British students studying GCSE English are in panic mode as they realise they can’t read—or at least, not critically. As the country draws closer to exam season, many 15-year-olds are misinterpreting insert papers and are feeling overwhelmed by the level of reading required.

However, there might be a solution. Officially, we don’t really teach children ‘how to read’ at the GCSE level. Phenomenal teachers will help explain plots, instruct on how to spot language devices but do we actually have ‘reading’ lessons?

Mortimer J. Adler, the coauthor of ‘How to read a book’ explains how there are ‘many kinds of reading’ and draws on similarities between learning to read and learning to play tennis. There are various rules that can be utilised in varying scenarios and the order of application dictates the success of the overall goal/game.

Reading is more complicated than students realise and if parents desire an improvement in their child’s comprehension, then targeted rules and lessons must be learned.

There is time!