5 Tips

There are several key skills that you’ll need to be successful in the Reading section.
You should be able to: 

1.  Synthesize information presented in the text 

This means that you can read chunks of text and identify main ideas being expressed. You
should be able to draw connections between individual sentences and paraphrase the
information that is presented.

2.  Identify the author’s rhetorical purpose

When you read a piece of information, you should be able to understand why the author
has included it. Is it an example of a phenomenon, a supporting detail for an argument, or
perhaps the introduction of a new idea? Understanding the structure of each paragraph
and the whole passage is critical to understanding its contents. 

3.  Scan the text to find specific pieces of information

In order to put together the big picture about what’s going on in a passage, you will also
need to comprehend the little pieces that fit together to make that big picture. It is
important to be able to quickly locate a sentence or portion of a paragraph that discusses
a particular point. Once you’ve found that sentence, you can re-read it in order to
understand exactly what is being expressed.

4.  Understand academic vocabulary used in the passage

A newspaper or magazine article might use more everyday language—the sort of thing
you hear in conversations and read in emails. But an academic text, regardless of the
subject, contains certain vocabulary that is standard in academic discourse. There might
be words related to presenting theories: "propose", "hypothesis", "scenario". Or
there could be words that connect two sentences: "however", "in addition", "thus".
A good reader should be familiar with this type of vocabulary.