CLOSE READING

WHAT IS BEING ASSESSED?

Paper I is a test of Close Reading skills and yet for many people, this is the worst part of the whole Higher exam. This is usually confirmed by prelim marks – often less than 20 out of 50. Such marks seldom reflect accurately the candidate's close reading skills but, more often than not, they indicate a naïve lack of practice and preparation for a demanding exercise.   There are three main stages to tackling Close Reading •  Understanding the passage •  Understanding the questions •  Clear and accurate expression of the answer Each of these stages has its own difficulties and each can be tackle more successfully with the right preparation.

HOW TO PREPARE

A. UNDERSTANDING THE PASSAGE Most Higher passages are articles taken from quality newspapers or magazines. The more you read such publications then the more comfortable you will be with this type of writing, the more you will tune in to such aspects as tone, style, approach, language, register and different levels of meaning. Remember that you don't need to read the entire Sunday Times from front to back in order to gain some benefit. Be selective. Pick out two or three articles/features that take your interest and read them in detail. The two main barriers to understanding in this type of writing are: Unfamiliar vocabulary •  Learn more words (e.g. look up the meanings of unfamiliar words you encounter when reading newspapers) •  Use the context to help you narrow down the meaning (the ‘Blankety-Blank' method!) •  Look for a part of the word (a root/base word) that you might understand Complex sentences •  Yet again, you require more practice in this type of reading – the more you read complex sentences, the less complex they become. •  Highlight/underline the main part of the sentence (as demonstrated and practised in class) leaving out unnecessary detail and extra information. Once you have grasped the main part of the sentence you can take account of the extra details. •  Take account of any ‘signpost' words that may be there to direct you. i.e. words that appear in the question and also appear in the passage.

B. UNDERSTANDING THE QUESTIONS The questions in the Close Reading are quite specialised, so if you don't invest some time in familiarising yourself with them then you are bound to have problems. On the other hand, the fact that they are specialised means that there is a limit to the number of types of question that the exam board can ask you. With thorough preparation, you can use this to your advantage. •  Look through past papers and make a list of question terms. Using a dictionary and/or a conveniently available English teacher, make up a glossary of these terms so that you are not only familiar with but actually understand the terminology of the questions – you're better to find out now rather than wondering about it during the actual exam! •  Make up a list of RECURRING QUESTIONS by looking through past papers and noting the types of questions that appear in more than one year. Once you have done this, ask your English teacher about the specific demands of each question type. •  When looking at questions, develop your awareness of how the marks on offer may be divided up by the marker (this is normally easier with a 2 mark question than with a 4 mark question). If the division of marks is unclear then ask your teacher.

3. ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS •  Be aware of line references given. These narrow down the area in which you have to search for the answer, increase your chances of getting the correct answer and save you valuable time. •  Don't write the first answer you come across as quite often the correct answer will come later on in the same sentence or paragraph. Check all the possible answers and then select the best. •  Cover the whole question and all of the marks on offer. Too often people lose marks needlessly because they fail to do this. Also, set out your answer so that the examiner can easily identify the different parts/stages of your answer. •  Be precise/concise in your answers. Remember that the more you write, then the more chance you have of saying the wrong thing. •  Be aware of the sort of questions that require you to quote and those that require you to use your own words. •  Don't write extra answers within an answer. This is quite a common ploy that is meant to act as an insurance policy (“Well . . . if that first answer isn't right, then maybe this one WILL be . . . or this one . . . or maybe this one . . . ”). Unfortunately, all this does is PROVE that you don't know the correct answer and so you get no marks. •  Be precise when quoting. Don't copy the quotation inaccurately and ensure that when you are asked for a word you don't give a phrase and if you are asked for a phrase you don't give a sentence. •  Attempt ALL of the questions. If you only answer half of the questions then, in order to get 50% for the Interpretation, you have to get all of those questions you have attempted absolutely correct (margin of error = 0%). If you answer all of the questions then in order to get the same result (i.e. 50%) then your margin of error can be as high as 50%.

CLOSE READING – SOME COMMON FAULTS

NOT READING THE PASSAGE PROPERLY.  There are a lot of different reasons for this: •  Pressure of time causes people to panic so they go straight to the questions. This causes even more panic because they don't really understand the questions or what they are all about. The pressure intensifies as they flick frantically from passage to question . . . to passage . . . to clock . . . to question . . . to the genius sitting next to them who is casually writing down the correct answers (is he really a genius or did he just read the passage first?) . . . to the brown envelope falling through the letterbox . . . . . . Let's put it another way. What would you say if someone said to you: “Tell me all about that film you didn't see last night”? Enough said! •  Lack of concentration •  Lack of familiarity with the type of writing encountered in the interpretation passage. What can be done if, during your Higher exam, you become aware of this considerable problem? Well . . . NOT A LOT . . . you should have prepared properly for the exam. •  Being put off or ‘thrown' by difficult vocabulary. Many people overreact to this problem. In a passage of, say, 800 words there may be five or six words that you are a bit unsure of and perhaps two that you don't have a clue about. That still leaves at least 95% of the vocabulary that you DO know! In any case, you can work out the meanings of many of the unfamiliar words using the strategies mentioned earlier.

NOT READING THE QUESTIONS PROPERLY.  This was dealt with earlier but here's a recap of the common reasons for this: •  Lack of familiarity with question terminology. •  Only covering part of the question. •  Lack of awareness of question types. •  Failure to take account of line references given.

PROBLEMS IN ANSWERING.  Most of these were dealt with earlier but here's a recap: •  Wasting time on the most difficult questions. Many people who are aware of this problem still get caught out by it. If you get stuck at a particular question you may find that you spend so much time on it that you run out of time before you get a chance to attempt some of the later questions that you are able to answer. To make matters worse you may never find the answer to the question that is holding you back. To overcome this problem, the safest approach is to tackle the questions in two waves , getting all the easier questions out of the way first and then going back through the paper dealing with those more difficult questions. •  Leaving empty spaces. Obviously, if a particular question is holding you back then you should leave it and go back to it later. But you must ensure that you do actually go back to it and attempt an answer. If you write something you may get some marks but if you write nothing you will definitely get nothing. •  Failure to answer using your own words when required to do so. •  Failure to provide accurate and concise quotation when required. •  Writing the first answer you come across. •  Only answering part of the question. •  Looking for the answer in the wrong part of the passage. •  Not writing enough to earn the marks on offer. •  Writing too much or writing extra answers within an answer. •  Lack of clarity. •  Lack of clear layout. The different parts/stages of the answer should be clear and obvious.

Neil McIlvanney 2000