DD struggling with comprehension

CEM 11 Plus is the selective entrance exam administered by the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, Department of Education, University of Durham.

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choceyes
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed May 08, 2019 2:16 pm

DD struggling with comprehension

Post by choceyes »

Hi, I'm after a few tips perhaps to help my DD with her comprehension. She is finding CEM comprehension difficult.
Her understanding is not that bad (although she does sometimes take things a bit too literally) but she doubts herself when trying to choose the right answer. She tries to rush through the reading of the passage and then she doesn't know where the relevant information is and then as soon as she sees a particular word that was mentioned in the answer she will jump on it and make assumptions without reading the rest of the sentence/paragraph.
She also gets confused with the multiple choice answers.
We are doing the CGP assessment tests at the moment and they are tough, the later ones, even I get a bit confused at the MC answers! aged 10-11 and she is only 9.5yrs. So is this a case of being a bit young for it and what can I do to help her?
I read to her every night and ask her a few questions, read a couple of classics together, not a huge fan of them, but we do make sure she reads something challenging every night and when you ask her a question she definitely knows what's going on.

Any tips?
Nella
Posts: 231
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2019 8:56 am

Re: DD struggling with comprehension

Post by Nella »

Hi, I think it would be better to leave the question papers until she’s older; even reading the classics- That’s one way to put a person off reading for life! Find something she enjoys reading, I think at this stage it’s best to encourage a love of reading for readings sake. Read the books too so you can chat about them, but in a fun way rather than a testing way. If she’s 9 and a half she’ll be doing the 11+ in 2021? That’s ages away so read for pleasure!
Brackenboo
Posts: 441
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2018 11:21 am

Re: DD struggling with comprehension

Post by Brackenboo »

Something we found worked, was rather than reading the whole passage first, was to read the question then look at the text and carry on this way. We found to begin with that she would read it once, then try to answer all the questions without referring back and like you mentioned choosing an answer if she knew she had seen that word. We used the CGP 10 minute tests rather than the assessment tests. We looked at our first one of those at Easter.
choceyes
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed May 08, 2019 2:16 pm

Re: DD struggling with comprehension

Post by choceyes »

Sorry she is 10 end of Aug....so sitting 11plus this September.
choceyes
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed May 08, 2019 2:16 pm

Re: DD struggling with comprehension

Post by choceyes »

Thanks for that tip Brackenboo. We will try that out, reading the question first. Intention is to start doing the 10min tests in April perhaps. At the moment I sit with her to go through the text and make sure she reads the whole thing, but then she looks at me for answers when doing the questions rather than doing it herself. I might get her to do it on her own and the 10min tests being shorted she might be more focused.
squareofthewicket
Posts: 172
Joined: Wed Jul 12, 2017 7:42 am

Re: DD struggling with comprehension

Post by squareofthewicket »

Brackenboo wrote:Something we found worked, was rather than reading the whole passage first, was to read the question then look at the text and carry on this way. We found to begin with that she would read it once, then try to answer all the questions without referring back and like you mentioned choosing an answer if she knew she had seen that word. We used the CGP 10 minute tests rather than the assessment tests. We looked at our first one of those at Easter.
I had to stress to my DD that answering comprehension questions is not a memory test. My DD used to read the questions first as well and then read the entire passage and then start answering the questions.
Deb70
Posts: 340
Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2018 5:00 pm

Re: DD struggling with comprehension

Post by Deb70 »

A friend of mine is a tutor and advises not reading the passage at all!! He says that the questions are in order, ie question 1 is about something at the start of the passage, question 2 about something after that and so on. So reading the passage first in the actual test wastes time and won't help them to answer the questions because they still have to keep checking back. My DS who did CEM said he kind of skim read it first just for one minute, then marked which bit question 1 was about, then q2 etc so he could quickly cut to the relevant section for each question.
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