HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR READING

READING TIPS FOR THOSE WHO WANT MORE FROM A TEXT

How to practise reading effectively? How to make the most of it? How to use reading as a speaking practice tool?

Reading is often considered the boring part. Unless you like reading everything. If you don't, you may want to make the most of your exam reading, or at least more than just doing a test.

You might already know that at the STANAG 6001 level 3 reading, there are two tasks.

Both TASK 1 and TASK 2 are multiple choice tests. The difference is that in TASK 1 the texts are short (about 70-80 words) and there is one question related to each text with three (a, b, c) possible answers. There are 13 to 14 short texts in this task.

In TASK 2, there is one text which is much longer (about 800 words) and there are 6 or 7 questions related to the text with four (a, b, c, d) possible answers.

There are a few things you can do with the exam texts after you have answered the test questions.

 

SHORT TEXTS

 

SPEAKING AND VOCABULARY EXERCISES

TIP 1

Read the short text again and write down 5 words that you find the most important for the content/story of this piece of news.

Then, use these five words to reconstruct the text. Record yourself. Listen and check your story.

 

TIP 2

Read the short text again and write down all the dates, numbers and names. Without looking at the text, say what they refer to and what they mean. Record yourself. Listen and check your facts.

 

TIP 3

Use the words and facts from TIP 1 and TIP 2 to make a completely different story. Record yourself and check your language accuracy.

 

WRITING EXERCISES

TIP 4

Write a title for every short text.

 

TIP 5

Write a 1-2 sentence summary of the short text.

 

LONG TEXTS

SPEAKING AND VOCABULARY EXERCISES

TIP 6

Draw a mind map of a long text from task 2 or any longer text from a newspaper or internet using the key vocabulary. Below you can see a mind map I created for the model exam long text available on www.wsnjo.wp.mil.pl.

Then, use your mind map to tell what the text is about. Record yourself and check your story.

 

 

TIP 7 

Use your mind map from TIP 6 and define in English all the key words you used to make it.

 

TIP 8

Use the keywords from the mind map to create a differnt story.

 

TIP 9

Write down questions about all the numbers, names and dates that appear in the text. If you are working in pairs, ask the questions about the text in pairs checking how much you remember.

 

WRITING EXERCISES

TIP 10

Write a title for each paragraph of the long text.

 

TIP 11

Write a 1-2 sentence summary of each paragraph of the text. Then, put them together to write a summary of the whole text.

 

These exercise should allow you to revise the new vocabulary from the texts, practise speaking and writing, as well as to practise reading and understanding the text as a whole.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to comment below ⬇⬇⬇ or contact me directly by email at info@stanagexpert.com