EOC Test Taking TipsEnglish I

Mrs. Janicki

Central Academy of Technology and Arts

Reading the Selection

• Read the passage as if you were not even taking a test

• If you do not understand a passage at first, keep reading

• Look at the big picture:– What is the main idea?– What is the author’s purpose?– What is the theme/message?

Questions

• Read the questions

• Reread the passage

• Underline info that relates to the questions

• Go back to the questions

• Read all answer choices

• Eliminate those that are obviously incorrect

Types of Multiple Choice Questions

• MAIN IDEA

• SIGNIFICANT DETAILS

• VOCABULARY

• CONCLUSION AND INFERENCE

MAIN IDEA

• Main idea MUST relate to ENTIRE passage

• Re-read topic sentences

SIGNIFICANT DETAILS

• Read question, then re-read passage

• Underline the details the question is asking about

• Sometimes the answers are NOT in the exact same words as in the selection

• Pick the answer closest in meaning

VOCABULARY

• Read answer choices and PLUG them into the sentence

• Eliminate answers that don’t make sense

• Sometimes you need to re-read the paragraph

CONCLUSION AND INFERENCE

• Author does not state idea directly

• Consider various parts of passage together (as a whole)

• Answer choice that refers to only one or two details is probably NOT correct