CAT Reading Comprehension Tricks for 99 percentile | Solve any RC using these strategies

Summary

This video covers essential strategies to excel in Reading Comprehension (RC) for exams like CAT. It explains three types of RC questions: general, specific, and interpretation-based. The video highlights eight strategies to eliminate wrong options, including avoiding extreme words, maintaining the correct tone, and identifying incorrect cause-effect relationships. The speaker emphasizes the importance of practicing with RC problems using these methods. By comparing and justifying options in difficult questions, students can improve accuracy. Viewers are encouraged to practice consistently to master these techniques for exam success.

Takeaways

• 📝 It's crucial to understand the three types of RC questions: general, specific, and interpretation.
• 🔍 For general questions, good comprehension skills are key; you typically don't need to revisit the passage.
• 📚 Specific questions require returning to the passage to find exact words or phrases.
• 🧐 Interpretation questions ask you to determine how options strengthen or weaken the main idea.
• 🚫 Avoid extreme words like 'all' or 'always' in answer choices, as they often make the options incorrect.
• 🎯 Match the tone of the options to the tone of the passage to select the correct answer.
• 🔗 Be wary of incorrect cause-and-effect relationships or faulty linkages in answer choices.
• ❗ Only infer information from what's provided in the passage, avoiding external knowledge.
• 📏 Avoid overly broad or narrow concepts in answer options; these are often traps.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Use the 'compare and justify' method for particularly tough questions by scrutinizing every word of the options.

Q & A

What are the three main types of questions in reading comprehension?

The three main types of questions in reading comprehension are: general questions, specific questions, and interpretation questions.

What is a general question in reading comprehension?

A general question is one that asks for the main idea, summary, or tone of the passage. These questions typically do not require returning to the passage if the reader's comprehension is strong.

What is the difference between specific questions and general questions?

Specific questions focus on particular words or lines in the passage, often requiring the reader to return to the passage to identify the correct answer. General questions are about the overall content or theme and do not always require referencing the passage again.

What is an interpretation question, and why is it considered difficult?

Interpretation questions ask the reader to assess which options strengthen or weaken the main idea of the passage. These are difficult because they require understanding the central argument and interpreting the options accordingly.

What is the strategy for eliminating options with extreme words?

The strategy is to avoid options containing extreme words like 'all,' 'every,' 'always,' as these words often make an otherwise correct statement inaccurate by overstating or oversimplifying the facts.

Why is it important to match the tone of the options with the tone of the passage?

Matching the tone is important because certain questions ask which sentence best completes a passage or paragraph. The correct answer should reflect the same tone (e.g., accusational, factual) as the rest of the text to maintain coherence.

What is an incorrect cause-effect relationship in reading comprehension?

An incorrect cause-effect relationship occurs when two facts are linked improperly in an option. Even if both facts are true, if the passage does not explicitly connect them, the option is considered incorrect.

What does the 'inference as little as possible' strategy entail?

This strategy involves limiting your assumptions to only what is explicitly mentioned in the passage. External knowledge, no matter how obvious, should not influence your answer unless it is stated in the passage.

How can broad or narrow concepts lead to incorrect answers?

Broad concepts cover more than what the passage discusses (e.g., talking about education in general when the passage is about higher education), while narrow concepts focus on only a specific part of the passage, leaving out other important aspects.

When should you use the 'compare and justify' strategy, and how does it work?

The 'compare and justify' strategy should be used for very difficult questions when you're unsure between two options. It involves comparing both options word by word and justifying them based on the passage, helping to identify subtle differences that reveal the correct answer.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Introduction to Reading Comprehension (RC) Strategies

The speaker introduces the importance of mastering reading comprehension (RC) for verbal sections in exams. They emphasize the need for understanding strategies to eliminate wrong options and highlight the three main types of questions that are asked: general, specific, and interpretation. General questions focus on the main idea or tone of the passage, specific questions on particular words or lines, and interpretation questions, which are the most difficult, require understanding how ideas can be strengthened or weakened. The speaker stresses that practicing these strategies is essential for success.

05:02

📚 Strategy 1: Avoid Extreme Words and Use the Tone Approach

The speaker explains the first strategy: avoiding extreme words like 'all,' 'each,' and 'always,' as these often make an option incorrect, even if it seems right. They provide an example using survey results to show how extreme words can mislead answers. The second strategy is the tone approach, where the tone of the answer must match the tone of the passage or paragraph. They illustrate this with an example about women in society, showing how an accusational tone matched the passage's tone better than an informational tone.

10:04

🔗 Strategy 2: Avoid Incorrect Cause and Effect Relationships

The speaker focuses on the complexity of cause-and-effect relationships in passages. They warn that two facts may both be true but falsely linked together. An example is given where flexible work schedules increased employee satisfaction, but the rise in productivity wasn't definitively caused by this. Another example about optimistic cultures and vocabulary illustrates how correlation does not always imply causation, making it critical to avoid such misleading linkages when answering RC questions.

🚫 Strategy 3: Infer as Little as Possible

In this section, the speaker highlights the importance of restricting knowledge to the passage, even if external knowledge might seem relevant. They give an example about cricket, noting that even if you know a rule from your own knowledge, you must stick to what’s explicitly stated in the passage. Paper setters often use obvious facts to mislead test-takers into assuming something not mentioned, making it crucial to eliminate options based on outside assumptions.

⚖️ Strategy 4: Broad vs. Narrow Concepts

Here, the speaker discusses how options might either broaden or narrow the scope of a passage, leading to incorrect answers. They illustrate this with an example about higher education, where one option is too broad (referring to education in general) and another is too narrow (focusing only on STEM programs). Both are factually correct but fail because they either overgeneralize or overly limit the scope of the passage.

🔍 Strategy 5: The Majority Approach

This strategy applies to main idea questions, where the correct answer typically covers the majority of ideas presented in the passage. The speaker explains that while other options may be factually correct, they might only address specific paragraphs. An example involving the military and civil society demonstrates that the option covering the most ideas, including interdependence between military and society, is the best choice because it encompasses more aspects of the passage.

🗒️ Strategy 6: Identifying Irrelevant or False Options

The speaker touches on irrelevant and false options, which are often factually correct but completely unrelated to the question being asked. They emphasize that these are typically easier to eliminate, as they do not address the core of the question or are simply factually incorrect according to the passage.

⚖️ Strategy 7: Compare and Justify for Difficult Questions

The final strategy, ‘compare and justify,’ is reserved for the most difficult questions, where the test-taker is torn between two seemingly correct options. The speaker advises carefully comparing each word in the options and justifying them based on the passage. This strategy is time-consuming and should only be used when all other options have been exhausted, as it involves close scrutiny of the wording to identify subtle differences that could lead to the correct answer.

Keywords

💡Reading Comprehension (RC)

Reading comprehension (RC) refers to the ability to read a passage and understand its meaning, structure, and nuances. In the video, it is the main subject of discussion, as the speaker explains strategies to tackle different types of questions in RC, such as general, specific, and interpretation questions.

💡General Questions

General questions in reading comprehension refer to questions that ask for a broad understanding of the passage, such as identifying the main idea or summarizing the passage. The speaker notes that if a person has good comprehension skills, they may not need to return to the passage to answer these questions.

💡Specific Questions

Specific questions focus on particular words, lines, or sections of the passage. These questions require the reader to go back to the text to find a specific reference and answer based on it. The video mentions that these questions are more detail-oriented compared to general questions.

💡Interpretation Questions

Interpretation questions ask readers to go beyond the literal meaning and interpret how the information relates to broader concepts, such as determining which option strengthens or weakens the author’s argument. These are described as the most difficult type of question in RC because they require both understanding and interpretation of the main idea.

💡Extreme Words

Extreme words include terms like 'all,' 'every,' 'always,' which often make an option too rigid and therefore incorrect in RC. The speaker emphasizes avoiding answers that use extreme language, as they often misrepresent the more nuanced or conditional nature of the passage.

💡Tone Matching

Tone matching refers to aligning the tone of the answer choice with the tone of the passage or paragraph. The speaker explains that, especially in specific questions like 'which sentence completes the passage,' it's important to ensure the tone of the chosen answer reflects the tone in the rest of the text, such as accusatory or informational.

💡Cause and Effect Relationship

In RC, a cause and effect relationship is when two events or facts are linked as cause and result. The speaker advises avoiding incorrect cause-effect linkages where two events are factually correct but are falsely connected by causality, as this can make an answer incorrect.

💡Broad and Narrow Concepts

Broad and narrow concepts refer to the scope of the options provided in an RC question. Broad concepts expand beyond what the passage covers, while narrow concepts limit the scope to specific details. The speaker warns against options that either overgeneralize (broad) or focus too narrowly on a single aspect of the passage.

💡Majority Approach

The majority approach is a strategy to choose an answer that covers the most ideas presented in the passage. In questions about the main idea or central argument, the correct option will usually be the one that encompasses the broadest range of themes or points discussed in the passage, rather than focusing on just one or two aspects.

💡Compare and Justify

Compare and justify is a strategy for the most difficult RC questions, where the reader is confused between two very similar options. The speaker suggests comparing the two options word by word and justifying each word with the passage to eliminate one. This is the most time-consuming strategy, recommended only when other methods fail.

Highlights

The video introduces strategies to help eliminate wrong options in reading comprehension (RC) questions.

RC questions can be broadly divided into three types: general, specific, and interpretation.

General questions include identifying the main idea, summary, and author's tone.

Specific questions require returning to the passage to understand the meaning of specific words or lines.

Interpretation questions are the most difficult and involve analyzing how options strengthen or weaken the author's argument.

The first strategy for eliminating wrong options is to avoid extreme words such as 'all,' 'each,' 'every,' and 'always.'

The tone approach involves matching the tone of the options with the tone of the passage to eliminate wrong choices.

Be cautious of incorrect cause-effect relationships or linkages, where two facts may be correct but incorrectly linked.

Restrict your knowledge to the information in the passage and avoid using external knowledge, no matter how obvious it may seem.

Watch out for options that are too broad or too narrow in concept compared to the scope of the passage.

The majority approach suggests selecting the option that covers the most ideas presented in the passage, especially for central argument questions.

Irrelevant options may be factually correct but unrelated to the question being asked, making them easier to eliminate.

For the most difficult questions, the 'compare and justify' strategy involves comparing every word in two similar options and justifying them against the passage.

Practicing hundreds of RC problems using these strategies is essential for mastering the art of elimination.

The video concludes by urging viewers to practice extensively and not rely solely on memorizing strategies.

Transcripts

verbal section important RC and video

the complete theory on reading

comprehensions I will tell you all the

strategies that will help you eliminate

the wrong options and academic video so

make sure you have your pen and paper

ready if you do not note down these

strategies and practice RC problems

using these strategies then it's a

complete waste of your time so grab a

pen and paper sit straight and let's

start and before I move to the

strategies you need to understand the

type of questions that can be asked in a

particular reading comprehension so they

can be divided broadly into three types

first are the general questions so these

are questions basically like what is the

main idea of the passage what is the

summary of this particular passage what

is the tone of the author so basically

you need to interpret these things from

the passage and answer accordingly next

are the specific questions so these are

questions like what does the author mean

from this particular word in the passage

or what does this particular line mean

in the context of the paragraph or in

the context of the passage so these are

very specific questions on a particular

word or on a particular line and for

specific questions you might need to

return to the passage check out the

exact word or the line that is being

referred to and then answer accordingly

remember for general questions if your

comprehension ability is good most of

the time you would not need to come back

to the passage and if you're coming back

to the passage for general question then

certainly you need to increase your

comprehension ability for obviously the

specific questions you have to come back

and the third category of question is

what I call the interpretation questions

and these are definitely the most

difficult ones so these are questions

like which of the following will

strengthen the the argument of the

author or which of the following will

weaken the argument of the author here

what you need to do is first understand

the main idea of the passage or the main

idea of the paragraph and after that

check the options and interpret which of

the following will strengthen that main

idea or weaken that main idea so this is

basically one level above the general

questions here you need to understand

the main idea first and after that

interpret which of the following will

strengthen or weaken that main idea so

if your main idea itself is incorrect

then obviously it will be very difficult

to answer these questions but what I've

seen mostly in interpretation question

the paper Setters mostly set the options

very easy so it becomes very easy to

interpret which is going to be the right

answer and for interpretation questions

as well you need not come back to the

passage and now that you have

understanding of all three different

types of question that can be asked in

an RC let's move to the eight strategies

that you should keep in mind while

eliminating the options the first

strategy is to avoid extreme words and

these are words like all each every

always so these are basically words the

option in itself might be correct but by

using these extreme words that option

can be made incorrect as well let's

understand this with an example which

will make it clear for you suppose the

question is which of the following can

be correctly inferred from the results

of the survey and first option was many

respondents of the survey were open to

the idea of participation in most of the

qgp initiatives and the second option

was the respondents greatly appreciated

all the qgp initiatives and propose

participation in it so I'll give you the

context of the passage in this

particular question the context of the

passage was if majority of the qgp

initiatives are accepted then the

proposal will be passed and the proposal

was passed in this particular passage so

we definitely know that they agreed for

most of the qgp initiative however the

second option mentions all the qgp

initiatives were accepted which might

not be true as well and that's why using

this extreme word all makes this option

incorrect the next strategy is to use

the tone approach and here you need to

match the tone of the options with the

tone of the rest of the paragraph or

rest of the passage so basically these

are very specific questions for example

which of the following sentences will

complete this particular paragraph or

which of the following senten will

complete the passage these kind of

questions here you need to be careful

that the option the tone in which the

option is written that should match the

tone of the rest of the paragraph and

obviously these are very difficult

questions because the two options here

would be very close it will be very

difficult to select the right answer and

to eliminate the wrong option so let's

take an example and see this particular

thing so one of the answering question

was which are the following sentence

best completes the first paragraph of

the passage the first option was for a

long time women have been part of less

privileged sections of the society and

second option is for a long time women

were kept out of mainstream policies

rendering them as less privileged so you

can see in both the option they are

speaking about the same thing both are

factually correct as well however in

this case the rest of the tone of the

paragraph Was accusational and that's

why the second one which is kind of an

acquisitional tone is the correct option

the first one if you see is is more of

an informational tone it's factually

correct both of the sentences both of

the options are speaking the same thing

as well but the first one is factual or

informational tone and the second one is

accusational tone because rest of the

paragraph was also accusational in tone

that's why the second one becomes the

right answer only that option can

complete the passage or this particular

paragraph correctly the third strategy

is to avoid incorrect cause effect

relationship or to avoid incorrect

linkages and this trap also makes the

options very tricky what happens in this

kind of an option suppose something is

mentioned A and B two things are

mentioned in that particular option A is

factually correct B will be factually

correct however in the option these two

things will be linked suppose a has

caused b or B has happened because of a

or something of this kind of a

connection will be made a is factually

correct B is factually correct but that

linkage that has happened between A and

B that makes this particular option

wrong now let's use an example and I

will use two examples over here because

you need to understand this correctly

this one is really tricky so I will use

one option of a particular RC question

and I will explain why it was incorrect

in the context of this particular

passage so the option was the passage

States adoption of flexible work

schedules caused an increase in overall

company productivity so now I'll explain

what the passage had mentioned the

passage had mentioned that obviously a

flexible work schedule policy was

implemented that increased employee

satisfaction and for that a survey was

done that had definitely increased the

employee satisfaction and during that

period the employee productivity had

also went up however there is no fact

backing up that it happened because of

flexible work schedule so both the facts

are correct flexible work scheduled

policy was implemented during that time

the employe productivity had definitely

went up however there is no data to

prove that there was a cause and effect

relationship that productivity could

have gone up due to many other reasons

during that period as well and that's

why while both the options are while

both the facts mentioned in this

particular option is correct however we

cannot link these two particular facts

let's take another question which of the

following is true the most optimistic

cultures around the world speak

languages which have more positive than

negative words and the second option is

vocabulary tends to affect the culture

of society with more positive words

implying a more optimistic culture here

you can see clearly the next one

whatever is mentioned in both the

options is correct kind of correct as

well that yes it was seen that more the

positive words more is the optimistic

culture or more the optimistic culture

more is the positive words used in that

particular culture however there is

there can be a correlation but there was

no cause and effect relationship the

second option which clearly states that

vocabulary tends to do this this is

definitely correct because nowhere it

was mentioned that vocabulary will make

a culture more optimistic or will use

more positive words or anything of that

sort that's why there is an incorrect In

cause and effect relationship in the

second option it's an incorrect linkage

the second option was incorrect and

before I move to the next strategy let

me remind you if you're finding the

information useful this is my YouTube

Studio analytics as you can see most of

my regular viewers have not yet

subscribed to the channel so if you are

a cad aspirant or an MBA aspirant

finding the information useful I will

definitely urge you to consider

subscribing to the channel it's

obviously free for you but definitely

helps me a lot and will also help you

stay updated so thank you for

considering it and let's move ahead the

fourth strategy is to info as little as

possible and what I mean with this is

you need to restrict your knowledge to

whatever is mentioned in the passage

there might be the passage might be on a

topic where you know a lot of external

things but you cannot assume those facts

your knowledge is whatever your

knowledge by solving the question is

whatever is mentioned in the passage

I'll give you a very simple example for

this suppose you know a lot about

cricket and there's a passage on Cricket

and you know say white ball gives an one

additional run however if it is not

mentioned in the passage you cannot

assume that the white ball will give one

additional run if it is mentioned in any

of the options you need to eliminate

that because it's an alien concept it's

a external concept that's not mentioned

in the passage so you cannot assume that

and while eliminating these options is

quite easy however what what happens is

sometimes a paper Setter includes such

an obvious fact that you tend that

students tend to overlook that it was

never mentioned in the passage usually

the paper Setter will use this trick

with very obvious facts with very

factual things that students will not

even go back to the passage and think

that oh this was never mentioned over

there and tend to overlook such a simple

thing and it might be just one line in

an option that's why you need to be

careful about this particular thing

because the paper Setter might try to

trick you through very obvious facts the

next strategy is to avoid Broad and

narrow concept Concepts here what the

author or the paper Setter will

basically try to do is sometimes try to

broaden the scope of the option or

narrow down the scope of the option and

both of those will be incorrect here I

can see like let's use an example there

was a passage on higher education and

there was a question which of the best

which of the following options best

describes the passage and there were two

options over here so the two options

were the passage discusses the role of

Education in shaping the society and

improving the standard of living and the

second option was the passage argues

that increasing enrollment in stem

programs will improve global technology

sectors and here both the options were

incorrect because as I told the passage

talks about higher education and the

first option talks about education in

general that's why the use of word hire

would have made this option correct

however because it's mentioned education

it can mean anything K12 higher

education everything is included so it's

a broad concept it's a broad option

that's why it was incorrect and the

second one you can see it specifically

talks about stem while it is in white

obviously it is correct option while

factually it is correct and along with

stem a lot of other fields were also

mentioned however since we are talking

about higher education and not only stem

field that's why this option was

incorrect because it's a narrow concept

along with Sim there might be other

fields as well and that's why this

option also became Incorrect and that is

what we mean by Broad and narrow concept

the next strategy is what I call the

majority approach and usually this kind

of an approach is used for what is the

main idea of the passage these kind of

questions what happens is all the

options will be correct however there

would be one option which will cover

more ideas presented in the passes

compared to the rest of the options the

rest of the options will be correct but

will possibly cover the idea of just one

particular paragraph or just two or

three particular paragraphs however

there will be an option which will cover

more ideas additional ideas compared to

the other options so the option that

covers more ideas majority of the ideas

that will be the correct option so let's

share an example with with you to make

this clear the central argument of the

passage is military and Civil Society

share a symbiotic relationship yes it

was mentioned in the passage they do

share a symbiotic relationship the

second one was military establishments

are shaped by the culture of the society

they serve yes it was mentioned in one

of the paragraphs that yes they are

shaped by the society that they serve

the third one societal attitudes and

Military policies influence and rely on

each other for a vibrant society and

here you can see this is basically

saying that both military and civil

societies rely on each other basically

share a sympotic relationship what was

covered in the first paragraph and also

that they rely on each other the second

option you can see it was mentioned that

military establishments are affected by

Society however the opposite was true as

well which was not covered in the second

paragraph so you can see over here the

third one which covers majority of the

ideas that yes they do share a symbiotic

relationship that yes both of them yes

are dependent or shared by each other so

that is the correct option because it

covers majority of the points the first

two options were also factually correct

were mentioned in specific paragraphs

however because here we are talking

about the central argument in the

passage we will choose the third option

because it covers majority of the points

mentioned in the passage the next

strategy is what I call irrelevant so

here the option that is being mentioned

the paper Setter will completely put

that option as factually correct option

however that will be completely

irrelevant to the question that is being

asked here the question would be

something like why does the author say

this particular thing or what does the

author mean in this particular paragraph

and here when you see the options one of

them will definitely be factually

correct however it will be totally

irrelevant to what is the question being

asked and here I don't think I need to

share any example with you especially

because usually these kind of questions

are very easy students are smart enough

to figure out that the option is totally

irrelevant similar to anything which is

false as well anything which is

factually incorrect in the option

students are smart enough to understand

it from the passage and eliminate those

options and usually I would feel that

irrelevant and false options are the

easiest to eliminate and the last

strategy is for the most difficult

questions what I call compare and

justify and you will only use this

strategy when all the other options have

failed because this will take you a lot

of time as well so what I do in compare

and justify it will happen often that

you will be confused between two options

so confus that everything in in those

two options looks absolutely correct

what you need to do here is read both

the options simultaneously compare each

and every word of both the options and

also try to justify each and every word

of both options given in The Passage

through the passage basically you need

to justify each and every word of the

options most likely you will find some

hint that one of the options can be

eliminated either through comparison or

through justification using the passage

you will find a hint that you can

eliminate one of the option but

definitely this is for the most

difficult questions once you reach a

stage I hope in none of the questions

you have to use this last strategy where

you are simultaneously reading both the

options comparing and justify ing each

and every word of both the options but

it can happen usually you should take

the strategy only when you have a lot of

time to attempt your verbal paper mostly

these kind of questions you can either

skip it come back to these questions

later compare justify take your time

Mark the right option hope you would

have noted down these strategies and

remember just noting down these

strategies or just watching this video

is not going to help you now you need to

go back and practice RC's you need to

practice hundreds of RC's eliminate

options using these strategies only then

you will will be able to perfect the art

otherwise these questions these patterns

do not mean anything so make sure you

practice these all the best for your cat

exam see you in the next video