These notes are provided for the Resource Book "MUET MEIOW"

1. DR. YEE BEE CHOO
VIJAYAN A/L PERIASAMY
RAMESH A/L SATHAPPAN
MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY ENGLISH TEST
MADE EASY IN ONE WINDOW
MUET

2. READING

3. SKIMMING AND SCANNING
Skimming: reading quickly to get the main idea/ gist of the text
 Look out for keywords in the text
 Read title, subtitles, subheadings
 Avoid reading the whole text word-by-word
 Keep on thinking about what the text means
 Read the beginning and ending of a paragraph
 See how the text is organised, e.g.: cause-effect, problem-
solution, chronological, spatial or sequential order
 Look out for clues given to understand background information of
the text. E.g.: pictures or images related to the topic, or an
interesting title
Scanning: going through a text quickly to obtain specific
information/ details
 Make use of titles or subheadings provided
 Let your eyes move quickly across the page to get what you are
searching for
 Make use of the alphabet as a guide. Most texts are organised
alphabetically from A-Z
 Make use of ‘header’ words which are in bold type at the top of
each page in a dictionary or phone book

4. IDENTIFYING MAIN IDEAS AND SUPPORTING
DETAILS
DISTINGUISHING FACTS FROM OPINIONS
 main idea; ‘key concept 'of the text
 every paragraph in a text has a key concept or main idea
 supporting details are essential; describe how, what, when,
where, why, how much or how many things are related to the
main idea
 supporting details; e.g.: descriptions, definitions, examples,
elaboration or exploration of the main idea
 facts; statements that can be proven true
 facts; based on observations, research or experiments
 opinions; cannot be proven
 opinions; beliefs, feelings, evaluation or judgements
 signal words or phrases for opinions; I believe, we think, in my
opinion or judgement words; best, greatest, cutest
DERIVING MEANING FROM CONTEXT
 use of other words and sentences surrounding the unknown
word to guess the meaning of the word
PARAPHRASING
 restating ideas in the passage clearly and simply using own
words

5. MAKING INFERENCES
 deducing meaning in the text according to the author
 need to read text carefully - between the lines
 it is an educated guess based on supporting evidence
 conclusions can be drawn by using the information read and
what the reader understands the author is trying to imply
 ask yourself questions such as:
 purpose/ intention of author
 how clearly is the purpose communicated
 the intended audience of the author
 the point of view of the author
DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
 reading between the lines gives clues for a deeper
understanding of the text
 going beyond the stated information in a text and
understanding the implied meaning, helps in making
conclusions based on what you already know and what you
have read
 Look out for signal words; in conclusion, to conclude,
concisely, in short, to sum up, finally, as a result, therefore,
hence,thus

6. SUMMARISING & PREDICTING OUTCOMES
IDENTIFYING AUTHOR’S VIEWPOINT
 A summary is brief and it contains the key ideas of
the text.
 Predicting outcomes is a strategy that allows us to
run through what we have read in order to guess
what will happen in the future.
 author's viewpoint; the way the author looks at a
topic
 words and phrases used by the author tells the
reader; the point of view, opinions, assumptions and
possible bias for or against a person, group or issue
 author's viewpoint of writing the text can be seen
in:
 the Purpose; e.g. to inform, entertain, argue,
compare, persuade, etc.
 the Style of writing; e.g. describing, giving
examples, comparing and contrasting,
explaining causes and effects, sequencing events,
etc.
 the Tone; e.g. angry, optimistic, opposing,
indifferent, neutral, biased, etc.

7. THANK
YOU
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