GMAT Reading Comprehension—Strategies for Score Optimization
This Q&A answers frequently asked questions about GMAT Reading Comprehension—for example, how the test-makers design wrong-answer choices (and how you can ferret them out), and how to read GMAT reading passages as efficiently as possible.
Q: How many and what types of reading passages will I encounter on the GMAT? 
A: Expect to encounter four Reading Comprehension sets on your Verbal section. Passages vary in length from 150 to 325 words. Each passage will be accompanied by three questions (except that one passage might be accompanied by four questions). The passages are drawn from a variety of academic disciplines within the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. Expect to encounter at least one from each of these broad areas on your GMAT; the CAT (Computer-Adaptive Testing) system intentionally selects an eclectic array of passages for every test taker—so that no one test-taker is at an undue advantage because of familiarity with a general subject area. The passages are very dense; they’re extensively edited and packed with the sorts of detailed information and ideas the test-makers need to create a bank of GMAT-style questions. 
Q: How will the reading passages appear on the computer screen? 
A: During the test, whenever you encounter a Reading Comprehension question, the computer screen will split vertically down the middle; the passage will appear on the left side, and a question will appear on the right side. You’ll need to scroll vertically to read the entire passage. (About half of an average-length passage fits on the screen.) Every fifth line of the passage will be numbered: 5, 10, and so forth. The reason for line numbering is that a question might refer to a specific phrase in the passage, and the line number where the phrase is located. (Expect to encounter one or two such questions on your GMAT.) 
Q: Turning to the Reading Comprehension questions themselves, what types of questions can test-takers expect to encounter? Are some question types inherently more difficult than others? 
A: Reading Comprehension questions fall into rather predictable categories, based on the various cognitive abilities tested under the rubric of "reading comprehension." Every GMAT-prep author comes up with his or her own labels for these categories. Here’s my list (in descending order of frequency in which they appear on the GMAT): 
.Central Idea and primary purpose questions (both of which test you on whether you understood the passage’s overall thesis, or point—in other words, whether you can see the proverbial forest from the trees)
.Specific recall questions (which test not so much whether you understood the passage’s ideas as whether you recalled specific, detailed information contained in the passage)
.Inference questions (which require you to understand what the passage’s author means—but does not state explicitly—by a particular phrase or stat