I just started the content for reading comprehension, and I have found it helpful so far to highlight as I am reading to differentiate between different perspectives, along with different parts of the essay, like the argument, reasoning, or evidence. Is this a common strategy? Or would it be too time-consuming to do on an actual exam?
To what extent do y'all highlight/underline in reading comprehension?
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4 comments
I know you posted this last week but I wanted to share my experience! As the tutor who replied said its totally dependent on the person and some people love highlighting, and others hate it. I used to highlight everything I thought would be important, but that doesn't really work when you don't fully understand what you're looking for (structure, not content) because I was focusing on all the wrong things. Highlighting perspectives distracted me from focusing in on the author's opinion especially, but that obviously isn't the case for everyone.
My current strategy is that I only highlight words that show the author (and sometimes other people who are mentioned) opinion, since that's what I tend to miss on first pass. That's literally all I highlight (which is still a decent amount of highlighting) and this has done wonders for both my speed and accuracy
@KenickieHenderson Gotcha. Thanks for the reply!
Hello!
First of all, there is no single best method for using the highlight tool! It varies from person to person, and the best strategy is simply the one that yields the highest accuracy and comfort for you.
That being said, I know that a lot of students do not utilize highlights at all, with various reasons. Some of the ones that I heard include: 'It's time consuming,' 'When I highlight, I naturally focus more on highlighting rather than actually understanding the text,' 'Even if I highlight, I never go back and it read it,' and so on.
On the other hand, many students do use it! Some reasons include: 'It helps me remember exactly where the author's main point or a specific viewpoint is located,' 'It maintains my reading rhythm,' 'I use different colors for different people's perspectives,' an so on.
In short, many successful students do exactly what you are doing! However, if you ever catch yourself thinking, 'I'm highlighting this because it looks important, but I'm not really comprehending what it means,' you need to pull back and reduce your reliance on the tool.
Since you are just starting your RC prep, it is fine to use highlights often to help train your brain to look for structure and perspectives. However, as you practice more, I recommend experimenting with reducing your usage to see how it affects your reading pace and accuracy. I hope this helps!
@SerinJ That's super helpful. Thank you!