Online Lesson: GMAT Reading Comprehension Question Types [Video]

Like we discussed in our GMAT Time Management Made Simple video, different types of Reading Comprehension questions deserve different amounts of time on test day. But what types of questions are there on the Reading Comprehension section of the GMAT? How do we determine which of these questions to spend more or less time on? And what can we do to save time on each type of questions?

In “Online Lesson: GMAT Reading Comprehension Question Types”, we discuss the different types of Reading Comprehension GMAT questions you’ll see on test day, how to recognize them, and how to approach each one.

We can break down Reading Comprehension GMAT questions into “quick” and “not so quick” questions.

  • The “quick” questions are ones we should be able to answer based on our initial skim of the passage — we often think of them as “general” questions. These include Main Idea, Logical Structure, and Perspective questions.
  • “Not so quick” Reading Comprehension GMAT questions, on the other hand, require test takers to recall specific details from the text or to extrapolate information that isn’t explicitly stated in the passage. These questions should not be addressed by an initial skim and require us to take additional time to look back through the passage. They include Supporting Idea, Inference, and Application questions.

So how do we know which questions belong to which of the GMAT Reading Comprehension question types? Each question type asks for something specific, and typically asks for it using certain words and phrases exclusive to that question type. If we know which clues to look for in the question stem and answer choices, we can determine how to approach and how much time to spend on each of the GMAT Reading Comprehension questions we see on test day.

Watch the video to learn how to identify each of the GMAT Reading Comprehension question types!

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Happy GMAT Reading Comprehension studies!

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Author: Erika John

Erika graduated from the University of Washington and got a 99th-percentile score on the GMAT. With years of experience teaching standardized test prep and directing a private tutoring academy, Erika is passionate about giving students the tools they need to succeed in cracking the GMAT and GRE.