Reading comprehension is often challenging for students due to factors like limited vocabulary, weak background knowledge, and difficulty making conne...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Reading comprehension is often challenging for students due to factors like limited vocabulary, weak background knowledge, and difficulty making connections between ideas. Educational researchers Maria Santos and David Kim from Stanford University claim that implementing structured pre-reading activities significantly improves students' comprehension and retention of complex texts.
Which finding from Santos and Kim's research, if true, would most directly support their claim?
Students who completed pre-reading activities showed significant improvements in vocabulary but continued to struggle with making connections between ideas and demonstrated no improvement in background knowledge activation.
Students who completed pre-reading activities demonstrated significant improvements in background knowledge activation and connection-making, and also showed marked increases in vocabulary retention during reading.
When students completed pre-reading activities, researchers observed increased engagement with two specific strategies, semantic mapping and prediction techniques, that are theorized to enhance text processing.
Both students who completed pre-reading activities and those who did not showed significant improvements in vocabulary after reading complex texts multiple times.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Create Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Reading comprehension is often challenging for students due to factors like limited vocabulary, weak background knowledge, and difficulty making connections between ideas." |
|
| "Educational researchers Maria Santos and David Kim from Stanford University claim that implementing structured pre-reading activities significantly improves students' comprehension and retention of complex texts." |
|
Part B: Provide Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Visual Structure Map:
[PROBLEM CONTEXT] Reading comprehension challenges: vocab, background knowledge, connections → [PROPOSED SOLUTION] Santos & Kim's claim: Pre-reading activities improve comprehension & retention
Main Point:
Santos and Kim believe that structured pre-reading activities can significantly improve how well students understand and remember complex texts.
Argument Flow:
The passage first establishes why reading comprehension is difficult (three specific factors), then presents Santos and Kim's claim that pre-reading activities can address these challenges by improving overall comprehension and retention.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The correct answer should show that students who did pre-reading activities performed better than those who didn't
- Ideally, it should demonstrate improvements in the specific areas that make reading comprehension challenging - vocabulary, background knowledge, and making connections
- Since Santos and Kim claim these activities improve "comprehension and retention," the strongest evidence would show gains in these exact areas
Students who completed pre-reading activities showed significant improvements in vocabulary but continued to struggle with making connections between ideas and demonstrated no improvement in background knowledge activation.
✗ Incorrect
- Shows vocabulary improvement but explicitly states no improvement in background knowledge and continued struggles with connections
- Only addresses one of the three comprehension challenges mentioned
Students who completed pre-reading activities demonstrated significant improvements in background knowledge activation and connection-making, and also showed marked increases in vocabulary retention during reading.
✓ Correct
- Shows improvements in background knowledge activation AND connection-making (two key problem areas)
- Also demonstrates vocabulary retention gains during reading
- Directly addresses all three factors that make comprehension challenging
When students completed pre-reading activities, researchers observed increased engagement with two specific strategies, semantic mapping and prediction techniques, that are theorized to enhance text processing.
✗ Incorrect
- Only shows increased engagement with specific strategies, not actual improvement outcomes
- Focuses on process rather than results - we need evidence of better comprehension, not just more activity
Both students who completed pre-reading activities and those who did not showed significant improvements in vocabulary after reading complex texts multiple times.
✗ Incorrect
- Shows both groups (with and without pre-reading activities) improved equally
- Actually undermines the claim since it suggests pre-reading activities made no difference