Verbal: Reading Comprehension for the GRE Exam

Common failure modes

These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.

• !Reading too quickly and missing the author's hedges, qualifications, and signals of contrast — GRE questions frequently test whether you noticed a "however" or "some argue"
• !Going beyond the passage — MCAT CARS and GRE RC share this error: selecting an answer that is true in the real world but not supported by the specific passage
• !On "select all that apply" questions, failing to evaluate each option independently
• !Mis-identifying the main idea by focusing on a supporting detail from the first paragraph

Study tips

• 1Build a micro-passage map as you read: one phrase per paragraph summarizing the main point and the author's stance (positive, negative, neutral, complex).
• 2For "function of a sentence" questions, look at what came before and after — the sentence's role is defined by its relationship to the surrounding argument.
• 3Practice with dense academic reading outside of GRE prep: Scientific American, academic journal abstracts, and long-form essays in the Economist improve RC performance over time.
• 4On inference questions, choose the answer that is most directly supported by the text, not the one that feels most logical from outside knowledge.

Sample GRE Verbal: Reading Comprehension questions

These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real GRE questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.

1. 1

   A passage argues that while early studies suggested a clear link between dietary fat and cardiovascular disease, more recent meta-analyses have found this relationship to be considerably more nuanced, varying by fat type and population. An inference question asks: based on the passage, the author would most likely agree that:

   • ADietary fat is the primary cause of cardiovascular disease
   • BEarly studies on dietary fat were methodologically invalid
   • CThe relationship between dietary fat and cardiovascular disease cannot be studied scientifically
   • DBlanket recommendations to avoid all dietary fat may be overly simplisticCorrect
   Why this answer?

   The passage says early studies suggested a clear link but recent analyses show a more nuanced relationship varying by fat type and population. The logical inference is that broad recommendations treating all fat equally may be too simplistic. Option B overstates the criticism — "methodologically invalid" is not implied; "more nuanced" is. Option A contradicts the passage's point about complexity. Option C is unsupported. (Illustrative.)

2. 2

   The primary purpose of a GRE Reading Comprehension passage that begins with a phenomenon, offers one traditional explanation, and then presents a new study challenging that explanation is most likely to:

   • AAdvocate for a specific scientific conclusion
   • BDescribe a scientific controversy and evaluate the evidence on both sidesCorrect
   • CRefute the traditional explanation entirely and establish the new finding as definitive
   • DIntroduce background context before making a policy recommendation
   Why this answer?

   The structure (phenomenon → traditional explanation → new challenge) is the classic "problem/solution/revision" academic structure. The author's purpose in this structure is to examine the state of evidence, not necessarily to advocate for one side. GRE passages typically adopt an analytic, not advocacy, tone. "Refute entirely" (option C) over-reads the structure — "challenge" and "refute entirely" are not equivalent.