ENGLISH LANGUAGE

HANDLING COMPREHENSION AND SUMMARY

Comprehension is the act of understanding an expression fully while summary is the ability to extract the meaning of such expression in a brief, accurate, concise and precise sentence. Comprehension and summary accounts for about 60% of SSCE, English Language Paper 1. Unfortunately many students score very low marks or fail this part of their language study out rightly. The reasons for poor performance include:

·       Poor reading habits that slow down reading skill such as reading with head and lips moving, tracing with fingers, pronouncing word by word.

·       Grammatical errors and ambiguous expressions.

·       Writing answers on sentences when you were not instructed to do so.

·       Answers to expressions that do not perfectly represent the meaning of the sentences in the passage.

·       Supplying two answers for the same questions, usually one correct and the other incorrect.

·       Poor vocabulary and spelling mistakes.

·       Lack of correct evaluation and questioning what the examiner was looking for.

The following hints are relevant in handling comprehension and summary:

·       Read the passage carefully with speed two or three times until you understand the meaning fully.

·       Go through the questions before writing down your answers; but do not copy the questions as part of your answer.

·       Identify the needed information and write your answers precisely in your own words.

·       Read through your answers to check and correct grammatical and spelling mistakes.

A good Summary is concise, relevant, precise and adequate. It avoids copying whole sentences from original passage but could pick phrases from the passage when considered the best expression. Each sentence in a summary should contain a single thought or point. Five important steps are necessary for successful summary writing:

·       Read the passage with complete concentration to grasp its meaning.

·       Read the passage over and over again till the meaning becomes very clear to you.

·       Make rough draft of your answers avoiding irrelevant statements.

·       Transfer from your rough draft to your answer sheet.

·       Go through your answers to check and correct grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Never be satisfied with your present state. Determine to excel and remember that when you are at your best you can do better. The better time to start is now.

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SUCCESS CHALLENGES

“Diligence is the rule of successful achievement.”

“Ideas are worthless unless followed by action.”

“What you have put into your kettle comes afterwards into your spoon.”

“He begins to die who quits his desires.”

“It is quality of aspiration that determines the true success or failure in life.”

“As your desire is, so will your life be.”

“The desires are the winds which urge our vessel forward.”

“Our burning desires are the prophesies of our destinies.”
  

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EDUCATION

IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION

EDUCATION! A word that animates my face whenever I hear it. According to Google, education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits. Well, to me, education is the learning about new ideas, places and the world itself.

There is a great difference between being literate and being educated; the ability to read and write is being literate while being educated is to be able to reason, to use your ability to read and write to your advantage.

We ask ourselves sometimes, why is education important, education is very important in our day-to-day activities, I strongly believe that by the time you are through with this article, you would be able to see the importance of education.

First and foremost, being educated makes a person happy. An educated person has little or no job insecurity, no inferiority complex as he/she would be able to defend his/her word anywhere and anytime due to his well organized understanding of the world. Truly, education is not the key to happiness, but it is definitely the key to a lot of other things which come together to make you happy.

Also, being educated gives the will to keep trying till you succeed. An uneducated person may have better intellectual and labour capacity but there will be the lack of understanding of multiple ways to achieve their goals which is an obstacle.

Being educated also leads to economic growth of the nation. When the people of a nation are EDUCATED and not LITERATE, they would definitely carve ways to be self sufficient. When the people in a society are economically independent, it will serve as a stepping stone to combined productivity that leads to the economic growth of the nation as a whole. Countries like Russia, Canada, Japan, Israel and the United states have been ranked the 5 most educated countries in the world because of the percentage of people who went to school up to the tertiary level but the question is: are they really educated?

An educated person would be able to keep up with evolution. You can only keep up with evolution if you are aware of them. When I say evolution, I mean things like Whatsapp. Imagine what the world would be like without Whatsapp, Facebook, Nimbuzz, Skype, etc, since all these are made to simplify life.

Education makes one logical. An uneducated person would see evolution as an evil machinery. Remember, being educated does not mean you can't read or write, it means you can't apply your literacy in your day-to-day life. I was talking to a woman in my area and she was telling me that online shops like Jumia, Konga, etc are the devil's machinery. Just think, does this mean this person can't read or write, of course not, she can read and write but it just means she is uneducated. I had to take time to let her know that online shops makes shopping easier for a busy person and also the other benefits attached to it even though it has its own disadvantages like fraud, but only an uneducated person, mind you, I don't mean an illiterate but an uneducated person that would be defrauded.

There are other benefits attached to education but I would like to drop my pen here.

Be Educated!!!

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EFFECTIVE STUDYING

TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE STUDYING

• GOALS - Set goals that you can achieve yourself.
• Set time for learning.
• Concentrate on what you are reading.
• Create image in your mind to help you remember information.
• Take notes while listening to a lesson.
• Study without any noise which can affect your concentration.
• Make short notes while studying.

SUCCESS TIPS

MOTIVATE YOURSELF TO ACHIEVE THE BEST GRADES IN ALL SUBJECTS. SEEK HELP WHEN NECESSARY!

MAKE A TIMETABLE FOR YOURSELF WHICH WILL SERVE AS A GUIDE FOR YOUR READING!

BE HARDWORKING AND DON'T GET BEHIND IN YOUR WORK!

MAKE USE OF DIAGRAMS AND CHARTS TO HELP YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOU WERE TAUGHT!

TRY TO UNDERSTAND YOUR WORK BEFORE STUDYING IT!

BE DILIGENT, GO THROUGH YOUR BOOKS EACH DAY EVEN WHEN YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE STUDYING!

SET TIME ASIDE TO REVISE TOPICS TAUGHT EACH DAY!