🗣️ Verbal

Reading Comprehension

Read for structure and stance; the five subtypes (main idea, supporting idea, inference, application, evaluation) and the four wrong-answer molds.

~6h

to master

Read for architecture, not facts

A GMAT RC passage is ~200–350 words with several questions that stay anchored to it. Expertise in the topic is useless by design; what pays is reading for structure and stance.

📐Core Rule

On the first read, track what each paragraph does, not every fact it states. Claim → evidence → counterpoint → verdict. A four-word margin note per paragraph ("theory," "objection," "data," "author's view") beats highlighting everything, and it answers half the questions before you reach them.

Always locate the author: are they reporting a debate neutrally, endorsing one side, or qualifying a popular view? Tone and purpose questions hang entirely on this.

The five question subtypes

Subtype	Asks for	Winning move
Main Idea	the whole passage's central point or purpose	match the full arc, not the loudest paragraph
Supporting Idea	a specific stated detail or a statement's role	return to the lines; verify wording, not memory
Inference	something implied but unstated	take one small certain step — never a leap
Application	an analogous case in a new context	abstract the principle, then map it elsewhere
Evaluation	how the passage is built / what would strengthen it	answer the function ("concedes, then rebuts")

✏️Worked Example

Inference is a short step, not a leap. If a passage says "researchers no longer hold that one gene alone determines height," a supported inference is "height is shaped by several factors." An unsupported over-reach would be "genes barely affect height" — too strong. The right inference is the timid, certain one. See .

The four wrong-answer molds

⚠️GMAT Trap

RC distractors are cast from four molds — name the mold as you eliminate. Too extreme (all / never / proves where the passage hedges) · Half-right (one true clause welded to one false clause) · True-but-unasked (a correct fact that doesn't answer this question) · Outside knowledge (true in the world, but never stated or supported in the passage).

The "half-right" mold is the most dangerous: a four-option scan that stops at the first true-sounding clause walks straight into it. Read the whole option.

💡Exam Tip

EXCEPT / NOT questions invert the task. "The passage mentions all of the following EXCEPT" means four answers are supported and you want the one that isn't. Check each against the text; the odd one out is your answer. Slow down — these reward bookkeeping, not speed.

💡Exam Tip

For Application/analogy questions, the right answer is often about a topic the passage never mentions. A passage about how a wildfire clears space for new forest growth might have a correct answer about a firm shutting old product lines to fund newer ones — because the test is whether you abstracted the relationship, not the subject. Don't reject an option just because it changes topics.

Method, in order

Read the passage for structure and author stance (≈2 minutes; don't rush it).
Read the question stem and identify the subtype.
Predict the answer in your own words before reading options.
Eliminate by mold; for detail/inference, return to the exact lines.

Checklist

One-phrase note on each paragraph's function
Author's stance identified (neutral? siding? qualifying?)
Inferences kept to one supported step
Whole option read — beware the half-right weld
EXCEPT questions: find the unsupported choice

Sample Questions

72 practice questions

Context

Pyrrolizines, a family of natural scent compounds, form an important part of the signals used by many moths. Moths obtain pyrrolizines either directly, from the ragworts that make them, or indirectly, by eating the aphids that feed on those ragworts, and store them in a range of tissues. Studies of several moth species have shown that when choosing mates, females prefer males with a stronger pyrrolizine plume. Okonkwo and Reiss reason that the presence of pyrrolizines, as announced by the plume, would mean something in the choosing of a mate only if pyrrolizines were either scarce or needed.

The conventional view is that pyrrolizines mean something because they are scarce: a healthier male can gather more of the compound than a poorer one. That may well be so, but there is growing evidence that pyrrolizines mean something because they are needed as well: they are drawn on by the defences that repel parasitic wasps and by the processes that clear toxins from the body, both of which keep a moth in health. It may be that a male can spend his scarce pyrrolizines either on defending himself against wasps and poison or on attracting females. Males more open to wasps and parasites will have to spend their pyrrolizines propping up their defences, whereas males that resist attack by inheritance will spend fewer on it and will announce as much by putting the compound into the plume instead.

Medium

According to the conventional view referred to in the passage, a stronger pyrrolizine plume in a moth indicates that the individual

Context

Medium

The idea that the pyrrolizine plume matters partly because pyrrolizines are needed for health suggests that a weak plume in a male most likely indicates which of the following?

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