Cracking Reading Comprehension in CAT Examination

Reading Comprehension is easy and scoring section, only when you know how to bring out the required efficiency. Lets discuss few of the tips which need to be followed while you attempt it.

Reading Comprehension

This is one factor that can lead to poor reading speed. When you feel that you have not understood a particular word or sentence, you tend to read it again. But you must keep in mind that you are not expected to know the exact meaning of a word or a sentence (unless otherwise specified by special devices like underlining a word, italicizing, etc. in which case you can re-read that particular word or sentence.) So keep on reading!

In specific, three kinds of knowledge are required for reading comprehension, namely —

a. Content knowledge (such as having and using prior knowledge)

b. Strategic knowledge (such as making inferences during reading and using prose structure to determine important information)

c. Meta-cognitive knowledge (such as self-monitoring whether or not one comprehends the material being read)

Analytical Ability

Even if you have understood what the author has stated explicitly in the passage, you may not be able to answer all the questions. Some questions examine your ability to extrapolate the information that you have received from the passage and apply it to other situations (please also refer to the note given on Question Identification in the next note in this series). Thus, it is mandatory for you to acquire analytical skills, the ability to read between the lines, so to speak. For this, you need to develop logical skills, ability to deduce information, etc. Through constant practice, this too can be acquired.

Reading Range

You often read what you like to read. But if you are serious in your preparation for CAT, you need to read all kinds of writings. Thus, an engineer might have a mental block against a philosophical treatise; an arts student might have an antipathy towards a scientific article. And this will slow down your reading speed as also reading comprehension. The only way to overcome this is to read a lot of such writings so that your prejudice and fear are overcome. This will also ensure that you are familiar with the jargon that is usually used in essays written in that particular domain of knowledge.

Memory

This element is related to information retention. The greater your power of retaining information, the lesser the effort in identifying the correct answer. But unlike other conventional examinations, one need not possess an elephantine memory to solve RC passage questions.

Research in reading comprehension suggests that as you read any text you use your existing knowledge to form new constructs. Existing knowledge is used both for assimilating new information and generating recall of information.