Cracking the Reading Section of the Compass

Instructor: Ms. Becky Villarreal

For reading prep assistance, visit Beth Scoggins at the Cypress Creek Learning Lab. To check her availability, go to http://www.austincc.edu/tutor/students/tutoring.php.

Obtain a blue Assessment Referral form from the Assessments Center (CYP 2116) before coming to the Learning Lab. Contact Assessment at Cypress at 512.223.2020.

The Reading Test focuses on reading comprehension and determines whether the student has the reading skills necessary to succeed in college-level courses. There are over 40 passages and over 200 questions in the test bank, with an average passage length of 215 words. Two to five passages may be presented from the following areas: humanities, prose fiction, natural sciences and/or social sciences. Several different question types are given: inference, detail, vocabulary in context, main idea, tone, and application.

Each test has a built-in practice session to familiarize you with the kinds of questions you will encounter. There are five answer choices for each question. The passages begin at midlevel difficulty and become more or less difficult depending on the accuracy of your answers. The computer screen is divided in half, with the passage on the left side of the screen and the question on the right.

Pay attention to the warning that you cannot make changes in your answers after clicking the "GO ON" button. When you have answered all the questions over a passage, you can click on any of the numbered boxes to see that question again and change your answers if you wish. However, once you click "Go On," you will not be able to go back.

Your test scores determine which course your are to be placed in:

• 0-49 places you in Fundamentals of Reading
• 50-67 places you in Reading Skills I
• 68-80 places you in Reading Skills II
• 81-100 requires no developmental reading. You may take any college-level course with a Reading prerequisite.

The Reading Test is based on four types of reading selections: the social studies, the natural sciences, prose fiction, and the humanities.

• Social Studies (25%). Questions in this category are based on passages in the content areas of anthropology, archaeology, business, economics, education, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology.
• Natural Sciences (25%). Questions in this category are based on passages in the content areas of anatomy, astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, geology, medicine, meteorology, microbiology, natural history, physiology, physics, technology, and zoology.
• Prose Fiction (25%). Questions in this category are based on intact short stories or excerpts from short stories or novels.
• Humanities (25%). Questions in this category are based on passages in the content areas of architecture, art, dance, ethics, film, language, literary criticism, music, philosophy, radio, television, and theater.

Tips

• Pace yourself.
• Read the passage carefully.
• Refer to the passage when answering the questions.
• Your first hunch is generally correct. Don't change an answer unless you are absolutely sure.

1. Using your scratch paper, create an answer sheet.

2. Skim the question. Next, skim the passage. Read the first and last lines of every paragraph.

3. Give the passage one good read (if necessary), taking no more than 2-3 minutes to read all of the text. Do not read the passage more than once – that wastes too much time.

4. Find and answer the specific question. Some of the answers are obviously incorrect. Eliminate them at once, using the answer sheet you created, so that you can concentrate on the potentially correct answers. Don't waste time. If you find yourself in a rut, eliminate what you can, choose an answer, and move on.

5. Go back to the text of the passage for the answers. Many test-takers fail to return to the text of the passage to look for the correct answers. They rely solely on their memories and understanding of the passage after having read or skimmed it. Wrong. Nine times out of ten, the answer lies within the passage.

6. Eliminate weak choices, then answer the questions.

Question Types

Most of the information below was derived from http://www.novapress.net.

MAIN IDEA QUESTIONS

The main idea is usually found in the last--occasionally the first--sentence of the first paragraph. If it's not there, it will probably be the last sentence of the entire passage.

The main idea question might look something like this:

• "Which of the following best states the central idea or main idea of the passage?"
• "Which of the following is the principal topic or main topic . . . ?"
• "The primary purpose or focus of this passage is to . . ."
• "The main concern of the passage is to . . . "
• "In the passage, the author is primarily interested in . . . "

Strategy:

• Reread the first line of every passage, and the last line of the first and last paragraphs.
• After determining the general structure or content of the passage, eliminate answer choices that are too broad or too specific-- answer choices that go beyond the content of the passage, or that deal with content only discussed in one paragraph of the passage.

Note: A good main idea or primary purpose does not go beyond the scope of the passage, nor does it limit itself to discussing only one part of the passage. Because main idea questions are relatively easy, the test writers try to obscure the correct answer by surrounding it with close answer-choices ("detractors") that either overstate or understate the author's main point. Answer choices that stress specifics tend to understate the main idea; choices that go beyond the scope of the passage tend to overstate the main idea.

Structure/Organization Questions

The structure/organization question might look like this:

• "Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?"
• "Which of the following best describes the organization of the first paragraph of the passage?"
• "One function of the third paragraph is to . . ."

Strategy:

Reread the first line of every passage, and the last line of the first and last paragraphs. Remember to make brief notes about the structure of the passage on your scrap paper. If you are looking for the organization of one paragraph, read the first and second sentence of the paragraph. That will give you a rough idea of the structure or organization of the paragraph.

All coherent writing has a superstructure or blueprint. When writing, we don't just randomly jot down our thoughts; we organize our ideas and present them in a logical manner.

Structure/Organization questions are similar to main idea questions, except that they ask about how the author presents or organizes his ideas, not about the ideas themselves.

Detail Questions

The detail question might look like this:

Strategy:

The specific detail that we are looking for could be a line number, a name, or date. Go to the line number, name, or date, and then read several lines above and below it. Find the answer choice that basically says the same thing as the passage, though usually with different words or word order.

Once you spot the sentence to which the question refers, you still must read a few sentences before and after it, to put the question in context. If a question refers to line 20, the information needed to answer it can occur anywhere from line 15 to 25. Even if you have spotted the answer in line 20, you should still read a couple lines above and below line 20 to make certain you have the proper perspective.

The answer to a detail question must refer directly to a statement in the passage. The correct answer will paraphrase a statement in the passage, not give an exact quote. In fact, exact quotes ("Same language" traps) are often used to bait wrong answers.

Caution: When answering a detail question, you must find the point in the passage from which the question is drawn. Don't rely on memory.

The correct answer will be surrounded by wrong choices which refer directly to the passage, but don't address the question. These choices can be tempting because they tend to be quite close to the actual answer.

Vocabulary in Context

For these questions, find the vocabulary word in the passage. Then read several lines above and several lines below the line where the vocabulary word has been found. The best answer will usually NOT be a common definition of the word. You are looking for the definition that fits the context of the passage that you are reading.

Inference Questions

Answers to 60% of inference questions are not directly stated in the passage.

The inference question might look like this:

• "It can be inferred that the author makes which of the following assumptions?"
• "Which is an assumption underlying the last sentence of the passage?"
• "Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the hypothesis mentioned in lines 17-19?"
• "With which of the following statements would the author most likely to agree?"

Strategy:

• Look for a target in the question, find it in the text, and then look above and below it. Often you do not have to infer very much; the answer remains within the passage.
• Make sure that the answer choice you decide on does not violate or contradict the Main Idea of the passage - if it does, the answer choice is probably wrong.
•  Since inference questions require you to go beyond the passage, the correct answer must say more than what is said in the passage. Beware of same language traps with these questions; the correct answer will often both paraphrase and extend a statement in the passage, but it will not directly quote it.
•  For inference questions, any answer-choice that repeats a statement word for word in the passage will probably be wrong.
•  The correct answer to an inference question will not require a quantum leap in thought, but it will add significantly to the ideas presented in the passage.

Application Questions

Application questions differ from inference questions only in degree. These questions ask you to apply what you have learned from the passage to derive new information about the same subject, whereas application questions go one step further, asking you to apply what you have learned from the passage to a different or hypothetical situation.

Tone Questions

Tone questions ask you to identify the writer's attitude or perspective. Is the writer's feeling toward the subject positive, negative, or neutral?

Before you read the answer-choices, decide whether the writer's tone is positive, negative, or neutral. However, if you did not get a feel for the writer's attitude on the first reading, check the adjectives and adverbs that he or she chooses.

Strategy:

Remember that the tone or attitude of the passage is usually respectful and moderate, never going to extremes of praise nor criticism. Test makers obtain reading comprehension passages from real articles about real academics and professionals. So the tone of the articles, even when there is criticism in the passage toward an academic or her work, is always balanced and moderate. Look for descriptive words, adjectives or adverbs, that could tell you the author's attitude.

Practice

TASP Review

GMAT Reading Mini Test

20 Reading Tests

LSAT Reading Practice: http://www.west.net/~stewart/lsat/ql_read.htm  

* Some of the information above was derived from http://www.act.org and "Compass Test Prep Workshops" by Sibyl Noack of Austin Community College.