SKILL 1 ANSWER MAIN IDEA QUESTIONS CORRECTLY

What strategy?

Reading comprehension or Skim/Scan

read the answers first

What keywords can help you to identify the question?

Topic
Subject
Main idea
Main point
Primarily concerned
Title

Tips + Guidelines
Read the first sentence or the first complete idea of each paragraphs to
determine what the main idea is.
If the passage has more than one paragraph. Look for common theme or
ideas in the first lines.

SKILL 2 RECOGNIZE THE ORGANIZATION OF IDEAS

What strategy?
Reading comprehension
What keywords can help you to identify the question?
Organized
Related
Tips + Guidelines
In this type of question, you will be asked to determine how the ideas in one
paragraph (or paragraphs) relate to the ideas in another one.
Read the first sentence of each paragraph
Look for the main ideas of each paragraph

SKILL 3 STATED DETAIL QUESTION

What strategy?
Skim/Scan
What keywords can help you to identify the question?

According to
Stated
Indicates
Mentions
True

Tips + Guidelines
The answers are generally given in order in the passage
The correct answer is often a restatement of what is given in the passage.
But the words are not exactly the same.
Choose a key word in the question that can help you to find the answer that
restates an idea in the passage.

SKILL 4 UNSTATED DETAIL QUESTIONS

What strategy?
Skim/Scan
What keywords can help you to identify the question?

Not stated
Not mentioned
Not discussed
Except

Tips + Guidelines
There are two kinds of answer to this type of question:
a) There are three true answers and one answer that is NOT
DISCUSSED in the passage.
b) There are three true answers and one is FALSE according to the
passage.

 Choose a key word in the question and scan in the appropriate place in the
passage for the key word (or related idea)
Look for answers that are definitely true according to the passage.
Choose the answer that is not true or not discussed in the passage
SKILL 5 FIND PRONOUN REFERENTS
What strategy?
Skim/Scan
What keywords can help you to identify the question?
The pronoun . In line X refers to which of the following?
Tips + Guidelines
Whenever you are asked which noun a pronoun refers to, you should look
BEFORE the pronoun to find the noun.
Look for nouns that comes before the pronoun
Read the part of the passage before the pronoun carefully

SKILL 6 ANSWER IMPLIED DETAIL QUESTIONS

What strategy?
Reading comprehension
What keywords can help you to identify the question?

Implied
Inferred
Likely
probably

Tips + Guidelines
In this type of question, the answer is not directly stated
You cannot pull out of a hat the answer for this question, instead, some
information will be given in the passage.
YOU will draw a conclusion from that information.
Skill 7 ANSWER TRANSTION QUESTIONS

What strategy?
Skim/Scan
What keywords can help you to identify the question?
Preceding
Following
Tips + Guidelines
Sometimes you will be asked to determine what probably came before the
reading passage (in the preceding paragraph) or what probably comes after
the reading passage (in the following paragraph).
The answer is not directly stated, so you must draw a conclusion to
determine what is probably in these paragraphs.
A paragraph may start out with the idea of the previous paragraph as a way
of linking the ideas in the two paragraphs.
A paragraph may also end with an idea that will be further developed in the
following paragraph.

Skill 8 FIND DEFINITIONS FROM STRUCTURAL CLUES

What strategy?
Skim/Scan
What keywords can help you to identify the question?
What is?
What is the meaning of ?
What is true about?
Tips + Guidelines
It is possible:
a) That the passage provides information about the meaning of the word
b) That there are structural clues to tell you that definition.

Some clues:
Punctuation: comma, parentheses, dashes

 Restatement: or, that is, in other, words, i.e.

Examples:
such as, for example, e.g.
Information to help you determine what something means generally found
after the punctuation clue, the restatement clue, or the example clue.
Find the word and locate any structural clues.
Skill 9 DETERMINE MEANINGS FROM WORD PARTS
What strategy?
Reading comprehension
Skim/Scan

What keywords can help you to identify the question?

A SHORT LIST OF WORD PARTS
Part

Meaning

Example

Part

Meaning

Example

CONTRA

(against)

DIC

(say)

dictate

MAL

(bad)

DOMIN

(master)

dominant

MISS
SUB
DEC
MULTI
SOL
TRI

(error)
(under)
(ten)
(many)
(one)
(three)

contrast
malconte
nt
mistake
subway
decade
multiple
solo
triple

JUD
MOR
SPEC
TERR
VER
VIV

(judge)
(death)
(see)
(earth)
(turn)
(live)

judgment
mortal
spectator
territory
divert
revive

Tips + Guidelines
When you do not know the meaning of a long word, it is possible to
determine the meaning of the word by studying the word parts.

Skill 10 USE CONTEXT TO DETERMINE MEANINGS OF DIFFICULT WORDS

What strategy?

Reading comprehension
Skim/Scan
What keywords can help you to identify the question?
What is the meaning of .?
Is closest in meaning to?
Tips + Guidelines
The word is a difficult word, one that you probably do not know. But, in this
case the passage will give you a clear indication of what the word means.
Look for the context clues to help you to understand the meaning.

Skill 11 USE CONTEXT TO DETERMINE MEANINGS OF SIMPLE WORDS

What strategy?
Reading comprehension
Skim/Scan
What keywords can help you to identify the question?
What is the meaning of .?
Is closest in meaning to?
Tips + Guidelines
The word is a simple word, one that you see often in everyday English.
Look for the context clues to help you to understand the meaning.

Skill 12 DETERMINE WHERE SPECIFIC INFORMATION IS FOUND

What strategy?
Skim/Scan

What keywords can help you to identify the question?

Where in the passage ?
Tips + Guidelines
The best way to approach this type of question is to study the question to
determine the information that you are looking for and then to go to the lines
listed in the answers and skim for that information.
The answer can be in any of the lines listed in the answers to the question.
You should skim for the key word or idea.
Choose the answer that contains the line numbers of a restatement of the
question.
Skill 13 DETERMINE THE TONE, PURPOSE, OR COURSE.
What strategy?
Reading comprehension
What keywords can help you to identify the question?
TONE: What is the tone of the passage?
PURPOSE: What is the authors purpose in this passage?
COURSE: In which course would this reading be assigned?
Tips + Guidelines
Possible questions of this type are those that ask about:
a) The tone of the passage.
If the author is showing any emotion.
The majority of the passages on the test are factual passages
presented without any emotions. The tone of this type of
passage could be simply: informational, explanatory or
factual.
Sometimes the author shows some emotion, and you must be
able to recognize that emotion to answer a question.
If the author is being funny then the tone might be humorous.
If the author is making fun of something, the tone might be
sarcastic.
If the author feels strongly that something is right or wrong, the
tone might be impassioned.
b) The authors purpose in writing the passage.

 You can draw a conclusion about the authors purpose by

referring to the main idea and the organization of details in the
passage.
However, the answer to a purpose question is often
considerably more general than the main idea.
c) The course in which the passage might be used.
You should draw a conclusion about the course by referring to
the topic of the passage and the organization of details.