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READING
COMPREHENSION
Introduction
Feared by students more than Mondays, Reading comprehension is a test of
your ability to read and understand unfamiliar materials and to answer
questions about them. In reading comprehension, you will be given a
passage (or let us say a set of passages) to read, which will be like an excerpt
from a serious discussion of a topic from the natural sciences, the social
sciences, or a business–related field. You’ll then have to answer a group of
questions about the passage, testing how well you’ve understood its content.
So far so good!
Reading Comprehension (RC) makes one of the major test–areas in almost all
entrance tests. In the CAT the weightage RC is roughly 50% of the Verbal
Ability section. Even in the English Usage Section, more than half the
questions (for example, theme based questions) can be solved fast and
correctly only if one is good at RC. The weightage and the toughness level of
RC vary from test to test. RC in the CAT is the stiffest ordeal. Earlier there
generally were 5– 6 passages with the average length of a passage being 600–
800 words. Now the number of passages has come down to four, but the
passages are abstract and most of the questions are inference based. Also the
passages are from very diverse fields of interest. It is generally seen that
students who are voracious readers (fiction/non fiction/general/specific
etc.) always have an edge over others who are not given to extensive
reading.
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Reading Practice
You are not expected to use any information other than the ideas – explicit or
implicit – of the passage. You should confine yourself only to the passage. In
the long run, the best approach would be to read books widely and
extensively and articles of all kinds. Reading the editorials in standard
newspapers will be of good support. Speed, stamina and the power to
comprehend the printed word will consequently improve.
READ, READ & READ!!!!
You will have to develop the skill to read the passage fast and with
concentration so as to intuitively spot the main theme or thrust of the
passage, supporting facts and arguments. This can come only with a good
knowledge of English, and a critical approach with sustained practice. While
examining the answer choices, you will have to pay attention to the language
as well as their import.
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Key Point: Please do not try to enjoy a passage or gain knowledge out of
it in an exam. You have the rest of your lives to do that and there are
better ways of committing suicide.
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The passages in any Reading Comprehension would deal with the following
subjects:
1. Biological Sciences (Biochemistry, Botany, Medicine, Microbiology,
Pharmacy, Zoology, etc.)
2. Humanities (Art, Cinema, Literature, Music etc.)
3. Physical Sciences (Astronomy, Astrophysics, Chemistry,
Environmental Sciences, Geology, Mathematics, Physics etc.)
4. Social Sciences (Anthropology, Philosophy – and this one is a favorite
- Business, Economics, Education, History, Politics, Psychology, Public
Administration, Sociology, etc.)
Each of these subjects has its own language.
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Key Point: You get points for answering questions NOT for reading the
passage.
Number of questions
The more the number of questions to be attempted, the higher is the
probability of you actually attempting more questions.
Type of questions
An analysis during practice of which questions are you comfortable
attempting & most often get correct would tell you which kinds of
questions should you attempt. More the number of those kinds of
questions in a passage, better it is for you to attempt that particular
passage.
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TIP
A number of different reading strategies are tested by multiple–choice
questions. Some are straightforward comprehension questions where you
are expected to identify stated information. Others require you to read
between the lines and infer the writer’s meaning, which may be expressed
indirectly. Yet others ask you to identify and interpret opinions and the
writer’s attitude. The final questions in the series are often designed to test
understanding of overall meaning.
The correct option will be the only one which is entirely true for a given text
and relevant to the question.
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