A. What Examiners Expect You To Do
IGCSE examiners expect you to read a variety of texts in order to get the maximum of information and with the minimum of misunderstanding. They also expect you to show your understanding of the texts by:
(a) answering accurately and sufficiently questions on the content of the text. You may use the wording of the text but your answers must be accurate and to the point.
(b) summarising in your own words, as far as this is possible, questions bearing on certain aspects of the content by respecting the word limit which is usually 100 words and by providing all relevant points.
B. How To Read(a) Skim the text
Read only the title and look at pictures or graphs if there are any. This will give you a general idea of what the text is about.
(b) Scan the text
Read through the text quickly by concentrating on the first and last sentences of each paragraph. This will give you a pretty good idea of the main points.
(c) Read the text
Carefully read the text trying to concentrate on details relating to the main points or main ideas of each paragraph.
C. Dealing With Unknown WordsMost IGCSE candidates of English as a second language tend to worry too much about unknown words. First of all, do not panic even if there are 15-20 words you don't know. Look at the context of these words - that is how they are used in the text. Read the sentence the unknown word is in, the sentences before and after. Reading unknown words in context will greatly help you to guess their meaning.
Unless your English is fluent, you probably do not know what dipstick or stoat mean. As long as these words stand alone. there is no way of guessing their meaning. But see what happens when they are put into a context:
(a) The car was making a funny noise, so I got out, opened the bonnet and took out the dipstick to check the oil level.
(b) I heard a noise like a rabbit being killed by a stoat.
So it is now easy to guess that a dipstick is the metal rod that is used to measure the oil level in a car engine and a stoat is a kind of animal that attacks and kills other animals.
Do not expect to be able to guess all the new words in a text. There will be some that you can only get a vague idea of and others will be impossible to guess. Examiners won't expect you to understand every single word in a text. But they will expect you to understand the text as a whole as well as possible since they are testing your ability to understand written English. The most important thing is to understand the main ideas / points and most of the details. Believe me, a few difficult words won't make much difference.
D. Dos And Don'ts
1. Skim, scan and read the text.
2. Read the questions carefully and highlight question words and keywords which will guide you to look for the relevant information.
3. As a courtesy to your Examiner, write neatly and clearly. You are not allowed to use chemical erasers, so make sure you delete neatly.
4. Complete sentences are not necessary in the answers to some questions but your answers must be accurate.
5. If times are required, specify am / pm - e.g. 4:25 pm
6. If an amount of money is required, specify the currency - e.g. £ 50
Don'ts
1. Do not be an imaginative reader by interpreting the text in the light of your own viewpoints, so that you find it difficult to separate what the writer says from what you feel. You will have the chance to express your own viewpoints in the writing test!
2. Do not read the questions before skimming, scanning and finally reading the text carefully. Remember that time spent reading effectively is saved later because you can answer the questions more quickly and accurately.
3. Do not copy chunks of text hoping that the answer to the question will be included! You can use the exact words of the texts in so far as these provide an accurate answer which is to the point and not round the point.
4. Do not provide long answers unless a specific number of words is required. Use only the space provided and do not use the margin where it says "for examiner's use!"
5. Very often, the answer to a question is to be found in pictures, maps, graphs or small fonts. Do not ignore them!
