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The screen will split into two with the passage on the left and the questions on the right. You have constant access to the passage, but you cannot skip questions or go back.

Test Breakdown

The first passage will come after a handful of sentence correction and logical reasoning questions.

Test Difficulty
 
The GMAT is a CAT (computer-adaptive test) so the questions will begin at an intermediate skill level and adapt to your performance by changing in difficulty. Your performance on sentence correction and critical reasoning, the other two question types in Verbal, will impact your difficulty level. So, if for some reason, your skills in sentence correction are weak, but you are strong elsewhere, your reading comprehension passages will be easier than your true skill level and you should breeze through them.


Advanced Content

In general, average test takers will get about 50% right of the questions right. As result, higher scorers are effectively taking a completely different test from lower scorers and their strategies will be adjusted accordingly. This chapter has sections specifically designed to help higher scorers with the harder passages.

Pacing

Reading comprehension questions are less than a third of the verbal questions. Students can very easily get heavily bogged down on these passages and over-invest too much time in re-reading. The general guideline for reading comp pacing is:

Take 2-4 minutes to read the passage and plan 30-60 seconds per question.

Using the Test Pacer on the Reading Comprehension Section
 It is normal to slide 2 or 3 questions behind the optimal pace of what question you should be on after reading the essay (because the reading comp questions themselves are quicker than normal questions). For more information on the pacer, go to www.800score.com/pacer.html

Section 2: Strategies - The 5 Questions