Guidelines for Reading Comprehension

Factual and Discursive

• Read the passages carefully.
  
  
• Read through the questions. Very often clues are present in the questions.
  
  
• Diagrams, tables and flow charts point to some relations between events like causes, effects or classification. Flow charts often require sequencing of events or processes.
  
  
• Learn to read between lines and look for the inner meaning.
  
  
• Most factual answers are directly present in the passage. However the questions are framed sometimes deliberately to confuse you. Be alert to this.
  
  
• Use one word only if the instruction says so.
  
  
• Use precise and correct words to express your answer.
  
  
• Be alert to different parts in a question. Do not omit any part.
  
  
• Try to guess the contextual meaning of words for locating the exact words in the passage.
  
  
• Avoid picking out direct lines from the passage. Try to answer in your own words.
  
  
• Not necessarily the sequence of questions matches the sequence in the passage. Understand the question well and then attempt to answer.
  
  
• Read the passage at least twice.
  
  

Poetry

• Read the poem carefully.
  
  
• Read the title of the poem. Very often many an answer is found in the title.
  
  

For e.g., A doctor's journal entry for Aug 6, 1945.

This tells you the profession of the narrator who is making a diary entry and lastly the date tells you that the poem could be about bombings in Japan.

• A summary with blanks to fill in is normally given. Try to fill up the blanks and again re-read the summary properly for a better understanding.
  
  
• Read the questions carefully. Read the poem again and also the summary. Now attempt the questions.
  
  
• Avoid picking out direct lines from the poem as answer. Answer in your own words taking a few words from the poem.
  
  
• You are sometimes asked to identify figures of speech such as the simile, metaphor, alliteration and personification. You may be asked to explain these figures of speech also.
  
  
• You may be asked to pick out the rhyme scheme.
  
  
• You may be asked the contextual meanings of words.
  
  
• Learn to read between lines. Especially in poetry, words and lines contain a deeper meaning. Train yourself to read that meaning.
  
  
• However difficult a poem may be, a summary in simple language is always given below. That summary should be your guideline.
  
  
• Be alert to use only one word if the instruction says so. If it is not specified you could use more than one word.
  
  
• The answers should be precise and correct.