preparing for your reading test

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 2

pre-reading phase 

Look at the title 

pictures

cursive/ words in bold

skim and scan 

What do I already know about the subject? (prior knowledge)

What do I think this text is about (prediction)

Look at the questions (but not the answers) 

Reading phase 

After reading the questions you start reading the text. Mark in the text where you think the possible answers on the questions are.

Usually, but not always, the text and questions are built chronologically, so the answer on the first question can be found before the answer on the second question.

Formulate your own answer on the questions.

After reading phase

Look at the questions again and see which answer comes closest to your own formulated answer on the question.

for the test

• 3xA is a possibility.
  
• Also when you have a question with true or false there is a possibility that all statements are true or all statements are false.
  
• If you don't know the answer leave the question open and continue, look at the question again, when you have finished all the other questions. If you still don't know the answer take a guess. Never leave a question open, because this is always marked as incorrect.
• Make sure you sleep and eat well before the test. 

Invasion of the alien ants 

Do I know something about this subject already?

1. yes
2. no

What if you don't know a word?

Decide if the word is important. Do you need to know it to understand the text?

Decide what the word means by looking at the context. Is it a verb or a noun? Is it positive or negative? Does it contain parts of words you know?

Difficult words during the test

You may encounter some difficult words during the test, how to deal with them?

1) Do I need to understand this word to understand the text or to answer a question? Yes/no?

2) Can I guess the meaning by looking at the surrounding words/sentence?

3) Do I know a word in an other language that looks similar (watch out for false friends)

Signal words

Signal words are very important for understanding a text. 

You can also find lists online by googling for 'signal words' or 'linking words', but only do so after today's lesson.

ADDITION

• and
• as well as
• additionally
• along with
• also
• furthermore
• besides
• on top of that
• in addition
• to add to that
• plus
• moreover
  

COMPARISON

• similarly
• likewise
• in the same way
• as well
• too
• in common
• equally
  

CONTRAST

• but
• although
• though
  
• however
• in contrast
• on the contrary
• on the other hand
• nevertheless
• yet
• despite
  

EXPLANATION

• because
• since
• for
• as
  

What signal words do you remember

What tips would you give

Do you find this lesson about reading useful?