New Hampshire Foundations of Reading Practice Test

What is a common characteristic of students with reading comprehension deficiencies?

1. Difficulties summarizing texts

2. Strong interest in reading

3. Exceptional word recognition

4. Ability to make inferences easily

The correct answer is: Difficulties summarizing texts

Students with reading comprehension deficiencies often struggle with summarizing texts. This challenge arises because summarization requires understanding the main ideas and significant details of the reading material, and effectively distilling that information into a concise form. A lack of comprehension skills makes it difficult for these students to identify what is essential in a text, leading to poor summarization abilities. While it may seem that students can have strong interests in reading or could show exceptional word recognition, these attributes do not necessarily correlate with strong comprehension skills. Similarly, the ability to make inferences—integrating information from the text with background knowledge to draw conclusions—is often another area of difficulty for these students. Therefore, the characteristic of summarizing texts provides a clear insight into the specific challenges faced by those with reading comprehension deficiencies.