Reading Comprehesion Study Guide for the DAT

Analysis of Passage Function

In addition to the types of questions mentioned above, you will encounter questions that ask you about things related to the function of the passage. Here are some of them.

Structure

These function questions ask how the author has organized a given part of the passage. Once again, you can use your passage outline to help navigate structure questions. These questions include having readers identify where conclusions are listed within a passage or deciphering fact from opinion.

A fact is irrefutable, while an opinion describes the author’s feelings about something. When asked to decide whether something is fact or opinion, find where the author references the topic in the passage and determine from context clues the identity of the statement. Facts will describe generally acknowledged truths, while opinions will be described using keywords like seems and understanding.

Evaluation

An evaluation question will require the test taker to understand what a writer has stated and interpret why the author may have written that statement. You may be asked to determine how a certain part of the passage connects to the overall point of the article.

Using an outline of the passage made during your first read-through, first find the paragraph where the question is discussed. From there, you will be asked to analyze how the statement applies to the overall purpose of the passage. Sometimes, test takers are asked to identify the purpose or connections of a whole paragraph in the passage.

Identifying why an author chose a specific word is a frequently seen question type on the DAT. You must first find where in the passage that word was used and then use context clues or prior knowledge of the definition to understand the author’s intent when including the given word or phrase.

Relationship

Relationship questions will ask test takers to take a given statement and reasoning and determine if they are correct and/or related and how they correspond with the passage’s message as a whole.

The answer choices for relationship questions are always the same:

A. Both the statement and the reason are correct and related.
B. Both the statement and the reason are correct but NOT related.
C. The statement is correct, but the reason is NOT.
D. The statement is NOT correct, but the reason is correct.

Relationship questions require you to recall the overall message discussed in the passage and determine if, based on the information presented, the statement is true and the reasoning is true. From there, you will need to determine if the reason and the statement are related.

Inference

Inference questions will test your ability to understand what is discussed in the passage and make conclusions that are not explicitly stated in the passage. It requires a higher-order level of thinking to take clues in the passage and make an informed conclusion based on the ideas mentioned.

Sometimes, you will see a question asking you to define a given vocabulary word based on context clues presented in the given passage. In these types of questions, it is important not to give the general definition of the word, but instead to give the definition of the word as it is used in the passage.

Tone

Tone is a challenging question type compared to others in this section of the DAT because the correct answer will not be found verbatim in the passage like some other answers. The tone will, however, be very heavily expressed, especially through any bias apparent in the writing.

Using the example of a passage on global warming’s impacts on ecosystems in Antarctica, the article may not state that they are “upset” with the destruction caused by global warming, but it may state that the impact is terrifying, disgusting, or staggering. This should clue the reader in to the feelings of the author.

The tone of a passage is the author’s bias or the overall character or attitude presented in the writing of a piece of literature. It may be positive or negative in nature and can closely follow the main purpose of the passage. If an author wants to persuade an audience, they may try to present a given idea in a positive or negative light to convert readers to their side.

Passage Alteration

An interesting type of question you will see in the reading comprehension section of the exam is a passage alteration question. Through various methods, you will be tested on how an outside statement relates to the passage as a whole.

Sometimes, you will be asked how a given statement relates to a concept from the passage. Additionally, you could be asked how adding a concept or statement would impact the passage’s message.

For these types of questions, it is important to consider only the information in the passage and not bring any external knowledge or biases when answering. The passage will contain all the information necessary to answer the questions.

Strengthening or Weakening

Strengthening or weakening questions will ask you to determine which statements support a given idea. This is done in several different ways. When answering whether or not a concept strengthens or weakens an argument, you will find a nearly identical statement in the passage or a nearly completely opposite statement in the passage.

One way the test will ask this type of question is to give several statements and have the test taker determine which choice best supports a given argument. In these cases, you will be asked in such a way that you will be tasked with determining which answer choice is the best support for the given idea in the passage.

Another way the test asks these types of questions is by asking what impact a given statement has on the position taken in the passage. In these types of questions, the answer choices will be whether the statement weakens, strengthens, or has no effect on the position taken in the passage.