RankHighCompetitive Exam Prep

NYPD Written Comprehension Questions

One of the nine abilities DCAS scores, and the one candidates most often prepare for by accident — it is not general reading practice, and it is not the same ability as written expression, which this examination scores separately.

Reading and writing are two abilities here, not one

The Notice of Examination lists written comprehension and written expression as separate abilities. Comprehension is taking meaning off a page somebody else wrote; expression is choosing the sentence that puts a fact down clearly. A candidate can be strong at one and weak at the other, and preparation that treats them as a single “verbal” topic never finds out which.

That split matters more on this examination than on most, because there are nine abilities and no published weighting, so there is no section a candidate can afford to write off.

Why a sensible answer is so often wrong

Only what the passage says counts. An option can be entirely true about policing, about New York, or about the world, and still be wrong here, because nothing in front of you supports it. Candidates with real knowledge of a subject lose more of these than candidates without it — the knowledge supplies an answer the passage never did.

  • An option that adds a fact from outside the passage, however reasonable.
  • An option that swaps a cause for its effect, or what usually happens for what did.
  • An option that borrows a genuine detail and attaches it to the wrong person, place or time.
  • An option that hardens a qualifier — a passage saying a measure often works does not support one saying it always does.

The habit that fixes it

Before selecting, put a finger on the words that make the option right. If there is nothing to point at, it is not the answer, however well it reads. That single test is worth more than any amount of reading speed, and it is the one that survives the pressure of a timed exam.

How RankHigh practices it

The passages here are written for this product rather than drawn from released material, and every explanation names the words in the passage that decide the item — so a wrong answer tells you which of the four misreadings above you made, rather than only that you missed it.

Sources

Related guides