Tackling multiple choice comprehension

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Bob1892
Posts: 1186
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:14 am

Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by Bob1892 »

Hi
Is there a BEST technique for doing multiple choice comprehensions?
Some suggest scanning the passage then read the question then going back to the passage BEFORE looking at the possible answers whereas others gave suggested reading the question first and then looking at the possible answers THEN scanning the passage?
Any ideas?
southbucks3
Posts: 3579
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by southbucks3 »

Quickly read the passage first, then questions, as there are questions deliberately poised to catch out. Such as: 'where was so and so aiming to reach'...well he goes to dover first, but eventually ends up in london. The kids who read questions first end up doing lots of corrections, also questions do not present in text order, so they spend ages trying to find the right paragraph. You can also teach them to skim read to look for people/places mentioned and underline them, but that only picks up the simple questions not inferred types.
Hate multi choice comps, anything that encourages kids to skim read fictional literature should be banned, it also clashes with what they are taught in school..grrrrrrr!
Sanna
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:34 pm

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by Sanna »

There may not be one single 'best' approach for multiple choice comprehension, I would suggest that it depends both on who writes the paper and how time pressured it is, and also on your specific child's strengths and weaknesses.

The one specific thing I believe about mutiple choice comprehensions is that they try to be hard enough by using more inference type questions, and for these the child does need to have a better overall understanding of the passage as the answer won't necessarily lie on a single line.

Examples of matching approach to paper/child:
- I've seen people post to this forum to say that CEM papers tend to be very time pressured and children are unlikely to have the time to go backwards and forwards between passage and questions
- children who work fast may be prone to making errors, for them, it may be best to refer back to the passage for every single question
- children who have good memories and good comprehension skills may not need to refer back so often and still get it right
- a child with speed problems or tracking problems may be better off not going backwards and forwards between questions and passage

From my experience with my DS doing CEM comprehension we decided it was best to keep it simple and not introduce unnecessary extra steps or complexity. He's an avid reader with strong comprehension but slow processing speed. For him it worked to read the passage once, go to each question, answer it immediately if he could, and refer back to the passage just when necessary. He found the real one straightforward and finished with plenty of time to spare.

So I would recommend trying different versions of 'best' practice...
Last edited by Sanna on Tue Oct 08, 2013 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ginx
Posts: 2151
Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:47 pm
Location: Warwickshire

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by ginx »

I don't think dc have time to go back to the text, they need to read it very carefully first time. There is not time. It can take a long time to go back, re-read, remember the question, and the answer is often obvious from the text - it is comprehension of the text, if that makes sense.

Sanna is right. Practice can help.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by mystery »

What publications and websites did you use for your multiple choice comprehension practice?
Daogroupie
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Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by Daogroupie »

I recommend reading the passage first and underlining key events and characters as you go. Then read the questions and possible answers. Then you must return to the text to check your answer as it will be deliberately designed to trap you and you may well remember it wrong. Speed is the enemy of comprehension questions just as it is with wordy maths questions. Many of those boys who found the QE mc comprehension questions easy will have misread the question and/or the answer and will not be receiving the result they are expecting on Saturday. Lots of mocks is the key to iron out the issues. DG
southbucks3
Posts: 3579
Joined: Tue Dec 18, 2012 11:59 am

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by southbucks3 »

Whatever DIY Mum recommended, hopefully she will pick up on this because she is brilliant with cem verbal reasoning advice.
Sanna
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:34 pm

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by Sanna »

Sanna wrote:
So I would recommend trying different versions of 'best' practice...
Hi Mystery, I just meant by this that it can be good to try out a variety of different types of approaches to tackling multiple choice comprehensions to see what works best for your child and the style/time pressure of the particular type of comprehension test your child is sitting.

I'm not sure I'm best to advise on actual publishers as we didn't do a huge amount of practise in the end (which worried me hugely before the exam!).

I did sneak some comprehension practise into bedtimes when I read to my DS... poor boy! I couldn't get away with much of it. We just did a few shorter type multiple choice comprehensions over the summer and I tried to vary the publisher so he would be more resilient. I think we used a few from the CGP CEM style verbal and comprehension book, I gave him the Lancashire school practice comprehension that was linked to elsewhere (they seemed closer to inference type questions), and the Bexley CEM practice test.

If we had spent more time on it earlier in the year I would have tried picking out the comprehension bits from Tutor Masters Comprehension Practice Multiple Choice set 1 and Bond 11+ English test papers - the multiple choice version. I have seen parents recommend that non-multiple choice practice is also useful to build skills but my DS is dyslexic and finds the bigger amount of writing involved very tedious so we avoided those. He's not going to love SATs practice this year!

(Edited to correct those sneaky typos!)
Bob1892
Posts: 1186
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:14 am

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by Bob1892 »

Sanna wrote:
Sanna wrote:
So I would recommend trying different versions of 'best' practice...
Hi Mystery, I just meant by this that it can be good to try out a variety of different types of approaches to tackling multiple choice comprehensions to see what works best for your child and the style/time pressure of the particular type of comprehension test your child is sitting.

I'm not sure I'm best to advise on actual publishers as we didn't do a huge amount of practise in the end (which worried me hugely before the exam!).

I did sneak some comprehension practise into bedtimes when I read to my DS... poor boy! I couldn't get away with much of it. We just did a few shorter type multiple choice comprehensions over the summer and I tried to vary the publisher so he would be more resilient. I think we used a few from the CGP CEM style verbal and comprehension book, I gave him the Lancashire school practice comprehension that was linked to elsewhere (they seemed closer to inference type questions), and the Bexley CEM practice test.

If we had spent more time on it earlier in the year I would have tried picking out the comprehension bits from Tutor Masters Comprehension Practice Multiple Choice set 1 and Bond 11+ English test papers - the multiple choice version. I have seen parents recommend that non-multiple choice practice is also useful to build skills but my DS is dyslexic and finds the bigger amount of writing involved very tedious so we avoided those. He's not going to love SATs practice this year!

(Edited to correct those sneaky typos!)
Could you please provide a link for the Lancashire School test?
Thanks
Bob
Sanna
Posts: 49
Joined: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:34 pm

Re: Tackling multiple choice comprehension

Post by Sanna »

This one http://www.lrgs.org.uk/sites/default/fi ... REVISE.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lancaster Royal Grammar School. I found the link somewhere else on this very useful forum!
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