PREPARATION TO READING COMPREHENSION

Lecturers: Harry Sambayu, M.Hum

ARRANGE BY:

Group 2

Isnaini: 19052030

Ratna Juwita:19052050

ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM

THE FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF ASAHAN

2020-2021
 PREFACE

With all the praise and Thanks to God the Almighty, who has given His love
and mercy so that a paper entitled ”Preparation to Reading Comprehension”
can we finish well.

On this occasion, we would like to thank profusely to all those who have
helped us in completing the writing of this paper, to Harry Sambayu, M.Hum as
lecturer in Reading Comprehension II for the support and motivation and also to
friends who have contributed their ideas and motivation for writing this paper.

We are fully aware that the many flaws in writing of this paper, in terms of
material, technical, and presentation material. Therefore, we expect criticism and
contructive suggestions to further refine the writing of this paper. Finally, we hope
that the writing of this paper can be useful for readers.

Kisaran, 22th March 2021

Authors
 CHAPTER I

INRTODUCTION

1.1. Background

For many students, reading comprehension is the hardest part of the

entire reading test. You might consider it boring to read through an entire
comprehension passage that you have no business with. We understand that feeling
and that is why we want to help you to be better at preparing for reading
comprehension. After this article, we are sure that we can make you like reading
comprehensions more. Before you know how to prepare for reading
comprehensions, you would need to have a reason or motivation for actually trying
to ace it. The most important reason why you should learn how to prepare for the
reading comprehension is that it covers almost half of the questions in the verbal
reasoning section. So knowing how to answer the reading comprehension question
would mean that you already have half the score even before the test starts. Is that
motivation enough?

1.2. Formulation of The Program

1.

1.3. Purpose
 CHAPTER II

DISCUSSION

2.1. Definition of Reading Comprehension

If you are taking the GRE test for the first time, then you should expect to

see a lot of unfamiliar words in the comprehension passage. These words might

catch you off guard and might take a whole lot of time to understand. If you read

the comprehension with the aim to understand everything then you would be

wasting a lot of time. That is why you need to learn how to prepare for reading

comprehensions the GRE way.

On the test, there are usually about five passages per section and these passages

will have questions ranging from 1–5 each. Since there are two verbal reasoning

sections it is expected that you have a total of 10 reading comprehensions on your

test. The comprehension passages also contain 1–5 paragraphs.

The passages are usually gotten from online news articles, school journals, books

and other works of literature. The content of the passages sometimes includes

topics like arts, politics, history, day to day activities and so on. You might even

find out that you have read a certain comprehension passage somewhere else

before.

B. READING COMPREHENSION: TYPES OF QUESTIONS TO EXPECT

For every reading comprehension, there are 3 types of questions that you would

have to answer. These are:

a. Multiple-choice Questions (Choose 1 answer): You have likely seen these kinds

of questions before. These questions are the regular multiple-choice questions with

5 answer choices where only one of those choices is the correct answer. You can

only choose one answer choice for this kind of questions. Be sure to read the

answer choices well before selecting your answer.

b. Multiple-choice Questions (Choose 1 or more answers): in this case, you would

have options to expect there are only three here. Out of those three choices you

would need to choose the answer or answers that are correct. All three of the

options could be correct, so you would need to be extra careful when selecting. If

all three options are correct and you choose just two, you would forfeit the score

for a correct answer.

c. Select-in-Passage: This kind of question is seen only in the GRE tests. Here you

would have to click on a sentence in the comprehension passage that correctly

answers the question asked.

Remember that you are reading the passage only to answer the questions

asked. So it would be a waste of time if you are trying so hard to remember

the points or content in passage after you have answered it.

C. READING COMPREHENSION: COMPONENTS OF A PASSAGE

The GRE has organized the passages into different components or segments. Even

with the different components, there are some essential building blocks that are

common to all of these segments. The passages can come in the form of critiquing

an old theory and proposing a new one or by asking a question and then providing

a solution or answer to the question later on in the passage.

When you know what these essential build blocks are, you are one step ahead of

getting the hang of the GRE comprehension passages. These essential building

blocks are:

-The Point of the passage

-Background of that point

-Support of the point

-Implications of the point

All comprehension passages in the GRE must have a point. Your first job, when

confronted with a passage, is to find that point. The point is the singular most

important feature is a passage. It contained the information that the author is trying

to pass across to you the reader. By the time you have read through the passage,

you should be able to identify what the point of the passage is.
The background of the point is the information that you need in order to recognize

the point. You need to make use of your discernment to know whether a statement

is background information or just some supporting evidence to a claim.

Support is a piece of extra or additional information that buttresses the main point

of the passage. This support can come in the form of case studies, pieces of

evidence or examples.

Implications of the point simply mean post-effects of the main point. These can

also be likened to the consequences or end results of the main point. They are quite

the easiest to understand out of the four essential building blocks to any GRE

passage.

When you are able to identify the essential building blocks in a passage, you would

be able to answer the questions quicker and with more accuracy, thus saving time

and earning yourself a higher score.

D. READING COMPREHENSION: THE PROCESS TO COMPLETELY ACE

READING COMPREHENSION IN THE GRE

Now that you know the question types and composition of the GRE test, the

next cause of action is to know how you can fire yourself to success in the tests.

This section of the article would discuss how you can do just that with these 5 easy

steps. Begin by completely reading the first and last paragraph and then the first

and last sentences in the other paragraphs To save yourself a lot of time in the GRE

test, you do not need to read every single paragraph in the passage. Completely
read only the first paragraph so as to get the point that the writer or author is trying

to pass across to you the reader. The point of the passage is usually contained in

the first paragraph while the implication of the point or conclusion is in the last

paragraph.

When you are done with the first and last paragraphs, you can then move on to

other paragraphs in the passage. With the other paragraphs read only the first and

last sentences so that you can have a general overview of the text’s structure. You

could also begin by reading the questions first. This way, you have the question at

the back of your mind and can easily point out the answers when you find them.

a. Takes notes as you read the paragraphs

Taking notes while reading is one sure way of getting you a high score on the

reading comprehension section. When you take notes, you are working your brain

more and making it more aware of the conscious effort you are making to

remember something.

Also when you write things out by yourself instead of just reading them, you

would remember those things more and for a longer time too. The note where you

write in should be one that you can carry around so that you can sneak a peek or

two even when you are on the move. Don’t use multiple notes unless you want to

defeat the purpose of keeping a note.

When you jot a note down, you also save yourself the time and stress of having to

go through a whole lot of resources or materials just to find a particular sentence.

You don’t want to write another textbook so keep the notes as small as possible.

Write down only important or relevant information like keywords or phrases. Also,

write down words that you do not understand but would want to know the meaning

of later.

It is not necessary that you write your notes down in full text. You should use a

medium that you are totally comfortable with. Some students have found out that

when they use symbols or illustrations, they remember certain things more. You

can do the same too. Find out what works for you and use it so as to increase

efficiency.

b. Identify Key Words and Signal Words

Understanding keywords and signal words are important if you want to ace reading

comprehension in GRE. You need to identify these words and find out what they

mean to the passage. Although we have advised that you should not read the entire

text of a passage, it is important that you peruse the text for the sole purpose of

identifying the keywords and signal words.

Take note of keywords and the meaning that they have in a passage. This might

require that you have a jotter or notepad handy so as to take your notes quicker. All

the reading comprehension that you would find in the GRE and even elsewhere for

that matter have keywords and phrases that you need to take notice of. These

words can sometimes be referred to as signal words. Examples of these words

include for example, furthermore, therefore, firstly, in contrast, on the contrary, the
sequel to that, nevertheless, many believe, according, subject to, whether and so on

like that.

c. Create a visual movie in your head

When you are done with reading the paragraphs in a passage and have taken as

many notes as is needed, the next logical step is to start finding answers to the

questions. That sequence is exactly what you should follow if you are sure that you

are not under any pressure at all.

If you are under pressure though, it is likely that you would have forgotten many of

the things that you have read from the passage. You might be able to answer the

first question but might find yourself running back and forth the passage so as to

answer the remaining questions. Doing this would waste a lot of your time.

What you need to do in this case is to create a visual movie in your head. Take a

maximum of 30 seconds to replay the whole passage in your head in the right

sequence. If you happen to do this successfully then you would be able to answer

the questions better.

d. Start Answering The Questions

If you read the article from the beginning then you should be already familiar with

the different kind of questions that are common on the GRE. With the right

strategy, you should be able to answer the question thrown at you correctly.
Remember that for Multiple Select questions, you do not get any scores forgetting

one or two of the options correctly. Miss one and you miss it all. You have to

choose the options correctly to be awarded any scores.

Understand the question well before you choose your answer and do not try to be

overconfident when answering questions.

Other things that you can do to ace is the reading comprehension on the GRE

include practicing beforehand with the authorized GRE material from ETS and

also make sure to work on areas you know you need help with.

CHAPTER III

CONCLUSION

Many fall on the way as they race to ace reading comprehension in GRE, but we

are sure that you can find your way all to the finish line if you follow the

guidelines that are outlined in this article.