Reading comprehension is quite difficult for learners, especially for those with limited vocabulary. Typically, the Reading Comprehension test has 40 questions in a 60-minute period. The difficulty of reading comprehension comes from having to understand a long passage and correctly answer questions about what you read in a short amount of time. This is especially true for academic reading, as you will be dealing with more difficult texts. To get around this, we’d like to share some basic tips to help you score well in your Reading section.
1. Use skimming and scanning skills
You should equip yourself with skimming and scanning skills to improve reading comprehension. This is what you should do before handling the question. Most types of questions are asked after the reading passages. So, skimming the passage will help you grasp the topic and preliminary content of the reading. You should spend 2-3 minutes skimming the entire passage to get its main idea and answer the question about it. As you read, underline important keywords in the article to answer information questions.
2. Guess the meaning of unknown words
As you read different texts, get in the habit of marking difficult words or phrases. Then, you use the technique of guessing the meaning of these words through suggested words, phrases or sentences, explanations, which are usually separated from the words or phrases by parentheses, dashes , or after the verb ‘be’ as their definitions,…
3. Read the question before reading the passage
Before reading the passages, you should go through the questions first since they are directly related to the passages. Knowing the questions in advance will help you know what to look out for as you read.
After reading the passage the first time, you should go back to the questions and read them again. This will help you identify which parts of the passage you need careful attention and be able to answer.
4. Save time for each passage reading
The reading test requires you to answer questions for three different passages. Thus, you should spend 20 minutes on each one and this is quite reasonable. Twenty minutes may not seem to be much time for each passage, but let’s remember that you only have one hour to complete the reading test.
By dividing time equally for each section, you will give yourself the best chance for overall success.
5. Save time for your reading practice at home
If you want to increase your reading comprehension score, you need to have some tips to help you study Reading subject effectively, you need to spend time on:
– Developing your word stock.
– Practising different types of questions.
– Increasing your speed in locating information.
– Take practice tests not in exam conditions so you can practice your skills.
– Take practice tests in exam conditions to check your score and progress.
Above are some tips for doing reading tests effectively.
Trần Quốc Tuấn
