Reading the passage
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Most questions in GAMSAT Section I involve text passages. The longest text passage in the official GAMSAT practice tests is nearly 600 words, and some Section I sets have two passages with a total of 500 to 650 words. Some passages on Test Day may be very long indeed.
In the official practice materials, the average Section I set includes passage text of 267 words – whether in a single passage or multiple passages. This length is more manageable, but it’s still a lot to read if you consider that Section I is likely to have a total of 13 to 17 sets on Test Day.
Some sets may have a cartoon, diagram or visual data, but most sets will have text passages. Adding it all up, there will be a lot to read, and you may find it difficult to complete Section I if you try to read all the text passages in full at your normal reading pace.
This is where strategy comes in. Remember a key point about GAMSAT Section I: the marks come from the questions, not the passages. You get a mark for each correct answer. You don’t lose marks for incorrect answers. You don’t gain or lose marks for reading the passages.
Consider your approach to reading the passages. You may vary this approach depending on the passage type and the time remaining. For example, you may need to use a quicker reading strategy if time is running out.
You can use these reading strategies to focus your attention on the questions and control your pacing as you build towards a higher score in Section I.
This approach may seem counterintuitive, but you may find there are passage types where it works best to simply not read the passage. Instead, start with the first question. Read the question stem, then go to the passage to find support or eliminate wrong answers.
Not reading the passage allows you to focus on the questions. Find what is needed for each question, click your answer, then move on to the next question.
Most questions include a hyperlink or other contextualising reference (e.g. ‘in the second paragraph’), so you will be signposted to the relevant part of the text passage. Then, simply read a little before and a little after the highlighted text for context. In most cases, this will be sufficient to find the support for the correct answer.
In rarer cases, you may need to read a bit further away – for example, if the highlight is in the first sentence of a paragraph, the support for the correct answer may come in the last sentence of the preceding paragraph. But even in that example, the support will still be relatively close to the contextual reference in the question stem.
Not reading the passage works well since virtually all the questions are given in passage order – the part of the passage supporting the correct answer to the first question will come before the part of the passage supporting the answer to the second question, and so on.
The only exception to this is Global questions – those that ask about the passage as a whole – which tend to come at the beginning or end of a set. If the first question is a Global question, skip it and save it for last in the set.
Not reading the passage tends to work well with short, simple passages or sets with a small number of questions:
- cartoons
- proverbs
- quotations
These passages include minimal text, so you should read the question before even considering the passage. The question will guide you to what you need for the answer.
Not reading the passage is particularly useful if the text is somewhat long, but the set only has three or fewer questions.
You can see the number of questions in the set at the note near the top (e.g. ‘There are 3 questions in this unit.’).
Not reading the passage also works well with Data and Diagram sets. If the passage is an illustration or visual data, there will be relatively little to read in the sense of a conventional text passage.
Consider not reading the passage for Non-fiction sets.
If a text passage is particularly long, there is less value in reading it in full – most of a long passage will not be used to support the correct answers for any questions.
If a passage involves a familiar topic, take confidence in your ability to work through the questions one at a time, jumping into the passage to find support or eliminate answers. The more you develop this skill, the more you can apply it to a wider range of text passages in Section I.
Paradoxically, not reading the passage can also work well when a passage is extremely unfamiliar or has very dense ideas and language. If the passage is exceptionally hard to read, you will get very limited payoff from investing time in trying to read it in detail. Even with your best efforts, it may remain impenetrable. Then, you will still have to attack the questions one at a time, going back to the passage to find support – after having wasted several minutes trying to read it.
If a passage seems extremely unfamiliar or dense, it’s a great candidate for not reading. Work the questions one at a time and do your best to find support. The context clues in the question stems will guide you to the relevant part of the passage. It may be quicker to eliminate the answers that are not supported or that contradict the passage.
Not reading the passage is essential when you are running out of time. Ideally, you will have excellent pacing on Test Day. However, despite careful revision and best efforts, things can go wrong on the day.
Even if you are running just a bit behind in the final 8 or 10 questions, you can really start to feel the pressure. Work from the questions and jump into the relevant part of the passage, one question at a time, trying to ‘zero in’ on support for the correct answer or eliminate the answers that do not seem relevant. This approach might just be sufficient to pick up some marks in questions that you might otherwise have got wrong or – worse – left unanswered.
Skimming the passage involves reading the passage with a quick, targeted approach. Read the passage selectively with a focus on main ideas, skipping any aspects of the passage that could slow you down.
If you skim the passage, allow 1 minute per passage. At first, this will feel awfully fast. Practise your skimming skills so you can become adept at picking out the key points and getting the general gist of what the author is saying.
Avoid getting bogged down in the details when you skim the passage. If the author launches into an example, skip the sentences that cover the example.
You will still need to come back to the passage for each question when you skim the passage. You are not reading for total understanding. You are unlikely to retain enough specifics to answer most questions without returning to the passage.
However, you will build up your basic understanding and might know enough to answer a Global question. In most cases, you will be returning to the passage to find the specific support for the correct answer or to eliminate the wrong answers.
Skimming the passage requires rigorous pacing. Do not let it devolve into a luxurious deep read – you simply haven’t got time for that.
With practice, skimming the passage can be a very useful weapon in your GAMSAT Test Day arsenal.
Skimming the passage tends to work well with short to medium-length Non-fiction passages.
This is a judgement call – some students will prefer to use the ‘not reading’ strategy on Non-fiction passages.
If the passage is roughly 200 to 400 words, you could reasonably skim-read it in a minute or less and develop a fairly decent understanding of the author’s main idea and some of the related points.
Skimming also works well with Fiction passages. Again, this is a judgement call – some students will prefer to read Fiction passages in full. But with a bit of practice, you may find that it works well to allow just a minute to skim a Fiction passage.
This should be sufficient to get a very basic sense of the characters and the situation. You might also try to grasp the general emotional state of the characters or the tenor of the passage, for example:
- Something bad just happened.
- Something changes in the passage.
You are skimming for a very general impression – you will come back to the passage for the specifics as you work through each question.
Skimming works well with Poetry sets that include multiple poems. These sets tend to include three or four poems by different authors on the same theme. The passage can be quite long, so skim the poems quite quickly – remember, it’s 1 minute for the whole passage, not 1 minute per poem.
This will give you only a very general impression of each poem, but it will help to have that very basic familiarity before you come along to the questions.
The questions in these multi-poem sets tend to be a bit more straightforward than those in the sets with a single poem, so skimming the poems may be sufficient.
Consider skimming as your general or ‘default’ approach to most passages, regardless of type or topic. As you practise GAMSAT Section I questions, try each reading strategy and decide which works best for each passage type.
Most GAMSAT test-takers will prefer to use either the skimming strategy or the ‘not reading’ strategy for the vast majority of passages, switching to one of the other strategies as needed.
Working out your preferred default approach will help build your confidence and speed in Section I. It will allow you to use your reading strategy as second nature – following it instinctively – which will help to improve pacing and save time on Test Day.
Set aside more time to read the passage in more detail when you want to study the passage.
This is similar to skimming the passage. But when you study the passage, you have an extra minute to linger on the details and draw out more of what the author is saying.
Studying the passage is much slower than skimming, but do not allow it to become too slow or you will run out of time. Allow 2 minutes per set if you are studying the passage.
This is still a fairly aggressive pace – you would not read a dense academic text this quickly – but keep moving even when taking time to study a passage in more detail.
You will come back to the passage for support as you work through the questions. Allow sufficient time for this part of the process. But studying the passage will let you build your familiarity with the passage before you attack the questions.
Initially, you may feel it’s best to study every passage. However, most students will not prefer to study every passage as this requires incredibly tight pacing for answering the questions. You are more likely to find it works best to study some passages whilst using the other reading strategies for the majority of sets in Section I.
Studying the passage tends to work well with longer Opinion passages.
Some Opinion passages are quite long, with seven to nine numbered comments, each consisting of a paragraph. The questions will ask you to analyse or compare these comments, so you need a good grasp of them in order to answer the questions.
Studying the passage also works well with Poetry sets with a single poem. In the official GAMSAT practice materials, there are a few Poetry sets with a single poem. The questions in these sets are incredibly challenging, due in part to the density of imagery and metaphor in the poems.
If a Poetry set includes a single poem, you may find it helps to study the poem. This will improve your grasp of the poem, although of course you will still need to return to the poem repeatedly as you answer the questions.
Consider studying the passage in Non-fiction or Fiction sets where you might otherwise struggle. It’s okay to find some of the passages quite difficult. In such circumstances, many students will be inclined to study the passage rather than using another reading strategy.
Try this approach as you practise and reflect on how well it works for you. It may help to narrow the instances where you study the passage to a few particular cases. This will mean skimming or not reading passages more frequently, even some passages that you may have initially thought you would prefer to study.
Even so, on Test Day, you should have time to study a few of the passages – use this reading strategy as needed to build your confidence and maximise your marks in Section I.
Once you come along to the highlight, you know to look for the support for the correct answer in that part of the passage – or to use that part of the passage to eliminate the incorrect answers.
Read the next question before you resume reading the passage. Use the same approach as for the first question. Answer the next question once you come to the part of the passage with support. Let the context clues from the question stem guide you to this part of the passage.
Repeat this approach with the remaining questions. With these tips, you can use the skimming or studying strategies to your ultimate benefit, locking in marks on the questions as you read the passage.