Do you suck at reading comprehension?

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Mw99
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20 Oct 2007, 3:30 pm

I took a sample LSAT the other day. I did well when it came to the puzzles and the logic section, but did terribly at reading comprehension. I read the passages slowly, reread them, and I got almost all the answers related to those passages wrong. At one point, frustrated, I looked up the answers in the back of the book, reread the passages knowing what the right answers were, and even then had a hard time understanding why the right answers were right.

Maybe I am not too brilliant, but then again, I breezed through the other two sections of the exam.

Does anyone else have this problem? Do you know if there is a way to fix it (like medications, or some mental "trick" that will help me do better at reading comprehension)?



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20 Oct 2007, 3:53 pm

Sometimes when reading I get stuck and have to reread a certain passage a dozen times, for no paticular reason.

I actually do way better on reading than math, and so don't conform to the stereotype of people with autism/AS being good with math and computers. The whole left brain/right brain dominance thing still applies to us, I guess. Maybe you're just more left-brained?


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20 Oct 2007, 3:54 pm

Read the questions first, so yhou know what to look for in the reading section. Then take the passage, highlight it, and write your thoughts out. Look at the answers and eliminate those you know are wrong.

Sorry, but there is no quick fix to reading comprehension...



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20 Oct 2007, 4:35 pm

I have always been terrible at reading comprehension. Unfortunately I don't know any quick "fix" for it either.


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iceb
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20 Oct 2007, 5:15 pm

Yes big time!


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2ukenkerl
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20 Oct 2007, 6:34 pm

Mw99 wrote:
I took a sample LSAT the other day. I did well when it came to the puzzles and the logic section, but did terribly at reading comprehension. I read the passages slowly, reread them, and I got almost all the answers related to those passages wrong. At one point, frustrated, I looked up the answers in the back of the book, reread the passages knowing what the right answers were, and even then had a hard time understanding why the right answers were right.

Maybe I am not too brilliant, but then again, I breezed through the other two sections of the exam.

Does anyone else have this problem? Do you know if there is a way to fix it (like medications, or some mental "trick" that will help me do better at reading comprehension)?


Well, I HAVE, for too long, read things with almost a mental voice. That DID hurt speed. If I get myself to shutup, I can read a LOT faster, with comprehension. I can read much faster if I am just scanning.

Still, I don't tie things together as well as I used to, and various jokes, movies, etc... seem to indicate many others have the same problem. Just look at the sixth sense. The whole thing is wrapped up quickly in the beginning! Yet everyone is STILL surprised at the end.

It would be interesting to see what precisely you are talking about.



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20 Oct 2007, 7:21 pm

Mw99 wrote:
I took a sample LSAT the other day. I did well when it came to the puzzles and the logic section, but did terribly at reading comprehension. I read the passages slowly, reread them, and I got almost all the answers related to those passages wrong. At one point, frustrated, I looked up the answers in the back of the book, reread the passages knowing what the right answers were, and even then had a hard time understanding why the right answers were right.

Maybe I am not too brilliant, but then again, I breezed through the other two sections of the exam.

Does anyone else have this problem? Do you know if there is a way to fix it (like medications, or some mental "trick" that will help me do better at reading comprehension)?
Reading comprehension is my forte. Math has always deeply fascinated me in theory, annoyed me in practice.



Mw99
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20 Oct 2007, 7:36 pm

2ukenkerl wrote:
It would be interesting to see what precisely you are talking about.


Questions like: Based on the overall mood of the article, which of the following statements better captures the point Mike was trying to make when he told his students about the man who once told him that "fighting the spread of AIDS in third world countries is not always worth the time but often times the effort"? What does the seventh paragraph suggest about the way the relationship between Larry and Joe changed after Jane's mother told Joe about the birth of Larry's third son? What does the comment the author made in the fifth paragraph suggest about the way Peter felt towards Mary after her sudden realization that Peter had been insencere to her after he learned his job might be in jeopardy?

That's the type of questions I have in mind.



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20 Oct 2007, 8:27 pm

Mw99 wrote:
2ukenkerl wrote:
It would be interesting to see what precisely you are talking about.


Questions like: Based on the overall mood of the article, which of the following statements better captures the point Mike was trying to make when he told his students about the man who once told him that "fighting the spread of AIDS in third world countries is not always worth the time but often times the effort"? What does the seventh paragraph suggest about the way the relationship between Larry and Joe changed after Jane's mother told Joe about the birth of Larry's third son? What does the comment the author made in the fifth paragraph suggest about the way Peter felt towards Mary after her sudden realization that Peter had been insencere to her after he learned his job might be in jeopardy?

That's the type of questions I have in mind.


I'm horrible with those types of questions as well. I have trouble relating to the characters and usually miss the message altogether. The worst part is that they time you on those tests and I always do terrible when I know I'm being timed. I just get so nervous that my mind drifts and I can't focus at all on what I'm reading.

I think I'm better at comprehension when it's a novel rather than a short passage. With a novel it doesn't matter if you miss the point one place because it will usually show up again later. Eventually everything starts to make sense. With a short passage you're screwed if you don't catch everything on the first read.



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20 Oct 2007, 8:39 pm

I'm fabulous in all other reading/language areas, but comprehension, nooo. I'm way below average (and that makes me very sad). I realized this in fifth grade--on a standardized test, I was in the 99th percentile in all the language areas except reading comprehension. My score there? Around the 25th percentile. :(

I think it is mainly that we interpret things differently (take "important" information as trivial, filler) and can't read between the lines as well. I like things direct! Don't confuse me with your implications.



Mw99
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20 Oct 2007, 9:07 pm

marshall wrote:
I think I'm better at comprehension when it's a novel rather than a short passage. With a novel it doesn't matter if you miss the point one place because it will usually show up again later. Eventually everything starts to make sense. With a short passage you're screwed if you don't catch everything on the first read.


I have a hard time making sense of what I am reading, remembering every single detail about the passage, and at the same time thinking about what I should be looking for in the passage. It probably means that I am unable to hold several things in my head at the same time. I wonder if this has anything to do with classic ADD problems and the way we obsess about particular subjects.



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20 Oct 2007, 9:23 pm

Mw99 wrote:
2ukenkerl wrote:
It would be interesting to see what precisely you are talking about.


Questions like: Based on the overall mood of the article, which of the following statements better captures the point Mike was trying to make when he told his students about the man who once told him that "fighting the spread of AIDS in third world countries is not always worth the time but often times the effort"? What does the seventh paragraph suggest about the way the relationship between Larry and Joe changed after Jane's mother told Joe about the birth of Larry's third son? What does the comment the author made in the fifth paragraph suggest about the way Peter felt towards Mary after her sudden realization that Peter had been insencere to her after he learned his job might be in jeopardy?

That's the type of questions I have in mind.


Admittedly, I don't look for that kind of relationship, and do poorly with the relationship types of questions. I guess larry's third son is related to joe in some way even if he simply has an ailment similar to one that is in larry's family? Just asked for curiosity's sake.

BTW If it makes any difference to you, apparently MOST fail the bar exam on the first try. I hear there are ESSAY questions on it! Consider this only a TASTE of what is to come. Frankly, a lot of lawyers appear to have HORRIBLE comprehension, and that is a major reason why the whole system is so convoluted(That is to say overly complicated, meaningless, and STILL circumlocutious)!



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21 Oct 2007, 2:00 am

In school I always could understand reading materials dealing with facts, like a science textbook or even history, however when reading a story or novel about people I cant keep track of what characters are whom and who did what, so English class was horrible for me. I never discovered an easy way around this, just read slowly and picked up whatever I could.


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21 Oct 2007, 3:02 am

I have troubles comprehending what I am reading but sometimes I have no troubles at all. I can read children books good and crime books because of all the facts and they are concrete but I am having toubles with the latest Harry Potter books so I read them slowly and I keep stopping. When I do tests in high school, I read the questions slowly and keep going back reading them when I had to fill in one of the bubbles. I felt stupid. So yes I do have reading comprehension problems but it depends on what I am reading. facts I can read well and I can read children books well.



risingphoenix
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21 Oct 2007, 5:56 am

Are there any good online tests for that? I mean ones which ask about the intentions of / relationships between people and so on. I found this one recently: http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/verbaltest.htm and did fairly well on it, but it's also not about guessing any characters' intentions or having to read between the lines.


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Mw99
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21 Oct 2007, 7:44 am

risingphoenix wrote:
Are there any good online tests for that? I mean ones which ask about the intentions of / relationships between people and so on. I found this one recently: http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/verbaltest.htm and did fairly well on it, but it's also not about guessing any characters' intentions or having to read between the lines.


Thanks for the link!