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How to Review a GMAT Reading Comprehension Question

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Reviewing a GMAT Reading Comprehension question is similar to reviewing a Critical Reasoning problem. Just as with Critical Reasoning, not all RC problems are equally important to review. The most important problems to add to your ‘review later’ list are the ones that were just a bit too hard. Feel free to set aside the 800-level problems for now, but spend some extra time on the ones you almost got right. That’s where you’ll learn the most right now. 

Whenever you finish a set of GMAT Reading Comp practice questions, set them aside for a few minutes (or a day), then look over them again. Ideally, do this before you’ve even checked your answers: not knowing the right answer immediately will force you to deeply consider all of the answer choices. 

Start your review by just doing the problem again. Take as much or as little time as you want. If you’re reviewing a tough Detail question, you can also go back and highlight or underline details in the passage. You might end up changing your mind about the answer, or you might end up convincing yourself that your original answer was right. You may also end up unsure about the right answer, even once you spend more time with the problem. In that case, check the right answer first, before you read the explanation. See if you can come up with a theory, before you read the explanation, for why that answer was right. 

Once you’ve looked over the question a second time, it’s time to decide what you want to remember. You won’t see that exact problem on the test, but the GMAT uses the same types of passages, questions, right answers, and wrong answers across many problems. Here’s how to take notes in a way that will help you approach similar problems on test day.

Taking Review Notes on a GMAT Reading Comp Question

The majority of GMAT Reading Comp questions can be described as either general or specific. General questions might ask you about the main idea or the purpose of an entire passage, or perhaps about a paragraph or two within the passage. Getting these right relies on doing a few things successfully:

  • Figuring out which parts of the passage are major points, and which parts are supporting details (and how they fit together to make a single broad point)
  • Confidently eliminating wrong answers that somehow don’t match the overall passage

When you review a general question, take another look at the passage or paragraph first. You may want to jot down how long you spent reading the passage; if you read the passage slowly, spend some time thinking about which parts of the passage you could have safely ignored, and why. 

The right answer to a general question is right because, according to the GMAT, it correctly summarizes the main points. Once you know the right answer to a question you’re reviewing, locate those main points in the passage, and note how the details in the passage support those points. 

Each time you do this, you may learn something new about how to spot the main idea while reading a passage. If anything stands out to you on reviewing the passage, take some quick notes. Here are some examples of what your notes could look like, depending on the passage and the specific problem: 

  • The main idea is basically stated verbatim at the end of the first paragraph!
  • First paragraph introduces a surprise, then the other paragraphs each explain in different ways why it isn’t so surprising after all. So, the main idea will hit those two points: there’s an apparent surprise, but it isn’t really a surprise.
  • If something isn’t mentioned until the last paragraph, then it probably isn’t the main idea, even if it feels like a “conclusion.” 

Then, look at the answers. Make sure you can fully explain why each wrong answer is wrong. Some of them may be obvious to you; focus your note-taking on the wrong answers that aren’t obvious, especially if you picked one of them! 

Each time you make yourself think (and take notes) about why a wrong answer is wrong, you’re learning to recognize and avoid that type of wrong answer. Even if you didn’t fall for it this time, you’ll still be better prepared on test day.

Here are some common reasons to eliminate an answer while doing a general Reading Comp problem: 

  • Too specific: only part of the passage discusses this issue
  • Too general: the passage only discusses one aspect or example of this issue, not the general issue
  • Too judgy: the wrong answer uses a word like argues, disagrees, contrasts, proves, etc., while the passage itself is more neutral. 

Taking Notes on a Specific Detail or Inference Questions

Detail questions on the GMAT all have something in common, whether they ask you to identify something that the passage says, or something that the passage only implies. Either way, the right answer must be a statement you can prove by only using information from the passage. 

In the case of a Detail question, the right answer should be more or less written in the passage somewhere. When reviewing, your first job is to hunt down the “proof” for the right answer. If there’s anything surprising about the proof or how it relates to the right answer, write that in your notes! Did you miss it or misinterpret it? If so, how and why? Knowing what caused you to eliminate a correct answer erroneously will help you refine your own process. 

Then, look at the wrong answers. Be able to explain why each one is wrong. If any of them were remarkable or surprising to you, especially if you picked one of those, take some notes. Many Reading Comp questions have wrong answers that are wrong for predictable, consistent reasons. (For instance, it’s very common for there to be a wrong answer that uses language similar to that used in the passage, but that has the opposite meaning from the passage itself.) Jot down anything you learned about why an answer might be wrong. 

If you got the question wrong, figure out two things: what drew you to that particular wrong answer, and what kept you from picking the right answer. This might be something as simple as a misreading (or even not reading that answer choice at all!). But, it could also teach you something about the types of mistakes you tend to make. Anything you learn, write it down for later review.

Long-term Reading Comp Review

Now you’ve completed a set of Reading Comp questions and you’ve achieved a full understanding of how to read each passage and answer each question. You have some notes written down about what made the right answers right, what made the wrong answers wrong, and how to avoid mistakes next time. Here’s the next step. 

A couple of times per week, simply glance over your whole problem log, containing all of your notes on RC problems you’ve done in the past. Do this when you have a few minutes of spare time. There’s no need to redo the problems when you do this. All you’re doing is re-exposing yourself to the notes you’ve taken and taking note of any patterns that stand out, and maybe thinking about which problems you’d most like to redo next.

Once a week (if you’re focusing heavily on RC), or just occasionally (if RC is less of a priority), go back into your problem log and actually redo the problems you’ve reviewed. Use a timer, and avoid looking at the answer immediately. Did you get them right the second time? That’s strong evidence that you’ve internalized the lessons from those problems. Did you miss them again? That’s data as well: you now know that you should do some more problems of that same type, or revisit the corresponding chapter(s) in the All the Verbal guide.

Want some more GMAT review tips? Check out these posts.

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Chelsey CooleyChelsey Cooley Manhattan Prep GRE Instructor is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Seattle, Washington. Chelsey always followed her heart when it came to her education. Luckily, her heart led her straight to the perfect background for GMAT and GRE teaching: she has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and history, a master’s degree in linguistics, a 790 on the GMAT, and a perfect 170Q/170V on the GRE. Check out Chelsey’s upcoming GMAT prep offerings here.