INFORMATIQUE DE GESTION
LANGUE ANGLAISE APPLIQUÉE à L'INFORMATIQUE ET à LA GESTION

What strategies should I use to understand technical texts and pass my written English exam ?

  There are a wide variety of strategies that you can use to improve your reading comprehension and arrive at to-the-point answers.

Before you read:
Ask yourself: what do I know about this topic?
What will it most likely be about?
How is it likely to develop?

NB: the title and any headings will help you to make informed
guesses about all of this.
If you find it helpful, read the questions before you read the passage

As you read:
Ask yourself: is it developing as I expected?
Re-read paragraphs you are not so sure about
Don't worry too much about unknown words; try to guess their meaning from the context.

After you have read:
Ask yourself: what were the main points?
The purpose of any reading comprehension test is to see how well you have understood the passages and most of them test an in-depth or detailed understanding of the passages.

Read the questions carefully:
Then read the questions carefully and match the questions to the section(s) of the passage to which they refer. This, I think, is the best time for skimming the passage, scanning for information and re-reading as necessary.

Remember, you are being tested on:

• Your general understanding of the passage

• Your understanding of what is explicitly stated

• Your understanding of points of detail in the text

• The author's views and opinions or perspectives

• What may be inferred from the passage, rather than explicitly stated.