Keep what the text says separate from what you add.
Review summaries, references, proposals, exceptions, survey scope and what an average leaves undetermined.
This count describes six selected tasks in this edition and language. It is not an IQ, percentile, hiring standard or estimate of your general verbal ability. Every count opens the same answers and complete guides.
Six different reading decisions
A short passage can test several distinct decisions: which summary preserves all important qualifications, what a reference points to, whether a sentence proposes an action, how an exception changes a schedule, who a survey describes, and what a reported mean cannot determine. A wrong answer is a reason to inspect that decision. It is not enough evidence to label someone a weak reader across all texts or situations.
A mean does not reveal every observation
Imagine three fictional journeys have a mean duration of four minutes. Durations of four, four and four minutes fit that mean. So do durations of one, one and ten minutes. The first set has every journey at or below four; the second does not. These are constructed examples, not extra observations. They demonstrate why the mean alone cannot establish that each individual journey stays within the mean.
Preserve scope and uncertainty
A survey of willing respondents describes those respondents unless the text supplies a valid basis for a broader inference. Unknown nonrespondents remain unknown. A proposed change is not evidence that the change has already succeeded. A postponed outdoor event does not close an indoor room that the passage explicitly leaves open. For a stated exception, first confirm that its condition applies, then use the exceptional rule instead of the usual one.
Attach each claim to a sentence
Take a new short notice and divide a page into stated facts, proposed actions and unresolved details. Write a one-sentence summary using only supported information. Underline the sentence that supports each part. Then add one tempting assumption and explain what missing evidence would be needed to justify it. You can repeat this privately with fictional notices, avoiding the need to upload messages or disclose someone else’s information.
Recognition is narrower than full literacy
Six selected passages do not measure long-form reading stamina, writing, specialist knowledge or performance under a time limit. Counts can change with assistance, familiarity or attention. Both language versions use original native wording, without establishing that a given count has the same meaning across languages. The guide offers an evidence-checking routine rather than a percentile, diagnosis, school grade or employment recommendation.