E20: FTCE | GK Reading | Use These 3 Strategies to PASS the Reading Subtest

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Welcome to episode 20 of FTCE seminar, a teacher certification exam podcast. I'm your host Mercedes Musto. In today's episode, I'll be talking about the FTCE general knowledge reading subtest. This is part one of a multi-series review of how to pass the reading section of the GK. Today, we're going to talk about Mr. C's

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three strategies that will help you navigate the reading portion of the test. And now, Mr. C's three strategies. When you look at a reading passage, do you start reading at the top, work your way to the bottom, then go to the question and you read the question, then you read the answer choices,

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then you find yourself back at the top of the reading selection, then you're rereading the whole thing over again? Oh no, I bet you don't even remember what you read in the first place. If this sounds like you, because it sounds like me, then keep listening to learn Mr. C's three strategies. Not only did Mr. C help me increase my reading speed and comprehension, but I also I've also taught this method to many,

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many, many students, and they use this method to pass the test. So let's get started. Mr. C's three strategies are the following. Tip number one, read the question stem first. Tip number two, level each question from easy to medium and from medium to difficult, there's a reason for this. And tip number three, scan for text features.

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Wait a minute. What's a question stem? Why would I level the question stem? And what are text features? Hey, I'm glad you asked. Stay with me now. Let's break this down. Tip number one is read the question stem.

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A question stem is the core of the question itself and not the answer choices, not, not, not. Do not read the answer choices. There are four answer choices and three of them are incorrect. We don't wanna confuse our minds with incorrect answers.

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No, nah.

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We wanna read the question stem first for two reasons. The first reason is we're preparing our minds what to look for, for what to answer, we are narrowing our focus. Second, we're asking ourselves, what kind of question is this? What I mean by this is,

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is this a central idea question, a vocabulary context question, or maybe it's a supporting details question. This leads me to the next tip. Tip number two is level each question from easy to medium and from medium to difficult. Do this step intuitively in your mind. The reason for this is easy questions take less time to answer than difficult questions.

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And this is a time test. Explanation needed. Okay, okay. Let me break it down for you. vocabulary questions or supporting detail questions take less time to answer than like, let's say, what is the author's tone of this passage? Or find and analyze the cause and relationship based on the text evidence. That even sounds long. No wonder it takes more time to select the correct answer on those ones. Which leads me to the very important tip number three,

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scan for text features. Now, normally you would look at an article and there's like a title, some bold headings, and maybe even a picture or graph. It's nice, I love pictures. However, not all text features come in bold. Text features can also be dates, cities or countries, names of people, organizations, anything numerical like ages or statistics. Basically, look for numbers and a lot of proper nouns.

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And this is helpful because when I scan a text for dates, cities, and names of people, I can usually get a gist of the central idea of the text. Like in this example, taken directly from the FTCE reading practice test. Listen carefully for text features. When Hernando Cortes left Cuba in February 1519 with 550 soldiers on 11 ships, he would have no idea that one of the oldest soldiers in his company would become the last living survivor of his great conquest. There are so many text features in this one sentence. For dates, I've got February 1519. For names, I've got Hernando Cortes.

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For cities or countries, I've got Cuba. And I could go on to describe 550 soldiers and 11 ships. And now, if I were to scan the rest of the article like I just did, I could see that this indeed is a story about Hernando Cortez and Bernal Diaz. Hmm, another name. And wait a minute, as I was scanning the article, I noticed something else. The use of dashes. Interesting. Very, very interesting.

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Did you know that dashes are used to separate groups of words for emphasis? I'm going to make a mental note of this, separated groups of words, because it's a text feature. Great. Now, I know about Mr. C's three strategies. How do I use them? I mean, really? Well, I would begin by using them in practice. Train yourself to read the question stem first.

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Scan for text features. Ask yourself, what kind of question is this? Let's review. We know that we can improve our reading pace and comprehension using Mr. C's three strategies. Tip number one, read the questions in first. This helps you prepare your mind on what to look for within the text. Tip number two, level each question

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from easy to medium and medium to difficult. This is a time test where you can use the strategy of answering all the easier questions first, then go back and spend more time on the more in-depth, longer to answer questions. You got this. Tip number three, scan for text features. Scanning the text will give you a heads up on what the passage is

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about and without reading it all the way through. Use and apply these strategies not just on the reading portion of the test but on anything and everything you read. You'll be thankful you did. For more practice with reading skills visit ftceseminar.com to study the reading portion of the test. The important thing is to start studying and start studying today so you can pass the teacher certification exam. Well, what are you waiting for? Check us out on YouTube at FTCE seminar and start studying today This podcast was recorded at the Pickens multimedia studio at the University of West Florida This is your host Mercedes Musto. Join me again on

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This is your host Mercedes Musto. Join me again on FTCE seminar a teacher certification exam podcast so you can pass the FTCE

Transcribed with Cockatoo