DD struggling with comprehension
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DD struggling with comprehension
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?
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?
Re: DD struggling with comprehension
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!
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Re: DD struggling with comprehension
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.
Re: DD struggling with comprehension
Sorry she is 10 end of Aug....so sitting 11plus this September.
Re: DD struggling with comprehension
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.
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Re: DD struggling with comprehension
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.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.
Re: DD struggling with comprehension
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.