Reading Comprehension
Reading makes a man complete
- Francis Bacon
Effective communication skills are always essential in our academic as we as professional career. They are more vital these days amidst the phenomenal advancement in technology globalization, increasing cultural diversity.
Among the four basic skills, reading skill is an important communicative process and reading skills are probably the most important language skills required for academic and professional purposes.
What is reading comprehension?
The purpose of reading is to connect the ideas on the page to what we already know.
Reading comprehension refers to the ability to understand information presented in written form.
Techniques for good comprehension
• Skimming (quick reading)
• Scanning (looking for specific information)
• Non-verbal signals (fonts, bold print heading, figures etc.)
• Structure of the text (introduction, body conclusion etc)
• Structure of paragraphs (topic sentence, develop the aspect summary etc)
• Punctuation
• Author’s viewpoints
• Summarizing.
Reading
Methods
Two reading methods that can be used effectively for reading scientifics and technical texts are ERRQ and SQ3R techniques.
EPRQ reading technique has four stages, that is Estimate, Read, Respond, Question. The basic purpose of this strategy is to get the reader to link what he/she has with new information. This technique might be useful for reading any kind of text.
SQ3R ensures high degree of understanding and remembrance.
It has five stages., i.e., Survey, Read, Recall, and Revise .
Now let us analyse briefly how the reading comprehension is phenomenal and crucial in assessing language skills in various entrance examinations.
TOEFL iBT Reading Comprehension
The TOEFL iBT reading section tests your capacity to read, analyze, and comprehend passages that are similar in content and format to those used in universities, colleges, and other educational intitutions in the United States.
The iBT reading passages follow the standard American academic English format. They contain a small introductory paragraph, a main body, and a concluding paragraph.
GRE Reading Comprehension
Here are some Quick Tips for tackling GRE Reading Comprehension (Verbal section):
1.Read the first question before you begin reading the passage. By doing so, you can read more actively—with an eye out for the information you need.
2.Never confirm your answer to a question until you've read the entire passage. Information relevant to a question can appear anywhere in the passage.
3.Using your pencil and scratch paper, jot down a rough outline as you read. It will help you locate relevant details quickly as you answer the questions, and minimize vertical scrolling and re-reading.
4.Don't be overly concerned with details (dates, examples, and lists) as you read; instead, jot down in outline form where these details are located in the passage so you can locate them quickly as needed to respond to the questions.
5.After reading the entire passage, take about 15 seconds to sum it up in one sentence—in the form of a rough thesis statement. Doing so is well worth the effort, because you'll be able to answer some Reading Comprehension questions with nothing more than the thesis in mind.
6.No matter what type of question you're dealing with, eliminate any answer choice that runs contrary to the passage's overall thesis.
7.Be on the lookout for answer choices that provide information supported by the passage but not responsive to the question. This is one of the test-makers' favorite wrong-answer ploys.
8.If the author of the passage adopts a position, or stance, on an issue, but discusses other viewpoints as well in the passage, be on the lookout for answer choices that confuse the author's viewpoint with the viewpoints of others. This is another common wrong-answer ploy.
GMAT Reading Comprehension
Introduction
GMAT reading comprehension questions are meant to test your understanding of the implications, meanings, and structures presented in the passages. You can expect to see 2 to 4 passages of 200 to 400 words each, in the verbal section of the GMAT exam. Each passage will be followed by 4 questions. Because the GMAT is now a computer-adaptive test, you will only see 1 question at a time. The passage, however, will remain on your computer screen until you have answered all of the questions related to it.
The 4 Most Common
Types of GMAT Reading Comprehension Questions
1.) Factual Questions. You will likely find these questions the easiest ones to answer, but also the most time consuming. You need to be careful because they often contain "curveballs" such as those described below, in the strategies and tips section. However, these curveballs are also relatively easy to recognize and overcome.
2.) Inference Questions. Inference questions do not test your knowledge of explicitly-cited facts, but rather your ability to draw conclusions from other information. These questions may even ask you to make a judgment about the author's opinions, or to guess what further conclusions the author might draw. They are usually the most difficult questions for test takers.
3.) Main Idea Questions. Main idea questions ask the test taker to identify the passage's overall theme, as opposed to supporting facts and arguments. Many clients have told us that they thought these questions were exceptionally difficult. Our advice is to accept that just because all of the answer choices have been discussed in the passage, it does not mean that every one of them can be called the passage's central theme.
In main idea questions, answer choices that emphasize factual information can usually be eliminated. Answer choices that are too narrow or too broad also tend to be incorrect. Those answer choices that contain key words and concepts from the main idea presented by the passage are more likely to be correct.
4.) Tone Questions. You will often be asked to describe the passage's tone. The same general rule about negativity applies here. The tone is much more likely to be positive or neutral than it is to be negative. For a science passage, the tone is most likely neutral.
Reading Comprehension Tips and Strategies
Tip 1: Use your scrap paper. Since these passages can be rather long and present difficult sentence and paragraph structures, you may want to use your scrap paper to take very brief notes on the main ideas of each paragraph. Because the GMAT is now computer adaptive, you will not be able to mark up the passages on your monitor.
Tip 2: Read the first question before the you read the passage. As we stated earlier, the new CAT structure of the GMAT prevents you from seeing all of the questions about a reading passage at the same time. Nonetheless, you will gain a slight advantage by reading the first question before you read the passage for the first time. This will give you a better idea of what you should be focusing on as you read, in order to answer that question.
Tip 3: Identify the type of passage you are reading. Memorize the 3 common passages types that we outlined above and remember that each one should be treated differently in order to optimize your score on this section.
Tip 4: When answering a fact question, read both the passage providing the data – and several lines before it – carefully. When a fact question directs you to look at a particular line of text for information, you will often find that one of the answer choices is a deceptive one, taken directly from that line number.
Tip 5: Don't jump to conclusions with fact questions using Roman numerals to identify answer choices.
You will recognize this style of question as soon as you see it:
a. I only
b. II only
c. III only
d. I and II only
e. II and III only
The catch is that, oftentimes, facts I and II will be presented very close to each other in the passage, but fact III will be buried much further in the text. Take the time to review and consider each fact on its own merits.
Tip 6: Eliminate the "oohs and ahhs" answer choices. When consultants refer to "oohs and aahs," they are talking about interesting factoids that spice up presentations without adding anything of real value to the analysis. The GMAT also contains these types of answer choices. An 'ooh and ahh' choice will refer to a fact in the passage ... but just not to one that answers the question being asked.
Tip 7: Practice, practice, practice. We just want to say this one last time. You can't expect to become a scratch golfer just by reading a few magazine articles and watching a few golf tournaments on TV. Likewise, you can't expect to become an expert at taking the GMAT just by reading some tips and advice. You also need to work through many practice questions and learn to put tips and strategies like the ones we have presented to use.
IELTS Reading comprehension
General Tips – Reading
Before the Exam
• Make sure you are familiar with the instructions for the different question types so you can quickly glance at the questions and know what to do.
• Read as much as possible.
• Work on your reading skills such as ‘guessing the meanings of unknown words’, ‘understanding reference words in texts’ and reading quickly.
• Read newspaper articles and practise the following:
dividing the content into facts and opinions
finding the topic sentences of paragraphs
writing summaries
interpreting any diagrams or tables
thinking of headings you could give to paragraphs
underlining the pronouns and working out what they refer to
underlining unknown words and seeing if you can work out what they mean
reading the first paragraph and seeing if you can predict what will come next
• Work on expanding your vocabulary. Look at the either Focus on IELTS or Insight into IELTS or the glossary in 101 Hints p.172- 174 and choose 5 new words from the vocabulary sections or articles to learn each day. Write the words on cards and test yourself on the bus or the MTR, on your way to City U.
• Do as many practice tests as you can to get used to the rubric and the task types.
During the Exam
• Look through the whole reading module first.
• Quickly look at the texts.
Study any:
titles
headings
sub headings
illustrations
diagrams
words in bold type or italics
• Read the questions carefully. Identify the question type. Make sure you do exactly what they say.
• Read the glossary beside the passage, if there is one.
• Don’t spend too long on one question.
• If you don’t know the answer, guess. Incorrect answers are not penalized.
• Make sure you copy all words taken from the texts correctly as incorrect spelling is penalized.
• Don’t forget your answer may be given in a diagram, graph
All the Best
