{"id":30856,"date":"2020-01-09T02:27:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T07:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/blog\/prep\/?p=30856"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:40:12","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:40:12","slug":"oat-reading-comprehension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/oat\/oat-reading-comprehension\/","title":{"rendered":"What's Tested on OAT Reading Comprehension?"},"content":{"rendered":"

To do well on OAT Reading Comprehension on Test Day, you need to read critically and understand why the author presents certain information. Preparing for this section, therefore, is an interesting task. You won\u2019t see any lengthy calculations, and you don\u2019t need to memorize complex science concepts. Instead, the best ways to study involve learning strategies, applying them to the reading you do from now until Test Day, and completing practice passages.
\n[\u00a0RELATED:<\/strong>\u00a0Top 5 OAT Strategies<\/a> ]
\n 
\n

The Reading Comprehension Passage<\/h3>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nThe Reading Comprehension portion of the exam contains three passages consisting of approximately 14 paragraphs each. Each passage will pertain to a scientific topic. The intent of the author may be to inform, persuade, or speculate, but usually the author\u2019s tone remains roughly neutral due to the nature of the content. Subtle clues may indicate an author is for or against certain ideas, but these opinions will rarely be extreme.
\nOutside knowledge of each field is not required to answer questions correctly in this section, and the passages are meant to cover material you do not already know. Nevertheless, rough familiarity with the general vocabulary and writing style used in each field can build your confidence and speed you up on Test Day. Reading through recent editions of journals, such as the Journal of the American Optometric Association and Science, and magazines, such as National Geographic and Scientific American, will increase your familiarity with this type of material. These publications tend to have articles of a similar style to those seen on the OAT. Regardless of whether you\u2019re reading OAT passages or any other material, reading more often helps improve both your reading speed and comprehension.
\nEach of the three passages will be accompanied by 16\u201317 questions for a total of 50 questions per section<\/a>. Because you will have 60 minutes total to complete this section, allot 20 minutes per passage: up to 8 minutes for reading the passage and at least 12 minutes for answering the questions. This will give you approximately 40\u201345 seconds per question. Neither every passage nor every question should take the same amount of time due to varying difficulty and length, so use these numbers as guidelines rather than hard rules.
\n

OAT Reading<\/h3>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\nReading Comprehension questions are always about the corresponding passage. You are not necessarily looking for the answer choices that are the most factual but rather those that correspond best with the author and the passage. If you do have prior knowledge in a field, you must be careful not to apply that to the questions and instead only answer based on the information in the passage. Therefore, before you can tackle a Reading Comprehension question, you must read at least some of the corresponding passage.
\nThere are four things you really need to know about Reading Comprehension:
\n