The Praxis Reading test evaluates a candidate’s ability to understand, interpret, and critique written content. The materials may include single-sentence statements, short texts around 100 words, and more extensive excerpts of roughly 200 words. These readings are drawn from a variety of topics and sources.
After each reading selection or sentence, you’ll need to answer multiple questions that assess how well you grasp the content and whether you can form reasoned judgments based on the information presented.
The questions generally fall into two key types:
- Basic Understanding
These questions focus on identifying the central and supporting points within the text, understanding how the information is structured, and interpreting any vocabulary used. - Analytical and Interpretive Understanding
This category targets your ability to think critically about the reading. You’ll evaluate arguments, consider how specific details are used, infer meaning beyond what’s stated, and determine how ideas might apply in new or related situations.
Strategy 1: Skimming the Passage
There’s ongoing debate among test-takers about whether it’s better to review the questions before reading the passage or to read the passage first. One school of thought argues that scanning the questions beforehand can help you focus on relevant details. Another suggests that reading the entire passage first gives you essential context before diving into the questions. Each method has its strengths, and the best choice often depends on your reading habits and proficiency.
Our recommended method is a blend of both approaches—what we call the “skim-through.” At minimum, give the passage a brief read to orient yourself to its structure and main idea. This will prepare you for the questions without overwhelming you with too many specifics that might be forgotten by the time you answer.
Instead of reading every detail, skim through the passage to get a broad sense of the topic, tone, and direction. Think of it as a quick flyby—you’re not diving deep but gathering enough information to navigate the questions more efficiently.
This approach strikes a balance between the two major strategies, helping you understand the overall context while still managing your time wisely.
Strategy 2: Forming a Quick Mental Outline
After quickly reviewing the passage, pause for a moment to mentally organize what you’ve read into a brief summary.
Try to identify how the key points are structured so you can mentally map out the overall idea. Remember, the purpose of your initial skim isn’t just to check off a box—it should guide your understanding. Having a clear goal—like forming a short mental outline—can help you stay engaged with the passage instead of just reading without absorbing anything.
As you work through the questions, this mental outline can help you eliminate answers that clearly don’t align with the main ideas you’ve identified. Over time, with practice, you’ll get better at spotting inconsistencies between answer choices and your summary.
However, if you eliminate all the options and none seem right, it’s a sign that you may have ruled out the correct one by mistake. Don’t hesitate to revisit answer choices you previously dismissed. Even if an option appears to conflict with your initial interpretation, it’s worth giving it another look—your first impression might not always be completely accurate.
Strategy 3: Focus on Beginnings and Conclusions
During your quick read-through, give special attention to the first and last sentences of each paragraph. These lines often introduce and wrap up the main ideas, so mentally flag them as reference points. This will help you get a general sense of what each paragraph discusses, making it easier to locate information when answering questions later.
However, avoid the temptation to rely solely on your initial impressions when answering questions. Memory can be unreliable, and test creators may intentionally design questions to mislead you. That’s why it’s always a good idea to revisit the passage and verify your answer before finalizing it. Remember, the exam is meant to challenge you—so don’t assume it’s working in your favor.
Strategy 4: Recognizing Question Categories
As mentioned earlier, the reading section includes two main types of questions: Literal Comprehension and Critical and Inferential Comprehension. These broad categories can be broken down into more specific subtypes:
- Literal Comprehension includes questions about central ideas, supporting details, text structure, and vocabulary usage.
- Critical and Inferential Comprehension involves evaluating arguments, making inferences, and drawing broader conclusions or generalizations.
Understanding the breakdown of these question types can work to your advantage. When you encounter a question that seems complex, identifying which category it belongs to can instantly make it feel more manageable. More importantly, recognizing the type of question allows you to adapt your approach—whether that means going back to the passage to locate a specific fact or taking time to think critically about the author’s message.
By matching your strategy to the question type, you improve both your accuracy and efficiency on the test.
Strategy 5: Applying Everyday Logic
When you’re asked to determine the main idea of a passage, begin by focusing on the introduction and conclusion of the entire text, as well as the opening and closing lines of each paragraph. These areas usually offer clues about the central message.
If the main idea still isn’t clear, imagine explaining the passage to someone who hasn’t read it. What everyday language would you use to sum it up? What points would you highlight to help them understand it easily?
This is where “Everyday Logic”—or what we call Kitchen Logic—comes into play. It means breaking down the text in a casual, conversational way, just like you would if you were talking at the kitchen table with a friend or family member. When a passage feels complex, set it aside for a moment and try to reframe it using plain, straightforward language. This approach often makes identifying the main point much easier.
Strategy 6: Thinking Like the Author
Stepping into the author’s mindset can make it easier to understand the passage and respond to related questions. Try asking yourself a few reflective questions:
- “What motivated the author to write this?”
- “What message or idea is the author trying to communicate?”
- “What tone or point of view is being presented?”
Imagine for a moment that you wrote the passage. What would you have been trying to express, and how would you have chosen to present it?
By aligning yourself with the author’s intent and perspective, you’ll find it easier to interpret questions that rely on understanding the purpose, tone, or message. Essentially, if you can think like the author, you’ll be better equipped to respond as they would—especially on questions that depend on the author’s reasoning or attitude.
Strategy 7: Identifying Emotional Language
Questions often focus on different perspectives expressed in the passage, especially the author’s feelings. When asked about the author’s attitude, look for adjectives that convey emotions.
Scan the passage for words that show whether the author’s tone is positive or negative. For example, do you see words like brilliant, enthusiastic, or delightful? Or are there terms like depressing, dismal, or disappointing?
Many questions about mood or attitude can be answered just by highlighting or circling the adjectives in the passage. You often won’t need to look beyond these emotional descriptors.
Another helpful method is to list the answer choices in order from the most negative to the most positive tone. This helps you compare options clearly and avoid missing the best answer.
Example:
Question: The author’s attitude toward this topic is best described as:
A. indignation
B. eagerness
C. impartiality
D. fear
E. consent
Ordering from most negative to most positive:
(-) indignation, fear, impartiality, consent, eagerness (+)
This ranking technique helps you organize the choices and prevent careless mistakes.
Strategy 8: Identifying Key Words
Locating “clue” words isn’t just useful for attitude-based questions—it’s also essential for answering detail-oriented ones. These key words serve as guideposts, pointing you toward the part of the passage where the answer is most likely found.
Rather than relying on your memory of what the passage said, it’s always best to refer back to the text directly. But rereading the entire passage can waste valuable time. To be more efficient, focus on words in the question or answer choices—especially specific nouns and verbs—that stand out and are likely to be found in the passage.
Once you’ve spotted potential key words, skim the passage quickly for matches or synonyms of those terms. When you locate a section containing the key word or a related term, you’ve likely found the spot that holds the answer—or at least offers helpful context.
That said, be careful: test writers often include exact words from the passage in incorrect answer choices to mislead you. Just because an answer echoes the language of the passage doesn’t make it correct. Always double-check how the word is used in context to avoid falling for a trick answer.
In short, connecting the question to specific words in the passage can help you zero in on the relevant section and make a confident, well-supported answer choice.
Strategy 9: Drawing Accurate Inferences
When faced with questions that require you to make inferences, you’ll need to rely on your judgment rather than explicit statements. Inferences are not directly stated facts; instead, they are conclusions you reach based on the overall meaning and purpose of the passage.
To answer these questions correctly, it’s essential to fully understand the main idea the author is conveying. Inference questions ask you to go beyond what is plainly written and determine what the passage implies or hints at.
Your goal is to identify conclusions that logically follow from the author’s words—not just restate what is clearly expressed. You’re essentially reading between the lines to understand deeper meanings.
Strategy 10: Making Generalizations
Like inference questions, generalization questions ask you to think beyond what the author explicitly states. It helps to imagine yourself as the author again. Consider how you might react in a similar situation if you truly believed the points you made in the passage.
Ask yourself: What factors could strengthen or weaken your argument? How might the ideas you’ve presented apply in a different context or scenario?
This approach allows you to extend the author’s message to new situations, which is the key to successfully answering generalization questions.
Strategy 11: Using Context Clues to Understand Vocabulary
Context clues are a valuable way to figure out the meaning of difficult words or phrases within a passage. The test will often ask about the meaning of certain words based on how they’re used in the text.
A common mistake is to rely solely on your prior knowledge or the most familiar definition of a word. However, test writers may use a word in an unusual or less common way. To avoid confusion, always return to the passage and examine how the word is actually used.
After choosing a definition from the answer options, reread the sentence or passage section, mentally replacing the word in question with your chosen meaning. This helps verify whether the word fits naturally in context.
Example:
The passage says: “He was notorious for making decisions on the spur of the moment…”
Question: Which word, if swapped for “notorious,” would change the sentence’s meaning the least?
A. evil
B. disturbed
C. famous
D. despised
E. powerful
You might initially pick A, “evil,” since “notorious” often means famous for something bad. But reading the sentence with choice C:
“He was famous for making decisions on the spur of the moment…”
makes better sense here and fits the context, so C is the correct choice.
Strategy 12: Analyzing Passage Structure
Sometimes, questions will ask about how a passage is organized to better understand the author’s viewpoint. A good way to answer these is by examining how the opening sentence relates to the rest of the paragraph or passage. Consider how the author builds the main idea with supporting statements.
When evaluating each answer choice, test it against the passage to confirm it truly matches the organization used by the author.
Example:
Question: Which of the following best describes how the author organizes the discussion on this topic?
A. Provides an example — Ask yourself, is there a clear example in the passage? Don’t rely just on memory; go back and verify the example exists.
B. Makes a comparison — Look for a comparison in the passage. Confirm it’s actually present before choosing this option.
C. Makes an acknowledgement — Identify where the author acknowledges something and to whom it is directed.
D. Discusses a theory — Determine which theory is explained and how it fits into the passage.
E. Praises the research — Find where the author expresses approval or praise for the research.
After considering these points, remember that an answer must do more than just state a fact—it needs to reflect the main way the passage is organized. For instance, just because the author gives an example doesn’t automatically mean option A is correct. That example could be part of a larger comparison, which might be the real organizing principle. Always review all choices carefully and select the one that best captures the passage’s overall structure—not just one that’s factually true.
Strategy 13: Analyzing the First Words of Answer Choices
A quick way to tackle questions about the main idea or the author’s purpose is to focus on the opening words of each answer option. Try to judge the fit by just reading those first words before considering the rest of the answer.
Example:
Question: Which option best captures the author’s main purpose?
A. dispute…
B. describe…
C. condemn…
D. convince…
E. criticize…
If you recognize that the passage is mostly neutral, you can likely eliminate the stronger, more emotional verbs like dispute, condemn, convince, and criticize right away. This leaves you with describe (choice B), which is probably the correct answer.
Strategy 14: Handling the Intimidation Factor
Most passages chosen by test creators will likely be unfamiliar to the majority of test takers. Don’t expect to encounter topics you already know well. Consider it a bonus if you happen to recognize the subject, but don’t rely on that.
Often, the passages are excerpts taken from longer texts like books, journals, or articles. Because of this, the passage might seem to begin abruptly, in the middle of a thought, without a clear title or introduction to the main idea. Instead of an engaging overview, you’ll jump straight into an unfamiliar piece of writing.
Moreover, even if the original source was interesting, the selected section for the test might feel dry or dull. Facing unfamiliar and seemingly boring topics can be intimidating if you’re unprepared, especially since you’re seeing only a small part of the original work.
Remember, you don’t need any previous knowledge of the topic to do well on the test. Everything you need to answer the questions will be included within the passage itself.
Strategy 15: Discovering Your Best Reading Speed
Everyone reads at a different speed. To perform well, you need to find a pace that lets you read quickly yet still understand and remember the information. This applies both to your initial quick scan (the flyover) and the more careful reading you do when answering questions. During the flyover, you’re not trying to grasp every detail—just a basic understanding.
You can practice with any kind of reading material. After reading something at your normal speed, test your understanding by asking yourself questions about it. Then try reading faster or slower, and see how well you comprehend. The goal is to train your brain to absorb information efficiently.
With practice, you’ll learn how fast you should move through the passages on test day. Aim for a comfortable speed—not too fast, not too slow. This isn’t about speed reading but about pacing yourself so you have enough time to read all sections and answer the questions.
Avoid two extremes: panicking and rushing back and forth without understanding, or reading so slowly you’re stuck on each word. Instead, find a steady, focused pace that lets you read carefully enough to understand and answer well.
Remember, you want to maximize comprehension for the time you have, not memorize every word. If you spent hours on each passage, your understanding would be perfect, but the test doesn’t allow that. With practice, you’ll find your ideal balance between speed and understanding.
Strategy 16: Avoid Being a Perfectionist
This strategy can be tough, especially if you tend to be a perfectionist, but it’s one of the most important. Because the test is timed, you simply can’t afford to spend too long on any single question.
Sometimes, you might find yourself stuck between two answer choices, unsure which is correct. You might feel that if you just gave yourself a little more time to reread the passage, you’d make the right choice. Be careful here! It’s easy to get caught up in that one question, lose track of time, and fall behind on the rest of the test. This often leads to feeling tired and stressed, which can cause you to miss even more questions later.
Remember, only about 1% of test takers achieve a perfect score, so don’t expect to get every single question right. It’s better to move on once you’ve made your best guess and keep a steady pace, rather than spending too long trying to be absolutely certain. This way, you’ll have time to answer all questions and improve your overall score, even if it means guessing on a few.
Strategy 17: Factually Correct Doesn’t Always Mean Correct
Test writers often include answer choices that are true statements but don’t actually answer the question being asked. These options can be tricky because they seem correct at first glance but are actually wrong in context.
If you see an answer that looks factually accurate, pause and double-check the question. Make sure the choice directly responds to what the question wants before selecting it. Don’t get fooled by answers that are true but irrelevant.
Strategy 18: Identifying Different Viewpoints
Sometimes a passage will show the author’s opinion alongside those of other experts or people. This can make answering questions tricky.
If a question asks what the author thinks, don’t just assume every opinion you read is the author’s. Instead, carefully note who is expressing each viewpoint.
When multiple perspectives are presented, be sure to separate them in your mind and match each opinion to the correct speaker before answering questions.
Strategy 19: Watch Out for Extraneous Information
Sometimes answer choices look right and even contain true facts. But the problem is they might include details that aren’t actually in the passage or aren’t relevant to the question.
Don’t assume you missed something just because an answer seems correct.
Always go back to the passage and check that the answer is really supported by the text — unless you’re running out of time.
Apperture Labs 