Effective Ways to Improve Your Comprehension Skills for JAMB
JAMB (Joint Admission and Matriculation Board) is the body responsible for conducting examinations that determine the admission of students into tertiary institutions in Nigeria. With such critical implications on students’ futures, it’s imperative that they develop strong comprehension skills to perform optimally on the exams. Here are some effective ways to improve your comprehension skills for JAMB.
Active Reading
Active reading is a crucial skill required not only for JAMB but for academic success generally. This involves reading with a conscious effort to understand and retain what you’re reading actively. To actively read, it’s pertinent to preview the text beforehand to gain some familiarity with it. Skim through the headings, subheadings, and key phrases to create a mental framework of the text’s structure and content. While reading, engage yourself with the text by asking yourself questions and summarizing the content mentally. This helps to reinforce understanding, retention, and recall.
Note-taking
Note-taking is an essential part of active reading that helps to retain and recall information better. While reading, highlighting and underlining essential points is a great way to make note-taking less cumbersome. It’s also essential to actively paraphrase and summarize the text’s content in your words, as this reinforces and consolidates meaningful engagement with the text.
Vocabulary Development
Extensive vocabulary is an essential component of successful comprehension. Without the requisite vocabulary, understanding and interpretation of texts can be challenging, if not impossible. Therefore, it’s vital to build vocabulary by reading widely and extensively, using a dictionary, learning prefixes and suffixes, taking vocabulary quizzes, and playing word games.
Critical Reading
Critical reading entails actively analyzing, evaluating, and interpreting texts to gain insight and uncover the hidden meanings therein. To read critically, one must develop a questioning attitude towards the text, look for patterns and themes, analyze the author’s tone and use of language, and evaluate the text’s validity and reliability.
Practice Tests and Mock Examinations
Nothing beats practice, and this holds for JAMB exams as well. Practice tests help familiarize students with the exam format, improve their timing and pacing, and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Taking mock exams helps to simulate exam conditions, builds test-taking strategies, and increases students’ confidence levels.
In conclusion, developing effective comprehension skills for JAMB requires active reading, note-taking, vocabulary development, critical reading, and mock examinations. These techniques enhance understanding, retention, recall, and critical thinking abilities. With consistent application, students can perform better on JAMB exams and ultimately secure admission into their desired tertiary institutions.
