How to approach Reading Comprehension?

What is Reading Comprehension?

Reading Comprehension (RC) is a very common segment in any English section of an objective aptitude test. Its purpose is to check a candidate’s ability to comprehend, i.e. understand a passage.

A Reading Comprehension (RC) question may come in the form of a stand-alone question, i.e. a very small passage followed by a question (or two). But generally, we will encounter RC sets in aptitude exams, wherein 5 to 10 questions will be asked based on the passage given.

Types of RC Questions

After a RC passage some questions are asked, which are designed to check your comprehension skills, which includes:

Your ability to understand what is being said directly by the author - These are the simplest type of questions. The answer is in the passage and you just have to locate it.
Your ability to read between the lines - Some questions will check whether you can comprehend the passage in some depth, draw conclusions, infer the message of the author, deduce the assumptions that the author had had while writing the passage, find the crux or critical message of the passage etc.
Your ability to gauge the writing style and tone of the passage, e.g. descriptive/informative, sarcastic, optimistic, pessimistic, humorous, critical, etc.
Vocabulary - Some questions will check your vocabulary, as per the context of the passage. As the word must have been used in the passage, you may locate it and try to guess it’s meaning based on how it has been used, even if you don’t know its exact meaning. Also, you will need to keep in mind the tone of the passage. Words may have different connotations and their meanings may vary a bit as per the connotation. The connotation of a word usually matches with the tone of the passage.
Grammar - Some questions may also check some expects of your grammar. But such questions are rare in a RC set.

So, the main aim of a RC set is to check your:

comprehension skills
vocabulary in a given context.
deduction capabilities (e.g. in questions where you are asked to draw inference or tell the assumptions that the writer had while writing the passage.)

How to solve RC questions?

Understand the Context

Do you know that you can tell the meaning of many words in a passage by just seeing how they have been used in a sentence, and by understanding the context in which they have been used?
It is also essential to understand the context and theme of the passage to answer many other types of questions.

But it is not necessary to understand all the passage. You just need to focus more on the parts that have been asked in the questions. Rest you can just scan through. You can understand the gist and the theme of a passage, even if you fail to understand some part of it.

Find the Tone and Writing style of the Passage

Apart from the context of the passage, you should have the ability to tell the tone of the passage and the writing style of the author. Sometimes, you will even find direct questions asking you to tell the tone that the author has used, or his attitude or writing style.

Tone may be - sarcastic, humorous, critical, enthusiastic.
Attitude may be - pessimistic/negative, optimistic/positive, or neutral.
Writing style may be - descriptive/informative (aim is just to give some information), critical (aim is to highlight the negative sides), analytical (aim is to lay down both pros and cons and then give some conclusion), argumentative (aim is to give ideas in favour of one’s views, and negate the contrasting views).

Breakup the Passage

Read passage in pieces. Mark the areas where you find it difficult to follow what the author is trying to say.

It may be because of one or more of the following reasons:

You are not able to understand the theme of the passage. Maybe the topic being discussed is unknown to you. For example, if you have never studied Psychology, you will find passages based on Psychology pretty tough to understand. At least some parts of it will go completely over your head, especially if the author has used technical jargons, e.g. Freudian slip, libido, mortido, type A personality etc.
Vocabulary issues - If you do not understand some words being used, you may have a tough time understanding the meaning of a passage or a part of it.

Re-read those parts of the passage again and again. Try to understand that part by linking it to what has been said before and after.

Do not focus much on trivial things

While reading a passage do not focus much on very specific things like examples, facts etc. Neither should you try to memorize the things in a passage. Just try to understand the main message of the passage, the flow of ideas, and the main points being discussed. If any question has asked some very specific thing, you can always come back and re-read that part of the passage.

Always answer keeping in mind the passage

The correct answer will always be based on the information provided in the passage. You should not use external knowledge while solving a question. Any answer option discussing something that has not been written in the passage, should be considered “out of scope” and hence incorrect.

Though you may have to use some basic, universal knowledge that’s supposed to be true anyways. For example, if the passage is talking about a moneylender that’s exploiting poor farmers, then:

You can infer that he must be very greedy. This is absolutely fine.
But inferring that he is doing this because his mother is sick (even though it has never been mentioned in the passage) will be wrong.

It is also necessary that you do not cloud your judgement regarding the correct answer, because of the biases, assumptions or emotions you have regarding some issue, or your attitude and opinions on the topic being discussed in the passage. Even if you do not agree with what the writer is saying, answer the questions as per the passage only.

Learn what not to attempt

In aptitude exams, not only your expertise in English language is judged, but also your decision-making skills, i.e. how good you are at selecting a RC set. Just as in any set question, the first thing you should do is to select the easiest RC set. Attempt the hardest RC set at the very end, if time permits. In general, you will find that the RC set that seems easy to you is from a subject-area that you are well acquainted with or have read a lot about.

Also, in a given RC set you need not solve all the questions. You may find one or two questions in a RC set that are very difficult or will take proportionally much more time than other questions. Skip these questions. Solve them later, once you have solved all the other easy and moderate questions in the English section. You will not forget the RC passage in 10-15 minutes. Believe on your short-term-memory. You can always come back and attempt those left out RC questions.

Eliminate options

You can reach to the right answer pretty quickly by eliminating all the incorrect options. This approach works pretty well in RC questions. So, in a RC set, make sure that you read all the given options thoroughly.

Generally, the following types of option answers are incorrect:

Out of Context - Something that has not been mentioned in the passage.
Extreme/Strong language - Options having extreme language are often wrong (though there are exceptions). Look out for words like completely, entirely, absolutely, definitely etc.

As far as options are concerned, you may encounter any one of the following situations:

One option is clearly right and the others clearly wrong. (Most common type you will encounter, and considered an easy RC Question)
Two or three options seem right. In such case you will have to choose the one which is “more” correct than the others.
All options seem wrong. In such case you will have to choose the one which is “less” incorrect than the others, i.e. the least incorrect one. (Rare, but you may encounter them once in a while)

There are two approaches to solve a RC set.

Approach 1: Top-Down (Read the passage first)

Here we just read the passage and then the questions. This approach can be adopted if the passages are easy or short.

Approach 2: Bottom-Up (Read the questions first)

Here we read the questions first and then the passage. By reading the questions, I mean just have a look at them and see wat they are asking, e.g. a question may be asking you to tell the theme of the passage, other one may be asking you to tell the meaning of a certain word that has been used in the passage etc. Don’t waste time in reading the options, just read the questions.

Using this approach, you will not be in dark regarding the areas that you need to focus on while reading the passage. You already know that you must understand the crux of the passage. You will also keep in mind the word whose meaning you have to tell later on. So, you will mark it when you come across it in the passage. It will save some of your time.

If the passage is very easy or short or if you are a very good reader, then it doesn’t matter much. You will do good either way. Try both of these approaches in the mock tests you give. Adopt the approach that gives you better returns and helps you save time.

How to improve our comprehension skills?

The more you read, the more you will find yourself getting better, not only in understanding the direct meaning of the passage, but also the hidden messages, inferences and assumptions of the author.

Your vocabulary will also get more enriched. The more you read, the more words you will learn. Not only that, you will also learn how to use the words you already know in various ways, in different contexts, using various tones and connotations.

But apart from just reading, you may use some techniques to further hone your comprehension skills, and turn yourself into a good reader more quickly. Let’s see a few of these techniques.

Read in depth - Try to question what the author is saying, try to guess his intentions, are there any hidden messages that are implicit etc. You cannot be a good reader, if you cannot read between the lines. Also, what is the aim of the passage, what’s its theme, does the author just want to inform us about something, or raise some issue, or critically analyze something. Does he sound pessimistic, optimistic or neutral etc.
Summarize the passage - Once you read some article or an essay, try to summarize it. It will help develop your ability to understand the crux, or main idea or critical message of a passage. (But don’t do this during the exam!)
Learn the art of scanning - With time your reading speed will improve naturally. But there are a few tricks too that may be used, e.g. instead of reading the passage aloud, read it in the mind, instead of reading one word at a time, read 3-4 words at a time, etc. Note down how many words you can read in 2 minutes. Try to improve that with time.
Focus - If you can improve your concentration levels, you will find that not only you are reading faster, but also are being able to understand the passage better. Avoid all distractions when attempting RC passages, be it at your home or in the exam hall.
Develop holistic reading habits - Try to read various topics and subjects. You will find that passages based on the areas that you are well-acquainted with, feel very easy to comprehend.
Read what you like - I know, I told you to read variety of topics and now I am asking you to read what you like. Well, it’s essential for the beginners to read what they like and something that is easy to read.
As kids we used to read comics and small stories, e.g. the famous five, short stories of Leo Tolstoy etc. Nothing serious, just for fun! That’s how you develop interest in a language. And once you develop interest in something, you will get better at it without putting much effort.
Once you have gained some command over the language and have built some vocabulary, move on to more serious areas - read news, and novels, and then maybe editorials and non-fiction books, biographies, economic/philosophical/ecology articles in newspapers, maybe even psychology, science books etc.
Improve Vocabulary - Learn some words per day and maybe their synonyms and antonyms too. But it’s even more important to learn their usage in a sentence. So, mugging the meanings of words from a dictionary or a vocab handbook may not be the best way to go about it. Though it’s helpful too.
Even better approach will be to just read novels, news and articles and look up the words that you do not understand. You will remember these words better.
Moreover, the words that you will find in books and newspapers are the one that are more in usage and hence more likely to appear in exams. On the other hand, there are many words in a dictionary or vocab handbooks that you will hardly see being used in general of being asked in any exam. You may set yourself a target to learn at least 10 words a day.
Develop your ability to guess the meaning of a word from the way it has been used in a sentence, i.e. by using the context. This will really come handy in exam.
Use technology - There are various apps now available in the market that can help you, especially in the vocabulary section. Install a dictionary or a thesaurus app in your mobile that can tell you the meaning of a word that you are reading on the screen. Many programs are available for desktop/laptop screen reading too. You may also get a Kindle e-book reader, which has an inbuilt dictionary.

There are some newspapers that use comparatively easier language, e.g. Times of India, Indian Express etc. Start with these papers. There are many entertaining and light topics in these papers that you will like to read, e.g. sports, entertainment etc.

Later on, you may switch to more serious newspapers like The Hindu, or Economic Times etc. These papers have more serious news and articles in them and the language they use is a bit harder than other newspapers.

But keep in mind that many of these newspapers have their own agenda and the tone they use may be overtly sarcastic or pessimistic towards the government, any institution, or a person. So, while reading the articles and news in these newspapers, try to understand the hidden messages and motto of the writers too. Read between the lines!

It will make you an awesome reader; someone who not only understands what is being said, and why it’s being said, but also (and more importantly) what is not being said, and why!

We hope that this article will prove immensely helpful to you. Though you can use many tactics to be good at RC and while solving a RC set, but nothing can beat your habit of reading extensively from a variety of sources. If you are an avid reader and just love reading books, articles and newspaper, you will soon become strong in this section naturally, without you even realizing it.

Extra Books and Tools

If you prefer to learn via books, or want some good English Grammar books for reference purposes, you may read this article which enlists some of the books recommended by us.

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Last updated on Apr 8, 2023