How Paragraph Comprehension Is Asked

Paragraph Comprehension has the fewest questions and the second most generous time allowance on the whole test. That combination should make it one of the easier subtests, and for most people it is not - because the failure mode here is not running out of time, it is answering from knowledge instead of from the text.

The format

A short passage, usually three to six sentences, followed by one or more questions. On the computer-adaptive version it is 10 questions in 27 minutes, which is 2 minutes 42 seconds each.

The passages are drawn from ordinary adult nonfiction: procedure, history, a process, a short argument. They are not literary and they are not technical.

The one rule

Everything you need is in the passage, and nothing outside it counts.

This is the whole subtest, and it is harder to follow than it sounds, because the passages are on real subjects you may know something about.

Wind turbines are most efficient on ridgelines, where air is compressed as it rises over the terrain and accelerates.

The passage suggests that turbine siting depends on

(A) the cost of transmission lines (B) local air speed (C) the height of the tower (D) annual rainfall

Transmission cost is a genuine factor in real turbine siting. It is not in the passage, and it is wrong here. (B) is the only choice the text supports.

A choice can be true about the world and still be the wrong answer. That sentence is worth re-reading, because it is the most expensive habit on this subtest.

The five question types

Naming the type tells you what you are looking for.

Detail questions are the most common and the easiest, and they are answered by finding the line. Inference questions are where the points are lost, because the line between "follows from the passage" and "is plausible given the passage" is exactly what they test.

The method

1. Read the passage. All of it, at normal speed, once.
2. Say the point in your own words. One sentence. If you cannot, read it again - and you have the time.
3. Read the question and name its type.
4. Predict the answer before looking at the choices.
5. Read all four choices. Not three; the test rewards the best answer and the fourth is sometimes better than the second.
6. Find the line that supports your choice. If you cannot point to one, reconsider.

Step 6 is the discipline that makes the rest work. For every answer you pick, you should be able to put a finger on the words that justify it.

How wrong answers are built

There are four recognizable kinds, and recognizing the shape is faster than reasoning each one out.

Too broad. True of the passage but also of a much larger subject. On a paragraph about maintaining one specific pump, "machines require maintenance" is too broad.

Too narrow. A real detail from the passage offered as the main idea. It is in the text, which makes it feel safe, and it covers one sentence out of five.

Outside the passage. True in the world, unsupported by the text. The turbine example above.

Distorted. Uses the passage's own words with the meaning altered - a "sometimes" turned into "always", a cause and an effect swapped, a comparison reversed. This is the most dangerous kind, because the vocabulary matches and it reads as familiar.

Watch for absolute words in the choices: always, never, all, only, must. A passage that says "often" does not support a choice that says "always".

Using the time

Ten questions in 27 minutes is a lot. Spend it like this:

• About a minute reading the passage, properly, once, maybe twice.
• About 30 seconds naming the point and reading the question.
• About a minute on the choices and locating your supporting line.

That is two and a half minutes and it leaves margin. If you are finishing in a third of the time, you are skimming, and skimming is what produces the distorted-answer error.

What you can skip

Our bank holds 1,010 Paragraph Comprehension questions, one passage each. The median passage is 75 words and the longest is 153. Literary devices - metaphor, irony, foreshadowing, plot - never appear, and neither do grammar or punctuation questions. Everything asked is about what the passage says, means or is doing.

• Speed-reading techniques. A 75-word passage takes about twenty seconds to read in full. Skimming saves almost nothing and costs accuracy.
• Reading the questions first as a strategy. With one question per passage, there is only one question to preview; read it, then the passage.

Where people lose points

Answering from knowledge rather than from the text.

Skimming a passage there was nearly three minutes to read.

Picking the first choice that sounds right without reading the fourth.

Choosing a true detail as the main idea.

Missing an absolute word that the passage does not support.

Reading the choices first, and getting steered.

Work one in under a minute

Before a vehicle is released from the motor pool, the operator inspects the fluid levels, the tires and the lights. The inspection is recorded whether or not a fault is found. A vehicle with an uncorrected fault is not released, but the record is filed in either case.

According to the passage, the inspection record is filed

(A) only when a fault is found (B) only when the vehicle is released (C) in every case (D) at the operator's discretion

The last sentence answers it directly: "the record is filed in either case".

(C) in every case.

Note (A) and (B) both contain "only", an absolute the passage explicitly contradicts, and (D) introduces discretion that nothing in the text mentions.

Where this leads

Each of the five question types has a lesson. They all rest on the rule stated here, which is the one thing to carry into the test.