6 Essential Tips for College-level Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the understanding of what a given text means and the ideas the writer is trying to convey. Many people always lack an opportunity to get the big picture portrayed in text due to the lack of good reading skills. Your brain should be able to understand the context behind the words. Writers and authors can convey several ideas in small text, and it is the readers to read comprehensively in order to get all the message and ideas the writer is trying conveying and express. Below are some tips that will help you improve your reading comprehension skills.

1. Understand and re-evaluate your current reading ability

Before looking for improvements, you must first know the limitations in your current reading style. Get to know for how long are you able to concentrate - if it’s 30 minutes, acknowledge it and try to slowly build up your reading stamina. Whenever you find your concentration lagging take a step back before pushing yourself for more. Improving your reading comprehension skills involves many things, but this is where to start, knowing your limitations and abilities. Your reading speed is also a very important aspect, are you too slow or too fast? If you are too fast that might lead to a lack of interpretation as you may be reading just for the sake of reading. Being slow is always not the best option also, you need to be able to read at a moderate speed. It is via reading we get some skills and know-how and therefore the more you read, the more intelligent you become.

2. Vocabularies

To read comprehensively, you must have a good command of the language you are reading. Reading is one of the best ways to improve your vocabulary abilities. When you encounter a word, you don’t know what it means when you are reading a text note it down. Sometimes you can be able to extract the meaning from the contextual clues but if you can’t get to know their meaning from the dictionary. Practice using the new words in both verbal and written communication to get a better understanding.

3. Summarizing what you have read

Some writings are long to be read once, you can’t be able to read a novel once, and instead, you should summarize every chapter you read. Summarizing helps you get a better understanding. Get used to writing a summary every time you read. This short notes you write are very important if you are a student, instead of having to read an entire book you only have to read your summarized notes to get the whole understanding in a few minutes. Go back to the book whenever you get confused. Re-read the text more than once if you haven’t yet got a clear message or idea from your reading. If you feel like you need my assignment help online, you can review some of the professional writing services available.

4. Discuss with a friend

What you are able to extract from a given text is different from what your friends get. If you have a friend in the same class get used to discussing with him/her. Don’t rely on your friend’s ideas only, express yours too. The more you talk about a given topic, the more you will get a better understanding.

5. Concentration

Reading without concentration is a total waste of time. If you are reading while your mind is thinking of something else you can’t be able to extract any message from a text. Create an enabling environment for you to read, a place with fewer distractions from friends, noise and many things that may take your concentration. Reading from a quiet place is more effective than reading in noisy places. You should choose the best place to read free from distractions such as libraries.

6. Preview

This refers to surveying a text before reading. Previewing a text prepares your mind to read a given text. Have a look at the key points in your textbook: title, table of content, glossary, and introduction. Previewing a text lets, you know what you are going to read on.

Header Image Credit: Highfield School