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IMAT Reading Skills and General Knowledge · Reading Comprehension

Reading Leaflets, Reports and Figures

Technical texts pack exact information into few words; read every frequency, condition and number exactly as written, and add nothing.

All Reading Comprehension notes

Why this matters

The 2025 paper used an excerpt from a medicine leaflet and asked for its correct interpretation, and an economic news article full of growth figures and percentages. Practise both kinds of source: they reward reading every qualifier and every number.

Concept 1 of 2: Reading a medicine leaflet: frequency, possibility and warning signs

A patient leaflet is written to be exact. Each side effect sits in a frequency band, words like 'may' and 'could' mark a risk rather than a certainty, and the words in brackets usually say what a symptom points to. Wrong options make a possible effect certain, move an effect to the wrong organ, or turn a risk into a benefit.

Definition

  • Frequency bands in European leaflets: very common (more than 1 in 10 people), common (up to 1 in 10), uncommon (up to 1 in 100), rare (up to 1 in 1,000), very rare (up to 1 in 10,000), and not known (the frequency cannot be estimated from the available data). 'Not known' does not mean rare.
  • Possibility, not certainty: 'may cause', 'could lead to', 'can progress to' mean the effect is possible, not that it always happens.
  • Signs and what they indicate: a symptom is often followed by its meaning in brackets, for example 'dark urine (a sign of liver problems)'. The organ named in the brackets is the one at risk.
  • Conditions: 'if you have', 'in patients over 65', 'when taken with' limit a statement to one group or situation.
  • A side effect is an unwanted effect of the medicine. A medicine that can harm an organ is never, for that reason, a treatment for that organ's disease.

Worked example

Possible side effects. Common (may affect up to 1 in 10 people): drowsiness, dry mouth. Uncommon (may affect up to 1 in 100 people): blurred vision, difficulty passing urine. Rare (may affect up to 1 in 1,000 people): fast or irregular heartbeat (a sign that the heart is affected); if this happens, stop taking the tablets and contact a doctor at once. Do not drive or operate machinery if you feel drowsy. Do not drink alcohol while taking this medicine, as it can increase drowsiness. Which statement is the correct interpretation of this excerpt? (A) Most people who take the tablets become drowsy. (B) The medicine may affect the heart in a small number of users. (C) Patients must never drive while taking this medicine. (D) Blurred vision affects about 1 in 10 users. (E) Alcohol reduces the drowsiness caused by the tablets.
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps

Frequency not known is not very rare

'Not known' means the available data cannot give a number. The effect could be rare or fairly common. An option that calls it rare, or says it can be ignored, reads something into the leaflet that is not there.

A side effect is not a treatment

If a leaflet says a medicine can damage the kidneys, it says nothing good about using the medicine for kidney disease. Options that turn a risk into a benefit for the same organ are always wrong.

Concept 2 of 2: Numbers in a report: rises, falls, percentages and causes

Business, health and science reports mix figures with claims about why the figures changed. Wrong options misread a figure (an amount for a percentage), compare the wrong periods, or treat two things that happened at the same time as cause and effect.

Definition

  • Absolute and relative change: from 40 to 50 is a rise of 10 units, or 25%. A fall of 5% is 5% of the earlier value.
  • Percent and percentage points: a rate that goes from 10% to 12% rises by 2 percentage points, which is a 20% rise relative to where it started.
  • Periods: 'compared with the same quarter last year' is not 'compared with the previous quarter'. Check which period each figure belongs to.
  • Approximations: 'just under three billion' is less than three billion; 'nearly doubled' is less than double; 'more than a third' is over 33%.
  • Together is not because: if sales rose while advertising rose, the text has not said one caused the other unless it uses a cause word. A cause given by a person quoted in the text is that person's claim.
  • One of several causes: 'among other reasons' or 'one of the factors' must not become 'the reason'.

Worked example

Bike sharing in the city of Lindham grew strongly last year. The number of rentals rose from 800,000 in 2022 to 1.1 million in 2023, an increase of more than a third, after a 5% fall in 2021 during a long rail strike. The council credits the growth to forty new docking stations, although the operator points out that the price of a single ride was also cut by a quarter. Women made up 38% of riders in 2023, up from 32% the year before. Despite the growth, the service still loses money, and the council has not yet decided whether to extend the contract. According to the text, which one of the following is true? (A) Rentals in 2023 were more than a third higher than in 2022. (B) The share of riders who were women rose by 6% in 2023. (C) The new docking stations were the only cause of the growth. (D) Rentals fell by 5% in 2022. (E) The service made a profit in 2023 thanks to the growth.
Practice this conceptself-check · 4 quick reps

Percentage points are not percent

A share that goes from 20% to 30% has risen by 10 percentage points, but by 50% of its old value. Options exploit the mix-up in both directions, so work out both numbers and see which one the option states.

Summary — formulas & gotchas at a glance

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