hi in this video I'm going to tell you
about foundations a comprehension
question these are one of three types of
questions on the critical analysis and
reasoning skills section of the MCAT
these questions are designed to test
your basic understanding of the passage
these questions can take many forms but
many of these will be familiar to you
from other tests some common questions
will ask you about the main idea or
theme of the passage about the intended
meaning of specific words or phrases or
why the author organized or wrote a
passage in a specific way let's start
with a quick example of a main idea
question which of the following best
captures the main goal of the passage
first of all where it says the main goal
we could replace that phrase with the
key idea core theme central purpose all
of these are asking about the main idea
of the passage I could also replace
passage with final paragraph or third
paragraph and it's still the same type
of question all I want you to notice
here is that the question wants you to
be able to recognize a good summary or
paraphrase and the main idea that the
author is saying another similar type of
question could ask you to identify an
author's main claim or position the
author will often state this for you in
the passage using a thesis statement
that might start with words like I
believe or it is clear that or my main
point is this usually comes in an early
section for example take a look at this
statement every student deserves one
year off to explore the world
this statement is important because it
tells you what the author believes it
serves as the author's thesis statement
and foreshadows what they are going to
argue by saying deserves the author is
suggesting that every student who wants
to take a year off to explore the world
should be able to do so this can also be
seen as a claim that the author is
making a claim is a statement that gives
you the author's position point of view
or perspective on it topic you could
also be asked what conclusion the author
is trying to draw this is yet another
way of asking you about the main point
that
the author is trying to make when
answering these questions one great
place to look is at the end of the
passage to see if the author attempts to
offer a clear conclusion as part of the
closing section examples of these kinds
of questions include which of the
following phrases most accurately
captures the author's theme based on the
passage the author most likely believes
that which of the following sentences
best represents the author's conclusion
some questions will ask you to infer the
author's attitude or perspective on a
topic by considering their particular
words or phrases for example if an
author writes how many people died in
the Vietnam War a novice might count up
the bodies on the battlefield
however expert analysis shows us that
deaths off the battlefield far outnumber
deaths on the battlefield a question
about this example might ask which
approach to assessing the death toll
Vietnam does the author favor the author
uses the word novice and expert to
suggest that the expert way is better
sometimes the words themselves come
loaded with meaning we call that
connotative language the author can
reveal their perspective or attitude
toward information by using loaded
adjectives or adverbs like evil valuable
unfortunately or rightly some questions
may require that you use the absence or
presence of such words to infer whether
the author seems to be neutrally and
objectively conveying factual
information versus stating their opinion
or revealing a bias about the issue some
questions will ask you to determine the
intended meaning of specific words or
phrases sometimes the author will use
unfamiliar words or terms and you'll
need to figure out their meaning for the
rest of the passage other times the
author will use familiar terms and
you'll need to decide the precise way
they are being used an example of this
question would be what does the author
mean by the phrase medical interventions
if in the passage the author introduces
the idea of medical interventions and
then gives you examples of helmets
seatbelts vaccines talk therapy
massages home remedies yoga medications
and surgeries then you get the sense
that the author's definition of medical
intervention is really pretty broad
instead if the author talks about
medical interventions and then just
discusses different types of antibiotics
then that would be a more narrow
definition of the term for other
foundation questions you'll need to pay
attention to the author's use of signal
words and to consider the passage
structure one example that you might use
signal words or text structure to answer
is what is the primary purpose of
paragraph 3 the author can include many
kinds of signal words that you could use
to help answer this question
these can include words and phrases like
importantly the only thing that matters
is or for example this can help you
identify basic information like thesis
statements main ideas and examples
phrases like by the way or in a few
cases can help signal a minor point
departure or digression from the main
theme phrases like in addition to
therefore and consequently can help you
follow an author's argument considering
the structure of the passage can also
help you in similar ways for example to
common text structures point
counterpoint and compare and contrast
can also help you to identify
distinctions being made by the author a
point-counterpoint text is almost like a
discussion between two people the author
goes back and forth laying out points
from two different sides a compare and
contrast text will generally first
discuss the commonalities between two
things and then highlight the
differences noticing when passages have
these structures will help you know
where to look to see help positions or
concepts might differ phrases like on
the other hand in contrast to but or
however
are likely to appear in these kinds of
texts and they can help you to identify
distinctions that the author is trying
to make an example of a question that
you might use these ideas to answer is
according to the author what are two
perspectives on this issue other common
structures include listing of ideas or a
chronological structure where the author
walks you through events in the order
they happened in these cases it's often
helpful to look for words like first
second or third that might help you to
identify how many different points are
being made or words like next and and
then that might help you follow the
chain of events
another common text structure is the
cause-effect structure where the author
first lays out a set of conditions or
factors and then discusses how effects
or Consequences result from them in
these passages you should look for
causal words like because or due to an
example of a question that you might use
these ideas to answer is what is the
primary cause of the problem as implied
by the passage if there is a specific
phrase that you are asked about then it
can be helpful to consider how the
passage is organized where that phrase
appears and that can give you a clue of
what its purpose might be a final type
of example is that you may be asked to
interpret rhetorical devices these are
devices that the author uses as a way to
convey their message rhetorical devices
include the signal words discussed above
like however and on the other hand but
they also use things like repetition or
parallelism repetition and parallelism
are when words or sentence structures
are repeated these are examples of
literary devices that may be used by the
author to draw attention to particular
phrases the author may also use other
literary devices such as metaphor
sarcasm allegory or symbolism metaphor
is when the author compares one thing to
another jobs are prison
sarcasm is when the opposite of what is
stated is met dental work is a joy
allegory is when the author relates a
narrative or story that's really meant
to be understood as being about
something else with the characters being
meant for sana Phi abstract ideas in all
of these cases the author is not
expecting their words to be taken
literally and questions may ask you how
the author is intending their words to
be interpreted an example of a question
asking you about the author's use of a
literary device is the author makes use
of sarcasm in this passage for what
purpose a closely related idea is that
of symbolism symbolism is when the
author uses an object or concept to
represent something else an author may
describe an episode in which a character
sees a beautiful flower that's fighting
to grow through the cracks of a grimy
City sidewalk in this case the author
may mean that the character actually
sees the flower but may also be using
the image to convey a message of beauty
in unexpected places which may be a
theme for the work an example of a
question about the author's use of this
device would be which of the following
is implied by the use of imagery about
the flower similar to word choice
literary devices and figures of speech
like metaphors can also reveal an
author's position or attitude on a topic
they can color the author's message by
using more or less pleasing examples for
example comparing a political candidate
to Robin Hood is likely to suggest a
more positive view of the candidate than
comparing the candidate to Hitler an
example of a question that asks you
about this idea is it can be inferred
from the author's tone that they believe
which of the following I hope this video
has given you a good idea of what many
questions in the foundations of
comprehension category will ask you
about to better understand these types
of questions be sure to try some
practice items
and check out the other videos in this
section