Anonymous
Anonymous asked:
What can a tutor do to help a student that has a critical reading score of +/- 600? Is improvement reliant on the student him/herself after learning all the "tricks". Basically, you need to just read, read, read, practice, practice, practice, and study vocabulary, right? The teacher/tutor can only go over questions and make you understand them. There's no real "tricks" like writing or math, right?Let’s be clear. In the end, improvement is always up to the student. On test day, it’s only the student who sits down with a few #2 pencils and a calculator.
I like to think of the tutor’s role in the situation you describe as analogous to bumpers at a bowling alley. You know how you can put bumpers up when you go bowling to prevent gutter balls? The tutor is like that. He or she offers up some insight into the test’s structure, common construction of incorrect answers, and stuff like that, and then doesn’t get in the way too much unless the student isn’t shooting straight. Ideally, as the student improves, the tutor can fade into the background.
There are “tricks,” but they’re most effective when laid on top of a foundation of solid reading comprehension skills. Otherwise, it’s more of a process than a trick. 1) understand each sentence, 2) understand how the sentences relate to each other, 3) understand the argument, etc.
