A child’s comprehension of a text is tested in English comprehension, typically by providing them a text excerpt to read and then asking them questions about it. Although your child will have studied comprehension techniques in school, the Pre-Test calls for a different approach to this skill.
The 40-minute ISEB English Pre-Test consists of one text. Children find it challenging to implement the approach they are taught in school because of the time limit. They would have been urged to read the passage slowly and highlight important information. This allows them to process it completely before responding to the opening query.
There will be many short passages (300-500 words) presented to the students; these passages may be fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. Each paragraph or verse within the passage will be given a number; some questions will refer to specific paragraphs (or verses), requiring the student to only refer to that section; other questions will refer to specific sentences, repeating the sentence so that you do not have to find it in the passage.
Once they believe they have the solution, it is worthwhile for them to read a little bit further to make sure there isn’t any information that would conflict with their conclusion.
e.g. Although the city’s official population is 5,000, there has lately been an inflow of 2,000 people. This indicates that there are now 7,000 people living there.
Then, in order to locate the solution, students must read the question after it and go back to the relevant section of the excerpt. They will keep doing this until every query has been addressed.
Don’t worry, it’s easy to help your child develop this style of comprehension technique with a little practice. Find a short text and come up with two or three questions about it your child could answer. Show them the questions first, ensuring they understand them before showing them the text. It’s a good idea to practice with different genres.