Here's how to read for success in Reading Part C

The topics of the 2 Reading Part C texts are of general healthcare interest aimed at intelligent professionals. They are the types of text you might read in your free time to keep your understanding current of how medicine and medical practices are changing. Alternatively, they are the type of text which might have been recommended to you by your manager for professional development.

How do you read these texts in your first language? Do you:

A – skim through the contents focusing on specific facts and dates which are presented?

B – read quickly to understand the message the writer is trying to communicate in the text?

C – read slowly and carefully to understand every word?

You need to understand the writer's opinion

You my have answered A, B or C but for the types of texts in Part C, answer B is the strategy which will work best for you. The texts are opinionated. They may include the writer’s opinions but also the opinions of others who have also completed research on the same topic. The opinions may agree or disagree with each other. Opinions can be explicit e.g. Crowther disagrees. Or they can be more implied e.g. the beauty of the idea, in my opinion, is its simplicity.

Several of the questions in Part C require you to demonstrate your comprehension of the writer’s opinions and line of argument. You can only understand this by focusing on the overall meaning of what they are communicating. The facts and the details may provide evidence for the opinion but are not your main priority.

Candidates who struggle with Reading Part C are often reading the text looking to match key words from the question or answer options. Instead, you need to read the text in English exactly as you would read it in your first language: to understand the meaning behind what the writer is saying.