Strategies and Practices for Excelling in GED RLA Reading Comprehension

To pass the Reading portion of the GED Reasoning through Language Arts (RLA) subtest, you’ll need to demonstrate proficiency in reading and comprehending both literary and informational texts. This is a crucial skill that will be tested across multiple question types.

The GED RLA subtest evaluates both writing and reading abilities in a single, extensive module, lasting approximately 2.5 hours. Within this timeframe, the Reading section alone spans 95 minutes.

In the first part of the RLA Reading subtest, which assesses close reading skills, you’ll have 35 minutes. The second part, focusing on literary texts, allows 60 minutes. Understanding the specific skills required for the GED Reading component is crucial.

Struggling with GED reading comprehension? On this page, discover effective strategies to enhance your scores and pass the GED RLA faster!

Additionally, enroll in our online GED test prep course to access comprehensive study materials essential for passing the GED RLA test.

Tips for Understanding GED Passage

Staying Engaged and Focused

When reading, it’s important to actively monitor your understanding of the material. This involves:

Assessing Your Comprehension: As you read, think about what you already understand and what you still need to learn. This keeps your mind engaged rather than allowing it to wander or skim the text without truly internalizing the information.

Handling Unfamiliar Words: If you come across a word you don’t understand, it’s often better to keep reading rather than stopping immediately to look up the meaning. 

In many cases, the context will provide enough clues for the meaning to become clear on its own as you continue reading.

When encountering an unfamiliar word , the recommended approach is to keep reading rather than stopping immediately to look up the meaning.

Here’s why:

1. Maintaining Flow: Stopping to look up every unknown word can disrupt the flow of information and make it harder to maintain focus and comprehension. Continuing to read allows you to keep the overall context in mind.
2. Contextual Clues: As you read on, the meaning of the unfamiliar word may become clearer through the surrounding context. The word’s meaning may be implied or explained later in the passage.
3. Efficient Learning: By waiting to look up the word until the end of the sentence or paragraph, you can often determine its meaning without interrupting your reading. This is a more efficient learning strategy than constantly stopping to look up words.

The key is to strike a balance – if the unknown word is crucial to understanding the passage, it may be worth briefly pausing to try to infer the meaning. But in general, continuing to read and allowing the context to provide clarity is the recommended approach for most situations.

Form a Visual Representation While Reading

When reading, it can be very helpful to form a mental picture or visual representation of the scene being described. This involves engaging multiple senses to create a more immersive and vivid experience:

Sight: Imagine the specific details of the setting, such as the colors, shapes, and textures you would see if you were actually there.

Sound: Think about the sounds you might hear – the rustling of leaves, the chirping of birds, the crunch of twigs underfoot.

Smell: Picture the scents that might fill the air, like the earthy aroma of damp soil or the crisp fragrance of pine needles.

Touch: Envision how the environment might feel to the skin – the coolness of the air, the roughness of tree bark, the softness of moss.

Engaging your senses in this way, creates a more vivid and immersive mental picture of the scene. This can help you better understand and empathize with the character’s experience, as well as make the story more memorable and engaging.

Pose Questions

Activate your thinking with questions before, during, and after reading. Clarify content, identify gaps, and discern the author’s intent.

Example: When reading about a farmer’s agricultural practices, consider: What techniques does the farmer use to improve soil health? How does weather variability impact crop yields? What economic challenges does the farmer face in a competitive market?

Apply this natural curiosity from daily conversations to your reading.

Relate to Personal Experiences 

Connect what you’re reading to your hobbies or interests outside of academics. This approach enhances comprehension by making the information more relatable and engaging.

Example: If you’re reading an article about nutrition and healthy eating, think about your own cooking experiences. How do the dietary recommendations align with your favorite recipes or meal planning habits? Have you tried incorporating new food choices based on nutritional advice?

By integrating your personal interests in cooking and food with the article’s content on nutrition, you can deepen your understanding and apply the information practically in your daily life.

Identify Key Information

When reading a text, it’s important to identify the most crucial information and organize it in a way that reflects its relative importance. This helps you focus on what you need to remember and understand, rather than getting bogged down in unnecessary details.

Key information comprises the characters, setting, basic storyline, and themes.

Read Between the Lines

When reading a text, it’s important to look beyond the literal, written words and try to understand  the implicit meaning that the author is conveying. This involves reading between the lines and asking yourself, “What is the author really trying to say here?”

By identifying the signals and clues that the author provides, you can develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the text. This skill allows you to:

1. Uncover Subtext: Detect the underlying emotions, motivations, and unspoken messages that the author is communicating.
2. Analyze Authorial Intent: Gain insight into the author’s purpose, perspective, and the overall message they are trying to convey.
3. Make Informed Inferences: Draw logical conclusions about the text that go beyond the surface-level information provided.
4. Enhance Comprehension: Develop a richer, more comprehensive understanding of the text by considering the implicit meaning alongside the explicit details.

For example, if a character suddenly becomes defensive when questioned about their whereabouts, despite no direct accusation being made, you can infer they have something to hide based on their reaction and the context of the conversation. 

This method helps you find deeper meanings by looking at subtle clues.

Check Out: How Do You Get a GED?

Key Concepts for Effective Reading Comprehension

When reading a fiction passage, it can be challenging to take in all the information at once. By focusing on the key elements of Setting, Characters, Conflict, and Theme , you can better understand and process the information in manageable chunks.

Setting

The setting refers to the time and place where the story takes place. It helps you visualize the environment and context in which the events unfold. Pay attention as the setting may change throughout the story.

Characters

Keeping track of the characters is crucial for comprehension. For each character introduced, note details such as:

• Age
• Backstory and origin
• Relationship to other characters
• Personality and moral alignment (good, bad, neutral)
• Unique physical or behavioral descriptions

Conflict

The conflict is the central problem or challenge that the main character(s) must face. Identifying the conflict will give you a clear understanding of the story’s driving force and the obstacles the characters must overcome.

Theme

The theme is the central message or idea that the author is trying to convey. It is often a broader, universal statement about life, human nature, or the human condition. The theme may be stated directly or implied through the events and characters.

By focusing on these four key elements – Setting, Characters, Conflict, and Theme – you can more effectively process the information in a fiction passage and develop a deeper understanding of the story.

In addition to these four elements, GED reading comprehension tests critical skills such as identifying main ideas, making inferences, summarizing key points, understanding chronological sequences, and other essential concepts. 

For a thorough understanding of these skills, register at  Prepsaret to access detailed notes and lessons designed to prepare you comprehensively for the GED tests. 

The package also includes valuable study resources to help you master how to write a GED essay effectively.

GED Reading Comprehension Practice Questions

Excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

By L. Frank Baum

1. At noon they sat down by the roadside, near a little brook, and Dorothy opened her basket and

got out some bread. She offered a piece to the Scarecrow, but he refused.

2. I am never hungry, he said, and it is a lucky thing I am not, for my mouth is only painted, and

if I should cut a hole in it so I could eat, the straw I am stuffed with would come out, and that

would spoil the shape of my head. Dorothy saw at once that this was true, so she only nodded

and went on eating her bread.

3. Tell me something about yourself and the country you came from, said the Scarecrow, when

she had finished her dinner. So she told him all about Kansas, and how gray everything was

there, and how the cyclone had carried her to this Land of Oz.

4. The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, I cannot understand why you should wish to leave

this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas.

5. That is because you have no brains answered the girl. No matter how dreary and gray our

homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it

ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.

Identify the setting of this excerpt.

a) Oz

b) Country

c) Dorothy

d) Kansas

Explanation

The setting is where the story takes place. In the excerpt provided, the setting is in the Land of

Oz. This is evident in paragraph three where the characters, Dorothy and the Scarecrow, are

having a conversation about their current location. The use of the word ‘this’, implies that they

are situated in Oz.

To access more practice questions, enroll in the Prepsaret GED Test Prep course, which includes over 1000 practice questions. Additionally, free questions are available for further preparation.

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