Reading Comprehension gives you three scientific passages and 50 questions in 60 minutes. Everything needed to answer is in the text — the section tests whether you can locate and interpret information under time pressure, not whether you already know the subject.
Test Ninjas Research · Updated September 11, 2026
Reading Comprehension Test — at a glance
Attribute
Value
Questions
50
Time
60 minutes
Average per question
72 seconds
Reported scores
Reading Comprehension
Score scale
200–600
How the section is built
Composition
Part
Detail
Passages
3, on scientific topics
Questions per passage
Approximately 16–17
Total questions
50
Outside knowledge required
None
What it asks of you
Locating a specific detail in a long passage quickly
Distinguishing what the passage states from what it implies
Identifying the author’s purpose or tone
Evaluating how evidence supports a claim
Handling unfamiliar scientific terminology from context
Comparing or reconciling parts of a passage
Recognising the scope of a claim
Managing 20 minutes per passage including its questions
How to approach it
The passages are long, and you will not retain them
Each passage runs to roughly fourteen paragraphs of dense scientific prose on a topic you have probably never studied. Reading for retention does not work at this length under this clock. What works is reading for structure — knowing where each idea lives so you can return to it — and then answering by going back to the text.
No outside knowledge, and that cuts both ways
You need no background in the passage topic, which is a relief. But it also means that recognising the subject is not an advantage, and that answering from what you already know about it is a reliable way to get questions wrong. If you cannot point to the line that supports a choice, it is not the answer.
Twenty minutes a passage, strictly
60 minutes across three passages is 20 minutes each including the questions. The most common way to lose points here is to spend 27 minutes on the passage you find hardest and then rush the one you would have found easiest. A passage you dislike is one to move through faster, not slower.
This section reports one score (Reading Comprehension) on the 200–600 scale. See where any score falls with the DAT score calculator.
Three, each on a scientific topic and each roughly fourteen paragraphs long. Every passage carries approximately 16 to 17 questions, for 50 in total across 60 minutes.
No. The passages cover scientific subjects, but every question is answerable from the text alone. Prior familiarity with a topic offers little advantage and can actively mislead you into answering from memory rather than from the passage.
It receives its own reported score on the 200-600 scale and is one of the five scores that make up the Academic Average. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so leave nothing blank.
Most successful approaches involve mapping the passage rather than memorising it — noting where each major idea sits so that detail questions can be answered by targeted rereading. Given three passages and a fixed hour, pacing discipline matters at least as much as technique.