13. Reading Comprehension Strategies for ESL Students (and everyone else!)

Struggling with reading comprehension questions on your standardized test? Often that's the case when you're not reading the passages in the most effective way. In this episode we share three strategies for improving your overall reading proficiency, for reading the passages in a way that sets you up for success on a majority of questions, for quickly and accurately determining the author's primary purpose, and for adopting the right mindset when you're dealing with reading comprehension passages in general.

The core content for this episode is excerpted from a webinar we recently did for the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. While the webinar was geared toward GRE candidates for whom English isn't their native language, the tips and strategies are relevant for all test takers.

When you get to the part about "finding the thesis sentence" and using the "bracketing technique" to focus on Big Picture, you can reference the following webinar slides for visual reinforcement:

Webinar Slide Deck (Reading Comprehension portion): https://dominatetestprep.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/Reading_Comp_Tips_from_RossVet_Webinar.pdf

Here's the passage itself for easy reference:

Reviving the practice of using elements of popular music in classical composition, an approach that had been in hibernation in the United States during the 1960s, composer Philip Glass (born 1937) embraced the ethos of popular music in his compositions. Glass based two symphonies on music by rock musicians David Bowie and Brian Eno, but the symphonies' sound is distinctively his. Popular elements do not appear out of place in Glass's classical music, which from its early days has shared certain harmonies and rhythms with rock music. Yet this use of popular elements has not made Glass a composer of popular music. His music is not a version of popular music packaged to attract classical listeners; it is high art for listeners steeped in rock rather than the classics.

Additionally, I referenced the podcast episode where we explored ways to improve your English vocabulary. If you haven't listened to that yet, it's Episode #12. You can navigate directly do it here: http://dominatetestprep.buzzsprout.com/548431/2274014-12-the-best-way-to-improve-your-vocabulary

Finally, here's an article/study talking about the importance of reading at least 15 minutes per day if you want to accelerate your reading proficiency: https://www.renaissance.com/2018/01/23/blog-magic-15-minutes-reading-practice-reading-growth/

As always, you can contact us here: https://www.dominatetestprep.com/pages/contact-us

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