Question

Explain what you did when it was difficult to understand the text. Did you read? Ask questions? keep on reading? focus on confusings words? make connections? Jot some notes? picture it in your minds?

Answer 1

I keep reading the text for a while. If I do not understand the text, I find the complex words and paragraphs that puzzle me. Then I read the text just before and after the confusing word or paragraph. This makes me clarify my doubts. Normally, the first time, I just skim through the text and understand only the vital parts of the passage. I used to practice reading comprehension exercises to quickly understand the passage information. I regularly read the editorial section of the newspaper to improve my reading comprehension skills. I personally believe that it not essential to understanding the entire passage to answer the questions. I make note of the keywords present in the passage and this helps me to understand better. Reading and understanding are harder but on the practice of reading comprehension, this becomes easy on experience.
I search for examples in the passage as it is easy to understand the entire picture from the example. I most often talk to myself in understanding the puzzling aspects of the passage. I even read the passage loudly when I am alone in my room to get a better understanding of the passage. I search for the meaning of the words in an online dictionary to get a clear understanding. The main message of the passage is generally conveyed in the first and last paragraphs. Reading these two sections twice help me grasp the main idea behind the passage text. I break the passage into several questions and find answers to these questions. This helps me to effectively understand and answer the questions. I establish relationships between the passages and find the cause and effect or reasons leading to the solutions or identify the issues in the text to arrive at a solution.
When I do not understand the text despite doing everything, then I take my notes diary and note down the important points. I draw a diagram to make the ideas clear. The important points of the text are represented in a text box and arrows connect these texts to the effects or outcomes. I make a rough sketch of the text and this technique is highly useful in solving problems and arriving at logical decisions. Often a visualization of the text makes the brain to actively understand the text. I make guesses and keep this as the final option when I cannot understand the text after several readings and following all the above techniques. Most often guesswork helps in understanding the text and arriving at the answers to the problem given in the text.