Important Tips for Reading Comprehension

Read LESSON 1 : How to Get Good Marks in Reading Comprehension Here

Friends, in our last post we've discussed some basic techniques on how to get good marks in Reading Comprehension section of bank and other competitive exams. (you can read that post here). In this post we shall discuss some important points you should keep in mind while dealing with Reading Comprehension problems. 

What to read first? The given Passage or Questions?

There are people belonging to both schools of thought. But it is preferable to read the passage first to get a grasp of the broad ideas the author is trying to communicate and then take up the questions one by one. In the process of going through the passage initially, underline key words and phrases as well as some important points in the passage (for online exam you can’t mark anything so better keep important words in your mind instead of writing anywhere). Then, when you go through each question, get back to the relevant portion of the passage, read it more thoroughly this time and then answer the question.

As mentioned in our previous post, the following are the major categories of questions that are asked :

1. Main idea of the passage / title for the passage
2. Specific details basically reproducing what is given in the passage
3. Drawing inferences / implications
4. Determining the meaning of words / phrases as used in the passage or by the author
5. Application of the ideas expressed in the passage to other situations

Where you have to choose a title for the passage or identify the main them of the passage, check the opening and closing sentences of each paragraph particularly the opening sentence of the first paragraph and the last sentence of the last paragraph. At the same time, be wary about too specific or too broad choices in the multiple choices given. 

We are planning to give you a number of practice tests on Reading Comprehension as this is one of the crucial area of Competitive Exams. We hope these tests may enable you to get sufficient practice in this important area. Please remember that in this area, unlike in other areas like Maths or Reasoning where you will be able to assess for yourself how much of new knowledge you have added on and how much of improvement in speed you have achieved, there will not be such clear indicators. However, performance in reading comprehension will improve only with practice and that requires a lot of effort and determination on your part.

In addition to the online tests you take from this blog, you will have to put in at least 45 minutes of reading practice per day to improve your reading speed and comprehension. You need to take up serious reading material for practice - News Papers Editorials, editorials in general magazines like India Today or Business Magazines like Business India or other articles in such magazines, general books on a wide variety of subjects like Psychology, Sociology, Technology, etc. For each article or part of a book that you are reading , go through the process of reading, writing down from memory a few important points from what you have just read and then checking back with the text whether any important points got left out. This exercise done regularly over a period of time will certainly help you  improve your reading speed as well as your ability to understand  and retain what you read. But, as already mentioned, only regular practice can help you in this regard. All The Best...

That's all for now friends. In our next post we shall discuss some more practical techniques to improve your reading speed. Happy reading :)