- #1
BicycleTree
- 520
- 0
I propose the following self-test to determine whether your reading comprehension is high enough to engage in rational discussion on a message board:
Get a copy of an old verbal SAT (these can be found in one of the books "10 SATs"). Find the passage reading comprehension sections, and do them all, taking as much time as you need, but not a ridiculous amount of time. (be honest with yourself and spend on each section about as long as you'd spend replying to a post of equivalent length). Use a reference text such a dictionary if needed, so long as you would use the same reference when replying to posts. At the end of it, find out how many you got wrong.
The percentage you got wrong is a good predictor of the percentage of things that someone else says in a discussion that you are likely to interpret incorrectly. Pay special attention to any "main idea" questions for the passages or for paragraphs in the passages; if you get any of these wrong, you are probably not qualified for verbal discussion. And in general, if you get more than, say, 10% wrong overall, again you are probably not qualified for verbal discussion.
Get a copy of an old verbal SAT (these can be found in one of the books "10 SATs"). Find the passage reading comprehension sections, and do them all, taking as much time as you need, but not a ridiculous amount of time. (be honest with yourself and spend on each section about as long as you'd spend replying to a post of equivalent length). Use a reference text such a dictionary if needed, so long as you would use the same reference when replying to posts. At the end of it, find out how many you got wrong.
The percentage you got wrong is a good predictor of the percentage of things that someone else says in a discussion that you are likely to interpret incorrectly. Pay special attention to any "main idea" questions for the passages or for paragraphs in the passages; if you get any of these wrong, you are probably not qualified for verbal discussion. And in general, if you get more than, say, 10% wrong overall, again you are probably not qualified for verbal discussion.