Making something is a verb meaning to bring into existence by some effort or action. Making something happen is the verb of making something happen, to work or become by someone’s effort or presence. The verb of making something is active. The use of the word “making” has another meaning; it can mean to shape or form into something by some exercise or method.

Independent reading comprehension test question is easy to make meaning. The most recent independent test results from the National Center for Research on Reading and Writing revealed that in 2021, far more people ages 34 and up completed at least one interactive online test than any other kind of test. The interactive online reading test is a series of short multiple-choice questions designed to measure comprehension skills. An individual can choose from a multiple choice section, an comprehension section, or both. The test is timed so the student is not given a list of multiple answers. In this way, the student is able to decide how much time they wish to spend on each question and in what order they would like to answer them.

Although not all readers are successful at answering these kinds of tests, far more secondary students and adult readers are proficient in reading comprehension and have demonstrated a higher level of prior knowledge of the concepts of the test. Many people fail because they do not understand what prior knowledge means and make inferences from vague answers to false conclusions. Making inferences is just a part of reading; a test is really asking questions about specific knowledge and using the answers to create an accurate summary.

Let’s look at an example of a prior knowledge problem. Let’s say the teacher says, “Joe, you must learn to read before you can write.” Joe goes to the pencil box and tries to write down a shopping list. He gets the list wrong, so he makes an inference that because he knows how to make inferences, he will also be able to draw conclusions. He has already learned how to draw conclusions from information that is available to him, so it follows that he will be able to make inferences. This kind of learning, or modeling, can only occur through experience, through being a competent reader.

The most effective way to increase your capability to learn from experience is to find a good analog or analogical diagram and model your reading process as a function of the diagram. For example, if the diagram shows Joe putting something in his shopping basket, then Joe is having a visual experience of putting things in a shopping basket. If the diagram shows Joe putting something in his shoe, then Joe is having a auditory experience of putting something in his shoe. There is an obvious relationship between the two models and therefore there should be a corresponding increased ability to make inferences.

In summary, the ability to make inferences, or to “model” a process in your mind, is necessary to read effectively. It is an important quality of competent readers, and one that can be increased through practice. A second important quality of skilled readers is to be able to draw conclusions from experience. Finally, a third important quality of skilled readers is to be able to extract the most meaning from a set of experience-based data. By integrating all these three skills into your reading method, you can quickly assimilate a great deal of information and rapidly develop into a better reader.