Quick Tip: Think of Examples
Part of what makes Reading Comprehension so difficult is that the language is often very abstract. One thing you can do to combat this is to try to think of examples throughout. A philosophy-heavy law or art passage may seem daunting, but it becomes easier when you try to frame the discussion by applying it to laws you know or art you like.
Improving Low-Resolution Summaries
Low-resolution (or low-res) summaries are an important tool for tackling Reading Comprehension. These are very short big-picture summaries of the paragraphs in a passage. They serve a few purposes: they keep you engaged in what you are reading, they force you to synthesize the information, and they also serve as your guide for the questions. There is no singular “perfect” low-res summary—the best summary is one that works for you personally. However, there are ways that you can improve them. Here is a checklist you can use when reviewing to evaluate your low-res summaries and make them more useful.
- Was this short, visual, and easily scannable? Part of the point of making a summary is so you don’t have to weed through line after line of text. If your low-res summary is not actually low-res, you’re not solving this problem for yourself. You want to be able to reference it quickly and easily like you would a Logic Games board.
- Identify the conclusion of each paragraph and consider if your low-res summary captures this conclusion accurately. You don’t need to perfectly copy this conclusion; in fact, that’s likely to use too many words. But including a word or two to prompt yourself and remember the author’s main point will go a long way.
- Identify the purpose of each paragraph. Is it to provide context or evidence, to advance the argument, to give an example, to question, etc.? (There could be more than one purpose, though usually there is a main purpose.) Consider if your low-res summary captures this purpose.
- Look through the questions. For each question, ask yourself if your low-res summary gave you enough information. Did it direct you to the right part of the passage to find the answer? For questions that ask about the broad structure of the passage, you should be able to rely on just your low-res summary with minimal time looking back at the text. For questions that point to specific words or lines, you may have to look back, but you should be able to use your summary as a starting point to lead you to the right place in the passage.
- After looking through the questions, look back at your summary. Was there information included that wasn’t needed for the questions? You may be including more than you need.
Summarizing a passage is a skill that you can practice and improve on. Check out the Core Curriculum lesson on low-resolution summaries here.