{"id":11923,"date":"2018-08-27T18:03:32","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T18:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/?p=11923"},"modified":"2019-08-30T16:40:06","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T16:40:06","slug":"gre-reading-comprehension-without-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/blog\/gre-reading-comprehension-without-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"GRE Reading Comprehension without the Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11952\" src=\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/08\/gre-reading-comprehension-without-reading-tom-anderson.png\" alt=\"Manhattan Prep GRE Blog - GRE Reading Comprehension without the Reading by Tom Anderson\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/08\/gre-reading-comprehension-without-reading-tom-anderson.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/08\/gre-reading-comprehension-without-reading-tom-anderson-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/08\/gre-reading-comprehension-without-reading-tom-anderson-768x402.png 768w, https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/08\/gre-reading-comprehension-without-reading-tom-anderson-1024x536.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/h4>\n<h4><b>Who Needs the GRE Reading Comprehension Passage Anyway?<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let me be clear, if you want to maximize your GRE Reading Comprehension score, you should read each passage, thoroughly and entirely, before trying any of the questions about it. Strategies like skimming the passage or reading the questions first tend to result in sub-par performances. In the name of honing your Verbal skills, though, I\u2019m going to suggest you do something seemingly ludicrous: practice answering some GRE Reading Comprehension questions without reading the passages.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/l3V0bMLX1oJhnWeNG\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" frameBorder=\"0\" class=\"giphy-embed\" allowFullScreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/teamcoco-conan-obrien-annoyed-l3V0bMLX1oJhnWeNG\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You heard me\u2014skip the passages entirely. Jump straight to the GRE Reading Comprehension questions and try to answer them with no context or background whatsoever. Of course, your accuracy will almost certainly drop when doing GRE Reading Comprehension questions this way. By starting with the answer choices, though, you may just train yourself to pay attention to some nuances in the way correct answers tend to be written and in the very common ways they take otherwise-fine answer choices and make them provably wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For reference, I\u2019ve found that when I do this, my accuracy falls from 90+% correct answering normally down to about 50% correct without reading the GRE Reading Comprehension passages. Even so, that\u2019s <\/span><b>much<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> better than random guessing. When you try this, aim to beat the 20% odds you\u2019ve got going for you on a run-of-the-mill guess. If you can learn to eliminate some obviously-wrong choices and identify some common themes in right answers, you\u2019ll likely blow that number out of the water. And if you practice this without looking at the passages, imagine how well you\u2019ll do when you start reading them again. <\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>The Personality of the Test<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To make this exercise work, you need to know something about the GRE: It has a personality. In both the Verbal and Math sections, there are themes, tricks, and traps that appear over and over again. The GRE Reading Comprehension passages also come with a bit of a personality. It\u2019s a pretty stodgy test. There\u2019s little in the way of slang or improper grammar. You\u2019re not going to be reading racy passages or experimental fiction. There are no long, rambling excerpts from Jack Kerouac\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the Road<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on this test. No bitter rants. No Twitter feuds. No <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">50 Shades of Grey<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/l3V0H7bYv5Ml5TOfu\" width=\"480\" height=\"324\" frameBorder=\"0\" class=\"giphy-embed\" allowFullScreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/hells-kitchen-hells-kitchen-gordon-ramsay-l3V0H7bYv5Ml5TOfu\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead, remember that the GRE Reading Comprehension questions, answers, and passages are all written with a careful scholarly tone. All of the writing will be filled with the elevated vernacular and labyrinthine sentences characteristic of academic writing. Passages tend to discuss both sides fairly. Rarely do they advocate for one side of an argument over another; when they do, they\u2019ll advocate carefully with caveats and concessions. You\u2019ll never read a GRE Reading Comprehension passage that totally rips the opposing side to shreds. If you go in expecting all of this, it often helps you to dodge answer choices like this one:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D) The author\u2019s work is vastly superior to all other fiction written in the 19<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">th century.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or this one:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E) The passage argues that all scientific theories have failed due to the same few reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>The \u201cRight Answer Voice\u201d<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some traits of the GRE Reading Comprehension \u201cright answer voice.\u201d For each one, I\u2019ve written out an example of what a correct and an incorrect answer might sound like. Most of these are taken out of context from questions in the <\/span><a id=\"bloglink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/store\/strategy-guides\/5-pound-book-gre-practice-problems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5 lb Book of GRE Practice Problems<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>The GRE Reading Comprehension \u201cRight Answer Voice\u201d is Bland and Hard to Disprove<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/SxpX5m1rJXjMY\" width=\"480\" height=\"332\" frameBorder=\"0\" class=\"giphy-embed\" allowFullScreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/the-office-bored-SxpX5m1rJXjMY\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Correct answers on the GRE tend to be vague or boring. They\u2019ll be full of words like \u201cmay\u201d and \u201cgenerally\u201d and \u201csome\u201d rather than words like \u201call\u201d or \u201cnever.\u201d The wrong answers tend to make bigger, more exciting claims that just aren\u2019t quite backed up by the passage. Because the wrong answers on the GRE have to be provably wrong, they\u2019re often written in simple declarative sentences: \u201cIt is exactly this way,\u201d whereas correct answers tend to be written in a way that makes them more slippery and therefore difficult to disprove.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Example question:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Which of the following expresses the main idea of the passage?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Right:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A small set of non-human animals has been found to form social networks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wrong:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Only humans can form social networks.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>The GRE Reading Comprehension \u201cRight Answer Voice\u201d is Inoffensive<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The GRE is written by people who value political correctness. You\u2019ll never find correct answers that are offensive to an author, scholar, or group of people. If you can imagine a person being offended by an answer, it\u2019s probably wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/embed\/l0K4fIEZ1FFiWFJPq\" width=\"480\" height=\"261\" frameBorder=\"0\" class=\"giphy-embed\" allowFullScreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/giphy.com\/gifs\/snl-drake-hurt-feelings-l0K4fIEZ1FFiWFJPq\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Example question<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Based on the information in the passage, which of the following would best explain Einstein\u2019s motivation for stating that \u201cGod does not play dice with the universe\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Right:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Einstein did not believe that particles should be governed by probability as in a game of dice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wrong:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Einstein\u2019s religious beliefs did not allow him to fully understand the theory of quantum mechanics.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>The GRE Reading Comprehension \u201cRight Answer Voice\u201d is Based on the Passage, Not on Common-Sense Knowledge<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The GRE test writers very often plant a \u201ccommon knowledge\u201d trap\u2014an answer choice that most folks know without ever reading the passage. That answer choice tends to be utterly unrelated to what the passage discusses, but perhaps it\u2019s tempting because it feels familiar. If you notice blatantly obvious choices that clearly pull on outside knowledge rather than the passage itself, don\u2019t pick them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Example Question:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Right:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> At least some individuals in Puerto Rico have expressed opposition to Puerto Rico becoming a U.S. State.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Wrong:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> There are currently 50 states in the United States of America.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>You Try a Few!<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Read each of these questions and do a little process of elimination. You\u2019ll probably be able to rule out at least a few wrong answers for the reasons listed above. You might not be able to get all the way to the correct answer, but I bet you can get close. I\u2019ve also written out my analysis of the choices (without reading any of these passages, I promise). If you do want to look up any of the original passages and questions, you can find them in the <\/span><a id=\"bloglink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/store\/strategy-guides\/5-pound-book-gre-practice-problems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5 lb Book<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>5 lb. Book p.208 #72<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The author of the passage would be most likely to agree with which of the following statements?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A) Free Riders cannot be blamed for their actions, because they are an inevitable part of any government.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B) Free rider problems are not worth worrying about, because they are an inevitable part of any government.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C) There are at least some situations in which the free rider problem should not be viewed as an inevitable part of government.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D) National defense is a perfect example of why free rider problems need to be stamped out as quickly as possible.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E) Free riders are morally at fault, and ought to be punished.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>5 lb. Book p.218 #92<\/b><\/p>\n<p>2. Which of the following most accurately states the author\u2019s reason for citing the Copernicus and Brahe models of the solar system?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A) It shows that a theory without predictive power can never be tested and verified.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B) It reveals that some theories can have more or less of an \u201cad hoc\u201d quality.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C) It shows that two different theories can never yield the same predictions for future events.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D) It is used to support the idea that a more complicated model will always fail to a simpler model.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E) It provides an example of when a theory can correctly predict future events but not offer the best explanation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>5 lb. Book p.194 #45<\/b><\/p>\n<p>3. The passage implies which of the following?<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A) Students can benefit from exposure to inaccurate accounts of history.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B) Students today prefer music to film.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C) Students today are functional illiterates.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D) Students today prefer charts to opinions.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E) Students today should not be exposed to political agendas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before I give you the answers, here is my analysis of the choices. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Question 1:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A and B both make the claim that this problem is \u201dan inevitable part of any government.\u201d That\u2019s a pretty big claim and would be very hard to prove. All it takes is one government that solves this problem to prove these false. Answer choice D calls this a \u201cperfect example,\u201d which also feels a little too strong for the GRE. Stating that they need to be \u201cstamped out as quickly as possible\u201d also sounds rash and judgmental\u2014not the typical voice in which these passages are written. Choice E also makes a pretty big subjective claim, so it\u2019s likely to be wrong. My guess is answer choice C because it\u2019s such a small claim: \u201cat least some situations\u201d are an exception to the rule. This is much more bland and more difficult to disprove, compared to the other choices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Question 2:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I can\u2019t guess all the way on this one, but I can narrow it down to two. Answer choices A, C, and D all use extreme language. By using the words \u201cnever\u201d and \u201calways,\u201d they open themselves up to be easily disproved. They\u2019re almost certainly going to be wrong. Answer choices B and E both seem pretty good to me. B is nice because it only talks about \u201csome theories.\u201d And answer choice E just says that the author used this as an example of a very particular and un-extreme phenomenon. Without reading the passage, I\u2019m stuck between those two choices, but I\u2019m willing to bet B or E is correct.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Question 3:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of the choices here are both extreme and offensive. Take a look at choice C, for example. Any current or former student would feel hurt by that choice. \u201cBut I\u2019m not a functional illiterate! Leave me alone!\u201d So that choice is definitely going to be wrong. I also thought all of the choices from B through E were making bold, black-and-white claims that would be easily disproved. Surely some students don\u2019t prefer film over music or charts over opinions. And answer choice E also feels a little subjective and moralistic. To state that students should not be exposed to political agendas is a value statement\u2014not the carefully-worded, judgment-free kind of statement we typically see on the GRE. I\u2019d be willing to bet the correct answer is A without ever reading this passage. It\u2019s a mild claim. It\u2019s not even stating students \u201cwill\u201d benefit but that they \u201ccan\u201d benefit. Who could argue with that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After checking these in the answer key, it seems like my predictions were pretty close. Here are the actual correct answers:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">C<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How did you do?<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Imagine How Well You\u2019ll Do When You Start Reading Again<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you can learn to answer these questions without reading the passages, imagine how well you\u2019ll do when you start reading them again. You\u2019ll likely find that you start paying attention to wording and turns of phrase in a way that you weren\u2019t before. Good luck with this GRE Reading Comprehension exercise. \u00a0Happy studying! ?<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><b><i>Want more guidance from our GRE gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a id=\"bloglink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/classes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b><i>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a><b><i>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-10555 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/d27gmszdzgfpo3.cloudfront.net\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2017\/08\/tom-anderson-150x150.png\" alt=\"tom-anderson\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><a id=\"bloglink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/instructors\/tom-anderson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tom Anderson<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in New York, NY.<\/strong>\u00a0He has a B.A. in English and a master\u2019s degree in education. Tom has long possessed an understanding of the power of standardized tests in propelling one\u2019s education and career, and he hopes he can help his students see through the intimidating veneer of the GRE.\u00a0<a id=\"bloglink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/classes\/#instructor\/53\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Check out Tom\u2019s upcoming GRE courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who Needs the GRE Reading Comprehension Passage Anyway? Let me be clear, if you want to maximize your GRE Reading Comprehension score, you should read each passage, thoroughly and entirely, before trying any of the questions about it. Strategies like skimming the passage or reading the questions first tend to result in sub-par performances. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[474284,921840,6,21,733445,12],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-gre-strategies","category-reading-comp","category-study-tips-2","category-verbal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11923"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11954,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11923\/revisions\/11954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11923"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}