Reading Comprehension Strategy
WHAT IS READING COMPREHENSION?
A student is supposed to answer the questions in light of the information given in the passage within the stipulated time. The ability of the student to make sense of the information and ideas presented in the passage is put to test through questions with multiple choice answers. More specifically, a person’s ability to understand standard written English, analyses complex ideas, and ability to draw inferences from the written material is put to test. The significance of Reading Comprehension, commonly known as RC can be gauged from the fact that almost half the questions in the Verbal Section are based on Reading Comprehension. Many students find RC to be tough and challenging, but with consistent practice, and patience, the art of Reading Comprehension can be mastered.
WHY IS READING COMPREHENSION IMPORTANT?
Reading Comprehension is the most important and wide question type of the English section of all major competitive exams. RC section helps examiners in assessing the expertise of one in understanding the language. Having a good reading habit will make more time available for solving the problem. Hence good reading speed can also enhance your score Having a good reading habit will make more time available for solving the problem. Hence good reading speed can also enhance your score.
PROBLEMS FACED IN RCS
Problem1: -
Having a short attention span - Lack of focus and mind
wavering
Why it is so?
Today’s generation is notorious for having a very short attention span. Members of the digital generation are very impatient. They want everything fast.
Solution: Try this!
For a person to improve on this aspect, he should first identify how long his current average attention span is. When a baseline time is recorded, conscious effort should then be applied to improve it. Keep watch over your thought as your thought diverts from reading keep it
back again and again for reading (forcefully initially). After a period of time, it will become a habit.
Problem2: -
Being uninterested in the content of the reading material Why it is so?
Lack of motivation - poor reading skills - Lack of understanding of language
Solution: Try this!
Motivate yourself! Reward Yourself!
Lawyers who need to read hundreds of pages of case files, for example, use career improvement and monetary gain as their motivation. Students who need to pass an exam may not be interested in the subject but try to motivate themselves to read to get high grades. When a reader does this, she is using the reward system as a
motivation for reading.
Problem3: -
Finding the reading material to be too tough & Meeting unfamiliar words
Why it is so?
While reading a piece of text, we have tendency to move back, cross check and re-read the things which we have already read. Generally, this happens because of lack of interest, complex vocabulary, or poor retention of the reader. This is known as regression or skips back. The habit of regression has to be minimized if not eliminated. Regression is a big-time killer. It breaks the flow of thought, and leads to poor concentration, which leads to more regressions, which further lowers down the reading speed.
Solution: Try this!
Try to connect the difficult word with overall idea of passage (context). Context clues are words or phrases found near the unfamiliar word that will help you understand it. These clues could be located in the same sentence or in a sentence from the same paragraph. Over a period of time (3-4 months) your understanding of vocabulary will enhance even without using of dictionary.
Problem4: -
Lacking understanding overall structure and organization of passage
Why it is so?
Lack of mental organizational skills
Solution: Try this!
Passage structure = General words — to specific words — to more depth. Try to tabulate or organize or quick imagination (create rough image) of keywords of the passage. Capture general idea of the passage rather specific depths.
Problem5: -
Lacking Linkage between Iines & difficulty to recall Information
Why it is so?
Lack of curiosity to understand the passage. Lack of
motivation. Weak organizational skills Solution: Try this!
Try to Analyse only keywords in direct relationship with the main idea of passage. Discard the junk information like examples, illustrations etc to summarize the passage in your mind. As you read a main keyword in a sentence then try to predict next sentence with the help of this keyword. Your prediction power can immensely help you to remember, recall and understand the passage.
Sentence structure:
>>Subject-verb-object of the verb.
Try to remember only few keywords like verb or adjective in your mind rather full sentence.
It’s more about comprehension than reading!
There are two types of reading—reading with the eyes and reading with the brain. Reading for RC is different from general reading where we read either to get some specific piece of information or we read at ease to relax or unwind ourselves after a long tiring day, and it may just be reading with the eyes ...... But for the competitive
examinations we need to read with our brain because the purpose is different and there comes the comprehension part. We read to find out the main idea of the passage and be accurate in answering the
question, which even drains the physical energy. We read with sole objective to maximize our score, within a limited framework of time. A practical suggestion can be given as to develop the habit of reading books of different genre and developing a taste for intellectual debate and exploration. So, now what we focus upon is
not reading speed but Comprehension speed.
Practice is the key!
Solving RC practice exercises regularly helps to evelops confidence and gives an exposure to the nuances of RC. An aspirant is suggested to find out the main idea of the articles in the editorial section of the newspapers, so that identifying the main idea comes naturally to a student as it is integral to answering questions in Different completive exams _ especially inferential ones.
GENERAL STRATEGY
1. Increasing your motivation while again and again, asking to yourself what is your goal, why are you reading what are its benefits in long term.
2. Decrease distractions when reading - Avoid external thoughts - keep away mobiles, TV, friends etc - Choose peaceful and lonely space to read.
3. Create notes of keywords into your mind by reading loud (only the keywords) Don’t jump to dictionary.
4. Avoid regression as discussed above rather try to understand the contextual meaning of difficult words.
5. Do critical reading of the passage. Keep questioning attitude in back of your mind. Do reason with each sentence! Keep WHAT WHY-HOW-WHERE always in back up of your mind.Try to predict next sentence. Try to bring conclusions/inferences from what you have read.
HOW TO INCREASE YOUR READING
SPEED?
Generally, we read slowly because we believe that if we read slowly we will understand the things better. On the other hand, reading slowly leads to loss of concentration as our mind gets easily distracted,which leads to loss of interest, which further lowers
down the reading speed. It is important to understand how we read.
Generally, we read one to two words at a glance, pause for a fraction of a second and move to the other chunk of words. If we can train our eyes to read more number of words in a glance, our reading speed can increase manifold. With consistent practice, it may be possible to read the lines of a newspaper column in a single glance.
While reading a piece of text, we have tendency to move back, cross check and re-read the things which we have already read. This is known as regression or skips back. The habit of regression has to be minimized if not eliminated. Pausing once in a while to figure out the
contextual meaning of words, however, is not regression.
Regression is a big-time killer. It breaks the flow of thought, and leads to poor concentration, which leads to more regressions, which further lowers down the reading speed. Thus, regression makes reading a slow and tiresome process. The best way to eliminate
regression is to move a pen or pencil smoothly under the text and make your eyes follow the text. This is a great way to train oneself to read faster.
Note:
Please note that as you experiment with these speed enhancement techniques, your comprehension will dip initially. Your mind may revolt, as many of us have been regressing and vocalizing throughout our school and college life. With a firm faith to improve reading
effectiveness, coupled with consistent practice you can increase your reading speed manifold.
HOW TO READ A PASSAGE IN EXAM?
1. Focus on only keywords - chosen keywords must be such that it reflects the massage of full sentence. (practice it)
2. Make logical linkages between keywords as you read on the passage.
3. Do reason with these keywords in backup of your mind as you read on. (It will help you retain keywords in your memory)
4. Finally, you get a mental map of full passage containing keywords only.
Example
Let us take a small passage.
Keywords are underlined
Passage
As financial markets worldwide tumbled over concerns that Greece would default on its debt to the troika comprising the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the people of Greece were being presented with a Hobson’s choice by its government led by the leftist party, Syriza.
In the midst of intense negotiations with representatives of the troika over rolling over debt payments, the Syriza government sought to extend the deadline for payments
Keywords from the passage.
Tumbled? > Greece default > leftist party > extend the
deadline.
Advantages of above approach
As you have mental map (rough idea) of a passage you
can easily give answers for following type of questions
- Give a Suitable title of passage.
- Main idea discussed by author in the passage
- Tone/sense of passage
- Further key words also help you locate the part of passage, in which you will find answers for specific questions.
Strategy while attempting questions
1. Read passage with above approach (get a complete summary of passage in your mind)
2. Apart from passage reading also focus on keywords while reading a question statement
or answer options. It keeps your focus intact.
3. Try to eliminate the least possible answers. (as you have a complete sense of passage).
4. Next if you are not able to answer the question directly >refer back to passage try to locate answers in the passage
5. If you find answer tick it
6. If you not find-guess the answer only if you already eliminated at least 2 answer options.Otherwise, don’t make a blind guess
Question specific and other minor
strategies
Title of passage? - read quickly opening & ending sentences of all paragraphs.
Antonyms & synonyms type questions
=>For answering vocabulary questions of RC, just read at least 2 sentences before and after the word and without looking over at the options, think about the context that word is used in. Then check the options
If a question asks about a particular line, then read at least 2 sentences before and after the line in question.This will help you understand the idea of where the point started and where the author is going with it.