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The main goal of the reading questions on any standardized test is to determine your understanding of different aspects of a reading passage. Basically, if you can grasp the main idea and the author's purpose and then pay attention to the details and vocabulary so that you are able to draw inferences and conclusions, you will do will on these types of tests.

Strategies for answering multiple choice questions

Here are some suggestions for taking any standardized reading test:

First, read the passage as if you were not even taking a test. Do this to get a general overview of both the topic and the tone of a passage.

Look at the big picture. In other words, examine the most obvious features of the passage. To do this ask yourself the following questions as you read: What is the title? What do you believe is the main idea of a piece of nonfiction or the theme of a piece of fiction? What do you think is the author's purpose? to inform? to entertain? to show how to do something?

Next, read the questions. This will help you to know what information to for when your re-read.

Re-read the passage. underline information that relates to the questions. This will help you when filling in the answers.

Go back to the questions. Try to answer each one in your mind before looking at the answer choices.

Finally, read all of the answer choices and eliminate those that are obviously incorrect. After this process, mark the best answer.