The reading comprehension component makes up 21% of the English Language Paper 2. With such a substantial weightage, students must pay close attention to it. The Reading Comprehension tests, effectively, the ability of the student to comprehend passages in three broad ways.

A) Inferential questions require reading between the lines of the source text. From the text, you need to interpret what is suggested by the text and find the answer to the question.

B) Explanation questions usually ask things about the plot (narrative) of the text and require you to explain and elaborate on what is obvious in the text.

C) Literal questions test basic understanding of what is obviously stated by the text. Usually, no inference or explanation is required.

Within these broad categories, reading comprehension questions are further extended to cover very specific evaluative skills. These include cause-and-effect questions, sequencing questions and questions that require students to identify and interpret stylised words used by the writer. The complexity of the comprehension section is now so immense, it is a far cry from the questions that were found in the PSLE papers years ago.

No student should take the PSLE Comprehension Open-Ended Section for granted. Over the past few years, we see a significant trend in the way the questions are graded. Stringent marking, along with tough distractors, makes up much of the reasons for a low score. So, do not take the risk and pay early attention to this component.

Writers Studio’s PSLE Comprehension workshops are highly effective, with our teachers hailing from strong teaching backgrounds. We focus on getting students to understand comprehension techniques and giving them ample practices to help them apply these techniques. We create various permutations of question styles that help students prepare for surprises at the PSLE. This year, we extend our PSLE Comprehension workshop to the Primary 5 students who may wish to start prepping up for your PSLE early.