How to Pass a Reading Exam

I always thought that everybody read the same way I did. No one told me how to read and I did it by instinct. Come to find out (after many courses on teaching reading) that it was not true. On a reading exam, I would read everything, marking what I thought was important information. Then, I would read the questions and go back and look for the answers. Usually, they were in the information I had marked. If a question required a summary or conclusion on my part, I would read the first and last paragraphs again and find the answer. I always thought I was cheating but now I know that what I was doing has a name and it is actually called skimming and scanning. These techniques are very useful while you are taking an exam. 

During an exam, skimming and scanning lets you find the exact information you need to answer a question. When you are starting to skim, you read titles, subheadings, special text (underlined, italicized or otherwise highlighted words) and any text under pictures or graphs. You read introductions (usually the first paragraph) and summaries (usually the last paragraph). Now that you have an idea of what the reading material is about, go on to the next step.

Scanning is the next step. Read the topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph (the introduction to the paragraph will tell you what the paragraph is going to be about).  As part of the reading comprehension exercise, ask yourself about the relationship between the idea presented in the topic sentence and how it develops in rest of the paragraph. See how the remainder of the paragraph develops the topic. It usually works. Then, read the last sentence of the paragraph (the closing sentence should summarize what was stated in the paragraph). This usually works too. On an exam, you will now know where the important information is located in order to answer the questions that follow the material. Now, look at the questions. You will know where the answers are.

 
Newspaper stories are a little different and they present the main ideas at the top and then develop the information in the following paragraphs. Technical material and feature stories may not be so easy. Academic material usually offers end summaries. Underline the reading's main ideas as you read (if it is your book or material - destroying exams and another person's material is a no-no). To avoid confusion, be careful not to cover the page with unnecessary underlines. Only emphasize the main ideas. Write down words related to the main ideas in the margin or on a piece of notebook paper so that you can review them later on. Read the introduction or forward or author's note. Read the chapter headings and subheadings, and glance at chapter summaries. Check out the end of the book for a summary chapter, and examine any graphics. Now, answer the questions.