Jesse Cart
New member
Some background information:
I was put into ESL (English as a second language) when I was in elementary school but was taken out of the program after first grade. So basically English is my primary language. However, my English (especially vocabulary and reading comprehension skills) was so bad in middle school that I was placed into a specialized English class in high school. The class size was smaller so teachers could pay more attention to the students. But to be honest by putting me into that class my English suffered even more. In that class I would read books that were much easier (for instance, in romeo and juliet instead of reading Shakespearean writing there would be translations of what he wrote on the next page). So you could imagine how I scored on the verbal section of the SAT.
Even though I got all A's in my English high school classes and even in college English classes (for some reason) I am very weak at reading. When I read journal articles it takes me a while to understand what the author is trying to write and sometimes I just don't understand what he is trying to convey to me [main idea] even after reading it like 15 times!.
I know its my fault for having weak reading skills cause the only books I read were books assigned to me for homework. I really think reading is boring but I want to change that.
My Questions: [Mainly for English teachers]
1) Can you give me tips on how to improve my reading comprehension?
2) Recommend me any books that help improve my reading skills?
I intend on going to some form of graduate school but I know for a fact that if I take any standardized tests like the GRE / MCAT / LSAT or whatever test that require me to have decent reading skills I would completely fail it. I want to fix this now before its too late so if you have any recommendations please help!
I was put into ESL (English as a second language) when I was in elementary school but was taken out of the program after first grade. So basically English is my primary language. However, my English (especially vocabulary and reading comprehension skills) was so bad in middle school that I was placed into a specialized English class in high school. The class size was smaller so teachers could pay more attention to the students. But to be honest by putting me into that class my English suffered even more. In that class I would read books that were much easier (for instance, in romeo and juliet instead of reading Shakespearean writing there would be translations of what he wrote on the next page). So you could imagine how I scored on the verbal section of the SAT.
Even though I got all A's in my English high school classes and even in college English classes (for some reason) I am very weak at reading. When I read journal articles it takes me a while to understand what the author is trying to write and sometimes I just don't understand what he is trying to convey to me [main idea] even after reading it like 15 times!.
I know its my fault for having weak reading skills cause the only books I read were books assigned to me for homework. I really think reading is boring but I want to change that.
My Questions: [Mainly for English teachers]
1) Can you give me tips on how to improve my reading comprehension?
2) Recommend me any books that help improve my reading skills?
I intend on going to some form of graduate school but I know for a fact that if I take any standardized tests like the GRE / MCAT / LSAT or whatever test that require me to have decent reading skills I would completely fail it. I want to fix this now before its too late so if you have any recommendations please help!