keep your answers to different questions about the same passage consistent with each other.
The one idea underneath every reading comprehension question type
Whether a question asks you to select a fact, spot an exception, judge a mood, or infer a conclusion, they all rest on the same foundation: precision. Reading comprehension sections deliberately include options that are correct in a general sense but not in the specific sense the question demands, and the five habits below are what consistently separate a right answer from an almost-right one.
The five habits
1. Understand exactly what's being asked. Underline the key parts of the question itself before looking at any option — the difference between "why" and "how," or between what a character does and what a character feels, changes which option is correct.
2. Be able to quote the proof. For every option you're considering, you should be able to point to the specific sentence in the passage that supports or disproves it. If you can't locate that sentence, treat the option with suspicion — a correct answer in this section is almost always traceable to specific text, not general impression.
3. Remove the impossible options first. Most questions have at least two options that are clearly unsupported or nonsensical once you've read the passage carefully. Eliminating these immediately narrows your attention to the genuine contest between two or three plausible answers.
4. Check that the order and specificity are right. When two options are both technically true, the correct one is usually the more direct or foundational cause or fact, not a downstream consequence of it. "Why did the man burn down the house" is better answered by his underlying motive than by the fact he happened to own matches.
5. Keep your answers consistent across a passage. Several questions often draw on the same excerpt. If you establish that a character is unhappy in one answer, a later answer that assumes they're content contradicts your own reasoning — and one of the two must be wrong.
Steps
- Underline the specific wording of the question before reading the options
- Locate the exact supporting sentence in the passage for each option you're weighing
- Eliminate clearly unsupported options first
- Favour the more direct, specific or foundational option over a true-but-roundabout one
- Check that your answer doesn't contradict an answer you've already given elsewhere in the same passage
This chapter covers the general method that every other Reading Comprehension chapter in the Scholarship & Entrance English Assessment Guide assumes. The complete guide — every technique, collected in one document — is available as a free PDF from the guide's main page.