GRE Reading Comprehension Strategies for Exam Preparation

Whenever you watch a movie or read a book, what is the first thing that you do subconsciously or to a very limited extent, deliberately? You try to classify the movie or the book into its genre. You call it a comedy, thriller, action, horror and so on. Then what if your friend asks you what the movie or the book was about, then do you narrate the whole plot with every detail or do you just put the whole thing in one or two sentences? In the case of ordinary mortals, which most of us are (though some of you may take exceptions to this) try to summarize the whole thing in one or two sentences, which try to capture the whole essence of the plot. This is also exactly the case with reading comprehension questions that you encounter in your test. First of all you read the passage and then classify it as science, business, social, political, socio-economic and so on. Then the next thing is that you hunt for the main idea, i.e. you try to capture the whole essence of the passage in one or two sentences. The sad part is, in your test, the grilling doesn’t stop just here. You are put through a whole plethora of tortuous questions, which attempt to put your entire reading prowess to test. Here are the 4 main reading skills tested in reading comprehension questions on GRE:

1. Main Idea: This involves the following:
   • Selection of the main thought in the passage
   • Ability to decipher the general significance of the passage
   • Ability to select the best title for a passage
   Learn to distinguish between a main idea and supporting ideas
2. Specific Details: This involves the following:
   • Ability to understand the author’s explicit statements
   • To get the literal meaning of what is written
   • To identify details