Best in class: reading comprehension (EN)
First pass = gist + who/what. Second pass = question-led scan. Do not “read every word with the same face” the first time.
Case: a short news snippet
“Only 3 of the 20 schools in the district met the 2024 target; officials blame staffing gaps.” — before answering, name in your margin: (1) number that succeeded, (2) number that failed, (3) cause named by officials.
3 tasks
1) question types
For each, say what to underline in the text: (a) True/false, (b) multiple choice, (c) “which paragraph”, (d) own words summary.
Key: (a)–(c) need evidence lines; (d) needs paraphrase, not a copy-paste mosaic.
2) time box
A 400-word text + 8 questions in 35 minutes → you have roughly 4–5 min for reading + 3–3.5 min per block of 2 hard questions. Try once with a real timer, note where you were late.
Point: the clock tells you to skip, return, and never lose a “cheap” T/F because you dived into the hardest open question first.
3) inference, one step only
“The author implies … but never states …” — write one example of a safe one-step inference vs an unsafe two-hop guess.
Key: one step: word choice suggests attitude; two hops: inventing a whole policy the text never whispers to.