GRE Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension questions test your ability to understand a passage and answer questions on the basis of what is stated and implied in the passage. You need to read the passage first so that you can identify the main idea of the passage and appreciate features such as the author's tone and attitude as well as the organization of the passage. Scroll back to the relevant point in the text as you do each question.

Reading comprehension questions comprise approximately 50% of the verbal reasoning section. One-fifth of reading comprehension questions specifically test critical reasoning abilities. We have included one or two such questions in each of our mini tests.

Comprehension passages on the GRE vary in length from short extracts that take one and a half minutes to read, to ones that take three and a half minutes to read. Allow approximately 1 minute to answer each question after completing the reading. GRE passages will not normally have more than 4 questions per passage. Our mini tests contain two passages each with 3 or 4 questions and 1 or 2 critical reasoning questions. Each mini test should take 14 minutes.

More help

Practice all the passages from the The Official Guide to the GRE revised General Test. If you are still having trouble you can refer to the advice given in the Kaplan GRE Verbal Workbook .