Reading comprehension
Adverts, emails, articles and literary extracts: the gist, the details and what is implied, answered in English.
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Reading comprehension, explained point by point
Everything the GCSE specification expects you to be able to do, and how to actually do it - the same lesson a signed-in student studies from.
Know how the reading paper works
Reading is Paper 3 and a quarter of the GCSE: 50 marks, 50 minutes at Foundation and an hour and five minutes at Higher. Section A has six questions in English, Section B three in Gujarati, and Section C a short passage to translate into English. Four questions are common to both tiers, and there is no dictionary.
Expect every kind of text
Adverts, emails, letters, articles and short literary extracts, set mostly in Gujarat and Gujarati-speaking communities. Texts start short and simple and get longer and harder through the paper.
Read the question first, then the text
Knowing what you are looking for turns reading into searching. Underline the key word of each question and find the part of the text it points to.
Find the gist, the details and what is implied
Some questions ask what a text is mainly about, some for a detail, and some for what a writer means without saying it: તેણે ઘડિયાળ સામે જોયું અને નિસાસો નાખ્યો suggests she was bored or impatient.
Work out words you do not know
Use the context, the parts of a word (પુસ્તકાલય is પુસ્તક book plus આલય a house for) and English words written in Gujarati script, such as કમ્પ્યૂટર and ટીવી.
Answer Section A in English
Section A is set and answered in English: a Gujarati answer there does not show your understanding. Give as many details as the question asks for, and keep to what was asked.
Reading comprehension key terms
The words the specification and the mark schemes use, each defined the way an examiner wants it.
- Gist
- What a text is mainly about.
- Inference
- Working out what a writer means but does not say outright.
- Literary text
- A short extract from a story, a letter, a poem or a play, adapted for GCSE.
- Context
- The words and situation around an unknown word, which help you guess it.
- Loanword
- A word borrowed from another language, such as બસ or ફોન from English.
Common mistakes in Reading comprehension
The slips that cost marks year after year, and what to do instead.
Answering a Section A question in Gujarati.
Section A is answered in English. Copying Gujarati from the text does not show that you understood it.
Choosing an answer because it repeats a word from the text.
Check the meaning of the whole sentence, including any નથી or પણ.
Giving one detail when the question asks for two.
Read the number in the question and give exactly that many.