Part II

Enhancing Your RLA Skills

Five Tips for Improving Reading Comprehension

  • Skim first. Read quickly through the passage to get the gist of what the passage is about. Doing so helps you identify the main point and gives you a framework on which to hang the details.
  • Silently ask questions as you read. What’s the point? What’s the writer’s purpose? Why am I reading this? Well-written passages often raise questions and answer them. As you read a passage, what questions arise? How are they answered?
  • Take notes. As you read, jot down the main idea and a list of supporting details. This technique is especially useful for the Extended Response item, where you’re asked to support your position with evidence from the passage(s).
  • Use context to construe the meaning of unfamiliar words. If you don’t know the meaning of a word, you can often guess its definition by the context in which it’s used.
  • Reread. If you read some text that doesn’t make sense to you at first, read it again with a greater focus.
  • Keep track of time. You’re going to be taking a time-limited test, so you need to balance skimming versus reading in depth so that you have sufficient time to finish.

webextra Head to www.dummies.com/extras/gedrlatest for even more tips to improve reading speed and comprehension.

In this part …

check.png Discover techniques for improving your reading comprehension and analyzing passages on a deeper level.

check.png Find out how to pick apart arguments, spot faulty logic and assumptions, and decide which of two sides of an argument is better supported in any two passages.

check.png Take a quick primer on English grammar and usage so you can easily identify and correct the most common errors and eliminate errors in your own writing.

check.png Get the lowdown on what evaluators look for when scoring the Extended Response essay and find out how to nail the essay writing portion of the test.