The OAT consists of many sections, and some can be more challenging than others. Particularly, the reading comprehension section is one that students find more challenging to achieve a good score. This section requires you to read three passages that are about 10-12 paragraphs long and answer 50 multiple-choice questions in 60 minutes. Each passage will pertain to a different scientific topic. Although no outside knowledge is required to successfully complete this section, being familiar with the writing style and vocabulary can help improve your speed and score. It is also important to keep in mind that not all the passages are equal in length. Likewise, the questions can vary in length and difficulty. This means that some questions may require more time and it’s important to filter out the easy ones by doing them in the beginning. This section tests your ability to read, comprehend and analyze the information provided. I will share some tips and strategies to help you conquer this section on the OAT and achieve a good score. To learn more information about what a good score is, click here to view our article on it.
📖 Best Study Material
It can be difficult to find practice material for this section. Fortunately, OATBooster has created everything you need to prepare for the OAT, including a reading comprehension video series, 20+ extra reading passages, and 10+ reading comprehension practice tests. You can find these on the Reading Comprehension page of the OATBooster website.
🔎 7 Types of OAT Questions
The OAT's reading comprehension section contains seven questions that examine your ability to comprehend and analyze information. Knowing how to identify the question type will allow you to know how to strategically answer the questions more efficiently and avoid choosing the wrong answers.
🧠 Methods to Tackle This Section
Below are some various methods you can use to approach the Reading Comprehension section of the OAT.
✏️ General Tips
Improving reading speed: If reading is not one of your strong suits, it can be helpful to read through journals from a variety of publications or magazines. Reading 1-2 journals every day can improve your reading speed and ability to comprehend scientific passages. This will allow you to become familiar with the writing styles and also allow you to train your brain to retain key points from the article.
Practice tests: It is important that you do as many practice tests as you can. Doing multiple tests will allow you to see whether your method of choice is working effectively or if any changes need to be made. It will also allow you to become more comfortable with your strategy. With each attempt, your scores should be increasing, if not, it is important to take a step back and re-evaluate what is going wrong or try a new method. Moreover, it is important that you practice doing tests online so you become familiar with the online format, highlight feature, scrolling the passage and clicking through each question as the questions only appear on the screen one at a time.
Time management: Three passages, 60 minutes and 50 questions. This can seem like a lot, so let’s break it down. Each passage typically has about 16-18 questions, giving you about 20 minutes per passage. However, having a few extra minutes at the end is nice to review and answer anything you may have missed. Typically, you want to spend more time answering the questions than reading the passage. It’s important to note that this is a general guideline, as some passages and questions may be longer and require more time than others.
👉 Conclusion
The key to conquering this section is having a strategy that works best for you. Therefore, it’s important that you try out the different methods to see which one will help you ace this section. An effective strategy will make all the difference, so once you find something that works, stick to it and do as many practice tests as you can to refine it. You will see your scores improving with more practice and this is the best way to improve your score for this section. Hope these tips and guidelines help you conquer the reading comprehension section of the OAT!
For more information on the OAT, feel free to read our other articles on the following topics: How to Study for the OAT, How Is the OAT Scored, What Is a Good OAT Score, When to Reschedule Your OAT, and Retaking the OAT.