14 January 2020
Chief Brent Collins, President, www.FirePrep.com
What to do if you are having problems finishing exams because of reading comprehension questions
Many applicants have come to us and asked us how they can improve their reading comprehension skills. It's all about reading, practicing, and taking exams. For some individuals, it is like sports and athletics - they are naturals. Some individuals have to work harder to get to that level. It's the same with reading comprehension. Some individuals can read something once, remember it, and have no problem. Others need to read it 2-3 times to be able to comprehend the information.
You need to read, read, read. Take practice exams with reading comprehension. Get any kind of book that has reading comprehension exams - start practicing now! You can also read articles out of a magazine or newspaper and then have someone ask you questions on the material you read.
An important note: As we have suggested in many of our seminars for reading comprehension, if the question is just one or two sentences, before you start reading the actual passage, go down and speed read the question. Not the answers - repeat, not the answers. Just speed read the question.
For example, there might be a question that would ask...How many feet is the hot zone at a hazardous material incident? As you are reading the passage, you might come to that and it tells you that answer. You can put a star next to that sentence or underline it so you can easily come back to when you are answering that question.