Yes, reading articles is good. 2-3 page articles.
Try to note down as many points as you can remember from the article. Then read again and see which other critical points you missed.
This will help you to take mental notes while you are reading an article. And there always few standard questions like:
1- What is the main point - central idea of the article?
2- Top 3 arguments discussed in favor of the idea
3- Top 3 arguments discussed against the idea
There are always few standard questions, which can be asked in many ways. But if you try to develop a practice of looking for answers for these question while you are reading - you have done 50-60% of the job.
The remaining questions might ask about something specific - some names discussed in the article, or some statistics. But they hardly go on something very difficult to memorize in short time. Usually, they try to ask about main points.
Just my thought...i could be wrong. I took the General test (which is easier than Academic) and got an 8.