RankHighCompetitive Exam Prep

Reading and writing

Reading comprehension

Reading supplied prose — a procedure, a regulation, a report — and answering from what it says rather than from prior knowledge.

Exams on RankHigh that test this

What follows is our approach, not an official rule. What each question type measures is set by the body that runs the examination. How to work one is RankHigh’s method — it is what a good tutor would tell you, and there is more than one way to be right. Where an examination publishes its own instructions, those govern on the day.

Verbal Comprehension

Tested as “Verbal Comprehension” on Firefighter, Police Officer, NYPD Police Officer, NYC School Safety Agent, CDCR Correctional Officer, NYC Correction Officer.

Reading a passage — a procedure, a regulation, a report — and understanding exactly what it says.

Where people lose it

Answering from memory of the passage instead of from the passage. Under time, candidates read once, form an impression, then answer from the impression.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. A useful approach is to read the question first, so you know what you are looking for when you go through the passage.
  2. Go back to the text for every answer. Every one.
  3. Find the sentence that settles it and put a mark next to it.
  4. If you cannot point at the sentence, you are guessing — even when it feels obvious.
  5. Beware choices that are TRUE but not stated in the passage. They are the most expensive wrong answers.

If you cannot underline it, it is not the answer.

Understanding and Interpreting Written Material — NY Local Police Captain, NY Local Police Sergeant

Tested as “Understanding and Interpreting Written Material” on NY Local Police Captain, NY Local Police Sergeant.

Answering questions about a short passage from the passage and from nothing else.

Where people lose it

Answering from what you know or from what is obviously true. An option can be entirely correct about the world and still be unsupported by the passage, and the examiner's own solution rejects one of its distractors on exactly that ground — 'nowhere in the passage does it say'.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Find the sentence that supports your answer before you commit to it. If you cannot point at one, the option is unsupported however reasonable it sounds.
  2. Watch for cause and effect being reversed. The guide's own sample rejects a choice for confusing which is the cause and which is the effect.
  3. Watch for a qualifier that has been dropped or added. 'Usually', 'generally', 'may' and 'in every case' are where a supported statement becomes an unsupported one.
  4. Where an option says 'mainly' or 'the most important', check that the passage ranks them. A passage that gives two reasons without ranking them does not support either being the main one.

The passage contains everything you need. Where an option requires you to add something, that is the wrong option.

Reading Comprehension — POST PELLETB

Tested as “Reading Comprehension” on POST PELLETB.

Answering from a passage. Everything needed to answer is printed in front of you.

Where people lose it

Answering from what you already know, or from what sounds sensible. If the passage does not say it, it is not the answer.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Read the question before you re-read the passage, so you know what you are looking for.
  2. Find the sentence that settles it and put your finger on it. If you cannot find one, you are inferring too far.
  3. Watch qualifiers — 'only', 'unless', 'more than', 'within' — they usually decide the item.
  4. Reject any option that is true in the world but absent from the passage.

If you cannot point at the line that proves it, it is not the answer.

Reading Comprehension — CDCR Correctional Sergeant

Tested as “Reading Comprehension” on CDCR Correctional Sergeant.

Drawing the conclusion a short passage actually supports, using only what the passage says.

Where people lose it

Bringing your own experience to the paragraph. You have worked in an institution and the passage has not; the option that fits what you know about prisons is very often the one the paragraph does not support.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Answer from the paragraph alone. The segment's own instruction says to use only the information provided, and several wrong options are true statements about corrections that this particular paragraph never makes.
  2. Distrust absolutes. A passage saying "often", "usually" or "may" cannot support an option saying "always", "never" or "cannot".
  3. Watch for options that RECOMMEND something. A paragraph explaining why a problem arises has not thereby proposed a fix, and a recommendation is usually a step beyond the text.
  4. Check the direction of any relationship. Reversing which of two things causes or precedes the other is the most common way a plausible option goes wrong.

Cover the options, decide what the paragraph established, then look. If an option adds a fact, it is wrong however sensible the fact is.

Reading Comprehension — LASD Deputy Sheriff Trainee

Tested as “Reading Comprehension” on LASD Deputy Sheriff Trainee.

Reading a short or medium statement and choosing which of four TITLES most closely describes what it says.

Where people lose it

Picking a title that names something the passage mentions in passing rather than what it is actually about. A statement about crowd psychology that happens to mention a riot is not titled 'How Riots Evolve'.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Ask what the statement is MOSTLY about, not what every word in it touches on.
  2. Reject a title that is true of only part of the statement — it has to cover all of it.
  3. Reject a title that is broader than the statement actually supports.
  4. When two titles both fit loosely, prefer the one that names the statement's own main subject rather than a detail inside it.

The title names what it is about, not everything it mentions.

Reading Comprehension — POST Dispatcher Battery

Tested as “Reading Comprehension” on POST Dispatcher Battery.

Answering from a supplied passage: what it says, what it means, and what follows from it.

Where people lose it

Choosing the option that repeats the passage's most memorable words. A restatement is not automatically the answer, and the answer is often a paraphrase.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Read the question first, then the passage with that question in mind.
  2. Distinguish the three kinds of question: a detail is IN the passage, a meaning is a restatement of it, a conclusion FOLLOWS from it.
  3. For a conclusion, check the option against the whole passage rather than one sentence — the wrong ones are usually true of one line and false of the rest.
  4. Reject anything that adds a fact the passage does not carry, however plausible.
  5. This section is comfortably paced by the standards of this battery. Use the time.

The passage is the authority, and it is the only authority.

Reading Comprehension — NY Firefighter

Tested as “Reading Comprehension” on NY Firefighter.

Answering from what a supplied passage actually says, rather than from what would be reasonable.

Where people lose it

Choosing an option that is true in the world but not in the passage, or one that attaches a duty to the wrong party. Passages like these name several parties on purpose.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Read the question first so you know what you are looking for.
  2. Underline who does what as you read. Most wrong answers here are the right duty against the wrong party.
  3. For a purpose question, ask what the passage as a whole is doing, not what its most memorable sentence says.
  4. Treat what the passage EXCLUDES as content: a sentence saying nobody here is responsible for something is answerable.
  5. Find the sentence that makes your answer true before you mark it.

The passage is the authority. If you cannot point at the sentence, it is not the answer.

Reading Comprehension – Identify a Difference

Tested as “Reading Comprehension – Identify a Difference” on BSCC/STC Corrections Entry.

Reading two independent statements describing the same event and identifying the one piece of information where they conflict, or that they do not conflict at all.

Where people lose it

Treating any difference in wording as a conflict. Two statements can describe the same fact in different words without disagreeing — the task is finding where they state something incompatible, not where they differ in phrasing.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Read both statements fully before comparing anything.
  2. List what each statement claims about who, what, where and when, one at a time.
  3. Compare claim by claim. A real conflict is two statements that cannot both be true — not two statements that simply describe different details.
  4. Consider that 'no conflicting information' is a genuine, correct answer on some items. Do not manufacture a conflict because an option is offered.

A conflict is two things that cannot both be true. A difference in detail level is not a conflict.

Reading Comprehension – Understanding Passages

Tested as “Reading Comprehension – Understanding Passages” on BSCC/STC Corrections Entry.

Reading a short passage and answering one question strictly from what the passage states.

Where people lose it

Bringing in outside knowledge. The passage always contains everything needed to answer — the wrong options are usually plausible-sounding facts the passage never actually states.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Read the passage fully before looking at the question or the options.
  2. Locate the specific sentence(s) the question depends on and re-read them.
  3. Reject any option that requires a fact from outside the passage, however reasonable it sounds.
  4. For a classification-style question, apply the passage's own stated rule mechanically rather than by impression.

If you cannot point to the sentence that supports an option, it is not the answer.

Reading, Understanding and Interpreting Written Material

Tested as “Reading, Understanding and Interpreting Written Material” on NYS Court Officer-Trainee.

Understanding written material, drawing only supported conclusions, and selecting words that complete a passage logically and precisely.

Where people lose it

Choosing an answer that is plausible in real life but goes beyond what the passage states or requires.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. For passage questions, locate the sentence or relationship that directly supports the answer.
  2. Separate what the passage states from what you could reasonably assume outside it.
  3. For cloze items, read through the blank first and identify the grammar, meaning, and tone the missing word must satisfy.
  4. Substitute the remaining choice and reread the complete sentence to confirm that both logic and grammar hold.

The right answer is the one the text supports, not the one that merely sounds sensible.

Technical Information Recall

Tested as “Technical Information Recall” on FCTC Firefighter.

Reading technical material carefully, keeping it after it has been taken away, and answering questions from what you actually retained.

Where people lose it

Reading for interest rather than for structure. Material read as a story leaves you with the gist; the questions ask for the number, the order and the exception — and the gist does not contain them.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Give the first pass to shape: how many parts, what each is about, what order they come in.
  2. On the second pass hunt the things questions are made of — figures, sequences, named exceptions, anything that says always, never, except or unless.
  3. Say the specifics back to yourself before the material goes away. Recognition is not recall, and only one of them survives the page being collected.
  4. Attach every number to the thing it measures. A remembered 'thirty' with nothing attached to it is worth no marks.

You cannot look back. Read for what you will be asked, not for what is interesting.

Understanding and Interpreting Written Material — NY Local Police Lieutenant

Tested as “Understanding and Interpreting Written Material” on NY Local Police Lieutenant.

Reading a brief selection and choosing the statement it actually supports. The Department's guide promises that everything needed is printed in the selection and that no knowledge of its subject is required, which makes this the one area where being a serving officer is no advantage at all.

Where people lose it

Answering from what you know to be true about policing. An option can be sound professional judgement, and true in your own department, and still be the wrong answer here — because the question is what THIS selection supports, not what is the case.

How to work itRankHigh method

  1. Find the sentence that carries the answer before you weigh the options, and keep your finger on it. If you cannot point at the text an option rests on, that option is not supported however reasonable it sounds.
  2. Check the direction of any cause. The commonest wrong option states a real relationship backwards — the passage says congestion produced the toll, and the option says the toll produced the congestion.
  3. Distrust 'main', 'only', 'most' and 'always'. Where a passage gives two reasons and calls neither of them the main one, an option that promotes one to the main reason has gone further than the text.
  4. Watch the quantities, the scope and who did what. Changing three to nine, widening 'the three named' to 'among others', or moving an act from one person to another are the same failure in three costumes.

Read the selection before the options, and answer from it rather than from the job. Where two options both look defensible, the one you can put your finger on wins.

Carry this into the room

  • Verbal Comprehension: If you cannot underline it, it is not the answer.
  • Understanding and Interpreting Written Material — NY Local Police Captain, NY Local Police Sergeant: The passage contains everything you need. Where an option requires you to add something, that is the wrong option.
  • Reading Comprehension — POST PELLETB: If you cannot point at the line that proves it, it is not the answer.
  • Reading Comprehension — CDCR Correctional Sergeant: Cover the options, decide what the paragraph established, then look. If an option adds a fact, it is wrong however sensible the fact is.
  • Reading Comprehension — LASD Deputy Sheriff Trainee: The title names what it is about, not everything it mentions.
  • Reading Comprehension — POST Dispatcher Battery: The passage is the authority, and it is the only authority.
  • Reading Comprehension — NY Firefighter: The passage is the authority. If you cannot point at the sentence, it is not the answer.
  • Reading Comprehension – Identify a Difference: A conflict is two things that cannot both be true. A difference in detail level is not a conflict.
  • Reading Comprehension – Understanding Passages: If you cannot point to the sentence that supports an option, it is not the answer.
  • Reading, Understanding and Interpreting Written Material: The right answer is the one the text supports, not the one that merely sounds sensible.
  • Technical Information Recall: You cannot look back. Read for what you will be asked, not for what is interesting.
  • Understanding and Interpreting Written Material — NY Local Police Lieutenant: Read the selection before the options, and answer from it rather than from the job. Where two options both look defensible, the one you can put your finger on wins.

Practice it on your own exam

Method only sticks against real questions. Every exam in the catalog opens with a free twelve-question diagnostic — in your browser, with a worked explanation for every answer, and no signup.

Find your exam