You must be wondering how to break the barrier of scoring more than 25/50 marks for the EL Paper 2 comprehension paper in secondary school. And you are sick and tired of being told to…

“Read more books so that you can do your comprehension better!”
“Practise more comprehension papers!”

(I know how it feels like to receive such well-meaning advice. I used to get them when I was a student!)

As an English Language and Literature teacher, and former English HOD, let me share 5 effective strategies that have helped my students improve their English comprehension results (and get their distinctions at the same time):

• Practice active reading: This means engaging with the text by asking yourself questions about the text and making connections to your own knowledge. Focus on how specific choices of words (diction) and figurative language are used to convey ideas in the texts.

• Summarize what you read: After you finish reading a section, try to summarize it in your own words. This will help you understand the main ideas and identify important details.

• Use context clues: When you come across an unknown word, try to use the context of the sentence to understand its meaning.

• Practise reading different types of texts: Reading different genres of text will expose you to a wide range of vocabulary and sentence structures, and improve your understanding of different writing styles. Remember, the more you read, the more you know!

• Discuss the text with others: Talking about what you’ve read with other people will help you solidify your understanding of the text, and will also expose you to different perspectives. In the process, as iron sharpens iron, you will grow in your understanding and comprehension skills.

Remember that continual practice is essential, as well as being motivated to engage with interesting texts.

In Impact Circle’s English online lessons, our highly experienced teachers guide their students to acquire effective comprehension skills and strategies like the ones shared in this post. In fact, we have more impactful reading comprehension and answering strategies that help our students to improve their results. Sign up for a free trial online lesson.