A la hora de enfrentarse a un examen tenemos que hacer varias pruebas, para probar que tenemos la suficiente competencia en cada una de ellas (comprensión oral, lectora, expresión escrita y oral, mediación…). Aunque a simple vista, el examen de comprensión lectora/escrita (reading) parece fácil, en niveles avanzados se puede complicar bastante, y para muchos alumnos esto les puede llevar a que su nota media baje, o incluso a no obtener el título, por una baja calificación en esta parte.
Aquí te dejo algunos consejos para que esa parte no se te atragante y que tu examen de reading sea “a walk in the park“. 😉
Reading comprehension is mistakenly regarded as the easiest language skill when it comes to advanced language learning. Well, the results of the last couple of official C2 exams have consistently proven that impression wrong. Judging by how intricate and challenging those tests were, reading comprehension has turned out to be far from an easy task that you can do on autopilot.
Doing well at reading tests is the result of a) being acquainted with the way texts of a varied nature are laid out (literary, journalistic, scientific, argumentative, etc.), b) being able to identify organizational patterns in a text and c), being able to accomplish the two former skills in a limited amount of time (i.e.: in an exam).
Therefore, you need to a) read more. And if you are like me and never find time to read actual paper books, audiobooks do the job just fine. Magazines, biographies, and non-fiction also qualify as literature, so do not rule those out. What you need to do (and this is something that also applies to writing) is to absorb information ACTIVELY. You are reading for pleasure, but you are also reading with a purpose. Look out for expressions and words which seem interesting for some reason. And also pay attention to language and grammatical (and textual) patterns. Accomplished writers tend to use language in very suggestive and creative ways.
You also need to b) become acquainted with tests that measure your understanding of the target language in different ways (missing paragraphs, jumbled sentences, lexical collocations, etc.).
And finally, you need to c) subject yourself to these different tests under similar time restraints as those you’ll find in an exam.
In ENGLISH MASTERY you will find 50+ reading tests of a huge variety of formats (lexical clozes, open gap fills, word formation, multiple choice, multiple matching, etc.) to get plenty of practice and make sure you ace that test.