Reading comprehension questions - love or hate 'em?

[AExAVF]

I must admit that I used to dislike reading comprehension questions, though these kinds of questions are often found in college entrace examinations.  Back in my senior high school year, I took an entrance exam for a public university in my country, and my average in answering reading comprehension questions is at a 60+ percentile.

Now, I am applying for the government service exams, and I expect reading comprehension questions will be coming out.  I don't have a problem with English questions, but non-English reading comprehension questions will slightly tick me off a bit.  In effect, I now have a mixed opinion on these kinds of questions.  I don't necessarily love them, but I don't hate them as much compared to my high school years.

[SpringBreeze]

Yah, reading comprehension sucked when I was in school and being graded for it. But now that I'm older, I am grateful. Whoever thought that to get a retail job, you'd have to take a computer test that is supposed to judge your personality and work ethics but in the end really judges your english proficiency and comprehension skills.

Anyway, I think reading comprehension is important. In school you were only forced to comprehend unimportant stuff. But in the real world, you need to be to understand contracts, news articles, reports, business emails, and etc. This is one subject that you will use over and over again.

[Kektheman]

I liked having reading comprehension tasks. Those were always the easiest for me and worth a lot of points. But many of my classmates hated those. if you are struggling with English, reading comprehension tasks can be a pain in the behind.

[Rosa]

Yes, answering Reading Comprehension questions can often times be a challenge for many. It can leave you in a daze and have you thinking whether or not the questions really had answers to them in the same passage you just read. It takes quite a bit of focusing to get through and most times it seems as though the time given to complete the paper is slipping away.

[calebmelvern]

Like the other user, I also remember these questions were the easiest for me to answer. But most, if not all, of my classmates hated reading comprehension. I don't know if that's because they were just lazy to read or if such questions are really more difficult in general. As for me, I love reading. And it's a skill that everyone should have.

[Kektheman]

  On 8/12/2014 at 3:21 AM, calebmelvern said:

Like the other user, I also remember these questions were the easiest for me to answer. But most, if not all, of my classmates hated reading comprehension. I don't know if that's because they were just lazy to read or if such questions are really more difficult in general. As for me, I love reading. And it's a skill that everyone should have.

I don't think ti has anything to do with laziness. Reading comprehension focuses on understanding, hence the name. If you are having a hard time even understanding the text, you can't possibly do well on such tasks. Reading comprehension usually involves idioms and advanced things like that, and those are even harder if you haven't yet mastered the language.

[Trellum]

Yeah, comprehension has never been my thing, I didn't do so well with it to be honest.  Sadly comprehension questions are most of the time present in the most important exams, I know it is for a reason, but they really give me the hardest time ever.

[chigreyofthenorns]

I love them! I mean this is how I learned the valuable skill of skimming articles. Haha. Seriously though, I used to compete in reading comprehension contests. Yes, there are competitions here dedicated to that.

[beccagreen]

I always hated those especially on tests. I mean, sure it's good to have a few questions but my God 50 questions and all of them reading comprehension? I hit that once when I was taking an exam for my English class credit and from then on I hated it.

[raytalks]

I used to like doing comprehension questions, it always amazed me because I always felt like the answer is right in front of me. True there can be some real tricky questions, and I think I may have skipped a few when I have done them. But in general I like them.

[TheJamal]

Agreed. I hated reading comprehension questions when I was younger and throughout high school, but I'm a lot more thankful for them now. No matter what job you're in, reading comprehension will apply in some format to that line of work. Being able to take a set of instructions or passage and understand what it is going on is something that we have to do on a daily basis.

Now, the questions that try and trick you and you have to determine the hidden meaning of a literature passage don't have NEAR the same level of worth.

[maryannballeras]

Reading comprehension exams can be a pain especially if you were given a certain time limit to answer it.  But if there's no time pressure, reading comprehension can be fun.  Because unlike other exams, here you don't have to memorize anything -- you'll just have to understand and analyze what you read, and that's it!

[Trellum]

  On 9/16/2014 at 9:44 AM, beccagreen said:

I always hated those especially on tests. I mean, sure it's good to have a few questions but my God 50 questions and all of them reading comprehension? I hit that once when I was taking an exam for my English class credit and from then on I hated it.

Same here!  When I know it is a timed test I just get blocked and freeze for a bit, as if I was being sabotaged by my own brain, lol.  Because it's when I know I got to hurry up that I usually freeze!  I just freeze and have no idea what to do!  That's not a problem, unless the test is timed, it is... then bummer! I'll most likely fail!

[Baburra]

I like these types of questions because they are fairly easy for me to answer. I prefer it much more than solving math equations, that's for sure. The only thing I dislike about these is sometimes having to go back and re-read the paragraph because I've missed or forgotten something, but in general I kind of enjoy it.

[arthuryan1]

I love reading comprehension questions because they follow so naturally after reading a passage. Interestingly enough, though, I'm the worst at reading comprehension. Of my standardized testing scores, reading ranks the lowest. I find reading quizzes for novels extremely difficult since it's difficult to recall everything that happened without reading through a book multiple times. Because of my difficulty with them, I have mixed feelings; they're fun to do, but I'm just not that good at them.

[zabina12]

There are also times that I get irritated answering those reading comprehension questions. It is because these questions are usually long since you need to read the paragraph or part of a story in order to answer the questions correctly. If it is not too long, it is just fine with me.

[takibari]

I understand the need to have reading comprehension questions in standardized exams. In that regard, I neither love nor hate them. What I have beef against RC tests are its LENGTH. When the passage is super lengthy it becomes a test on memory. It stops testing the test taker of their ability to understand the passage as it now becomes a clear test on their ability to recall contents. I really cannot equate comprehension ability and retention ability.

[czarina84]

I like reading comprehension questions.  Honestly, I like any comprehension questions.  Whether you get them right or wrong, they are helpful.  I liked seeing that I got everything correct, but I also liked seeing where I misunderstood things, so that I would know what to go over more thoroughly to learn it better.

[AExAVF]

Looking back, I have gained a new appreciation for reading comprehension questions.  When it comes to reading news articles, Wikipedia articles, newspaper opinions and commentaries, you will have to formulate your own questions at the back of your mind.  Instead of simply reading the articles, you will formulate your own opinion and insights as you read on.  Even in my Elementary Japanese 1 class, we also had reading comprehension questions, and I have scored better.  Reading comprehension is an indispensable part of critical thinking and reading.

[capuchin]

The only thing I hate about reading comprehension questions is that they take too much time to answer. There would most likely be a time limit in taking exams and I hate that this kind of questions takes a lot of time.

[Trellum]

  On 10/2/2014 at 5:31 AM, maryannballeras said:

Reading comprehension exams can be a pain especially if you were given a certain time limit to answer it.  But if there's no time pressure, reading comprehension can be fun.  Because unlike other exams, here you don't have to memorize anything -- you'll just have to understand and analyze what you read, and that's it!

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 I agree! I had the same trouble when I went to take my inburgering exam, one whole exam was centered around reading comprehension, it sucked because it was timed!    I was not surprised to see that I got only a 9 in that exam, the fact they used words that weren't even in their course didn't help me either.