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IMAT Reading Skills and General Knowledge · Reading Comprehension

What the Text Says, and What It Supports

A reading answer is right only when a line of the passage states it or makes it follow; outside knowledge and over-strong wording make an option wrong.

All Reading Comprehension notes

Why this matters

Three ministry questions (2023, 2025 and 2026) asked which statement is true according to the text or coherent with it. The wrong options added a claim, made a cautious claim certain, or relied on what the reader already knew.

Concept 1 of 4: A routine and a time budget for each reading question

A reading question is worth exactly as much as a biology question, but it can eat three times the time if you read the passage twice. Read the question first, so you know what you are hunting for. Then read the passage once, noticing what each sentence does, and judge every option against a line of the text rather than against your memory.

Definition

The four-step routine for one reading question:

  • Read the stem first. Know the task: true, NOT true, cause, main point, meaning of a word.
  • Read the passage once, briskly, noting what each sentence does: a claim, an example, a cause, a limit, an opinion.
  • Go back to the line each option depends on. The answer is decided by the text, not by what you know. The 2026 papers say this outright: answer only from what the text states or implies.
  • Judge all five options before you choose. A good-looking first option often loses to a better one further down.

Time budget: 100 minutes for 60 questions is about 1 minute 40 seconds each. A reading question with its passage takes about 2 minutes, so the four together take about 8 minutes. If one passage is stuck at 3 minutes, mark your best option and move on. Scoring: +1.5 right, -0.4 wrong, 0 blank. A blind guess among five options is worth about zero on average. Once you can rule out even one option, a guess among the rest gains points on average.

Worked example

Researchers asked two groups of volunteers to learn a list of word pairs in the evening. One group then slept for eight hours; the other stayed awake through the night under supervision. When both groups were tested the next afternoon, after the second group had also been allowed to sleep, the volunteers who had slept straight after learning recalled more pairs. The researchers suggest that sleep in the hours after learning helps the brain to stabilise new memories. They add that the study was small and that it tested only one kind of memory, so the result may not apply to skills such as playing an instrument. According to the text, which one of the following is true? (A) Sleep improves every kind of memory. (B) The volunteers who stayed awake were not allowed to sleep before the test. (C) The volunteers who slept soon after learning remembered more word pairs. (D) Learning a musical instrument is not affected by sleep. (E) Studying in the evening is better than studying in the morning.
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps

Choosing an option because it is true in real life

The ministry papers ask what the text states or implies. An option can be a correct fact about the world and still be the wrong answer, because the passage never says it. Ask 'which line supports this?', not 'is this true?'.

Concept 2 of 4: Stated, implied or not supported: the three kinds of option

Every option falls into one of three bins. It is stated (the text says it in other words), implied (the text does not say it, but it must be true if the text is true), or not supported (it might be true, or it contradicts the text). In IMAT an inference is a small, safe step, never a guess about what the author probably thinks.

Definition

Sort each option into one bin:

  • Stated: the passage says it, usually in different words (a synonym, or a summary of one sentence).
  • Implied: the passage does not say it, but it must be true if the passage is true. Example: 'the bridge opened in 1890, forty years after the first plan' implies that the first plan dates from 1850.
  • Not supported: it might be true, but the passage gives no reason to accept it; or the passage contradicts it.
  • An implication needs no extra assumption. If you must add 'probably' or 'usually' to make it work, it is not implied.
  • Paraphrase is normal. The right option rarely repeats the text's words, and a wrong option often repeats them while changing the meaning.

Worked example

In the 1840s, a Vienna hospital had two maternity wards. In the first, run by doctors and medical students, many more mothers died of fever after giving birth than in the second, run by midwives. The physician Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that the doctors often came to the ward straight from dissecting bodies. In 1847 he ordered them to wash their hands in a chlorine solution before examining patients, and deaths in the first ward fell sharply. Semmelweis could not say what exactly was being carried on the hands, since the idea that germs cause disease was not yet accepted. Many senior doctors rejected his advice, and handwashing became standard practice only decades later. Put each statement in its bin: stated, implied, or not supported. (1) Before 1847, more mothers died of fever in the first ward than in the second. (2) Handwashing was introduced in the first ward before germ theory was generally accepted. (3) By 1850 every hospital in Vienna required doctors to wash their hands. (4) The midwives in the second ward did not dissect bodies.
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An inference is not a sensible guess

In everyday speech, to infer means to guess sensibly. In IMAT it means a statement that must be true if the passage is true. If you need 'probably' or 'usually' to make an option work, the passage does not imply it.

Concept 3 of 4: Which is true according to the text: matching each option to one line

The question gives five statements, and only one has a line in the passage behind it. The other four are built from the passage's own words but change something: a person, a date, a direction, a quantity. Find the line, then compare the option with it word by word.

Definition

For 'which is true according to the text' and 'which is coherent with the excerpt':

  • For each option, find the one sentence it depends on. No sentence, no support.
  • Compare the option and the sentence on the details IMAT changes: who did it, when, which way (rise or fall, cause or effect), and how much.
  • Wrong options often mix two sentences: a name from one and a claim from another. In a passage about two things, the property of one is given to the other.
  • 'Coherent with the excerpt' asks for the one option that agrees with it. The other four contradict it or distort it.
  • A statement that must follow from a line also counts as true according to the text.

Worked example

The grey squirrel was brought to Britain from North America in the nineteenth century, and it has since replaced the native red squirrel across most of England. Greys are larger and digest acorns better than reds, which gives them an advantage in oak woods. They also carry squirrelpox, a virus that does them little harm but is usually fatal to reds. In conifer forests, where seeds are small and food is scarcer, reds hold on better. Recent studies in Ireland and Scotland found that where pine martens, a native predator, have returned, grey numbers fall and reds recover, probably because the larger, more ground-dwelling greys are easier for martens to catch. According to the text, which one of the following is true? (A) Squirrelpox is usually fatal to grey squirrels. (B) Red squirrels digest acorns better than grey squirrels. (C) Pine martens were brought to Britain from North America. (D) In places where pine martens have returned, red squirrel numbers have risen. (E) Grey squirrels have replaced red squirrels throughout Britain.
Practice this conceptself-check · 3 quick reps

The text's own words are not proof

A wrong option often reuses exact phrases from the passage and changes one small thing: the subject, the date or the direction. Matching words is not matching meaning. Compare the whole claim with the whole line.

Concept 4 of 4: Qualifiers and over-strong options: may, some, not yet, approximately

Careful writers limit their claims, and wrong options quietly remove the limits. 'May cause' becomes 'causes', 'some patients' becomes 'patients', 'not yet complete' becomes 'complete'. Read the size of each claim, not only which way it points.

Definition

  • Possibility words (may, might, could, can, suggests, is linked to) do not mean certainty (will, always, proves, causes).
  • Quantity words (some, many, most, a few) do not mean all. 'Not all' does not mean none.
  • Time words (not yet, so far, until now, preliminary) mean the matter is still open. An option that treats it as settled is wrong.
  • Number words (about, nearly, almost, just under, more than) set a range. 'Nearly 1%' is less than 1%; 'just under three billion' is less than three billion.
  • Extreme words in an option (always, never, only, all, completely, proves) are a warning. They are right only when the text is just as strong.
  • A cautious option ('could lead to', 'is one of the factors') is often the right answer, because it claims exactly as much as the text.

Worked example

Tiny fragments of plastic, known as microplastics, have now been found in human blood, lungs and placentas. Some researchers fear they may harm health, for example by causing inflammation, and laboratory studies on cells and mice point in that direction. So far, however, no study has shown that the amounts found in people cause disease. Measuring microplastics is also difficult: samples are easily contaminated by plastic in the air and in laboratory equipment, so some early results may have overestimated the levels. Scientists agree that better methods are needed before firm conclusions can be drawn. Which one of the following is supported by the text? (A) Microplastics cause inflammation in human lungs. (B) Every early measurement of microplastics was wrong. (C) Laboratory studies have proved that microplastics cause disease in people. (D) It has not yet been shown that the levels found in humans cause disease. (E) Microplastics are found in all human organs.
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps

May and could are not will and always

A text that says a drug may cause a side effect supports 'it could lead to' that effect. It does not support 'it always leads to' it, and it does not support 'it never leads to' it either. Match the strength of the option to the strength of the text.

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