The importance of being a prolific reader

From a very young age, and certainly between the fourth and seventh grades, I have been a voracious reader. At first, I used to spend most of my time on fiction books, fascinated as I was by stories such as Goosebumps by R.L. Stine, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes and more recently the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I would stop by the library at least once a week to borrow as many books as I was allowed. Of course, I never really did this as a calculated approach to VCE® Exam preparation- in fact my main ‘problem’ was that I spent more time enthralled by novels than reading my prescribed textbooks! Despite this lack of focus in my early years, I was always good at English, which of course was also my favourite subject.

Were my high marks at English and my love of reading a mere coincidence? Or were these two things linked somehow? Did one influence the other?

The bestselling science fiction and horror author Stephen King argues there is a definite connection between reading and writing well. “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot,” he says. In my experience, this is completely accurate. The best writers honed their understanding of the written word by reading extensively first.

Without a doubt, reading is a fantastic way to expand one’s vocabulary. This is especially the case for active readers who turn to a dictionary and make a mental note of the meaning of unfamiliar words they encounter. The best way is to set aside time every day– 30 minutes at a minimum – and do this consistently over a period months to see improvement.

King is right. I realise now that my strong marks in English are partly because I have subconsciously absorbed how the professionals have presented their craft and mimicked their techniques. By reading the classics like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance, I learned how to use quotation marks and narrative description for my own creative writing assignments.

Eventually I moved on to non-fiction. It is instructive to study the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr, the American civil rights leader, to appreciate the importance of rhetorical flourish when composing speeches (which can be useful if you’re asked to undertake an oral assessment as part of VCE® Exam English).  My main hobby these days is reading Murray Rothbard, the great Austrian economist who was also a libertarian political philosopher. He writes crystal clear prose that is a brilliant illustration of how to pen academic work that is both powerful and engaging- much unlike other scholar work, which often puts people to sleep. During my college years, I tried to model my essays after Rothbard and injected some of my own personality too.

One thing I found helpful in the context of VCE® Exam preparation was to keep up to date with the news. Much of the news is available free online these days. For local news, try The Age, The Herald Sun and The Australian. For American news, Reason magazine offers most of its content without subscription.  For world news, take a look at The Economist, Time magazine and Foreign Policy magazine. Don’t just read celebrity gossip, also check out serious historical and opinion pieces about policy issues and see whether you agree. The sort of analytical thinking that type of reading recruits is invaluable in VCE® Exam preparation and will unfailingly pay off on exam day. Granted I am far from a perfect writer (or even a professional one), but a large portion of the strengths I have acquired can be attributed to my youthful love of reading.

In conclusion, I would say that although enrolling in a dedicated VCE® Exam preparation course or employing the help of a VCE® Exam tutor can be undoubtedly useful, simple, free and enjoyable activities such as reading can also contribute enormously to your VCE® Exam practice as well as to your personal fulfilment!