When I was at school, we used to have an activity called ‘reading study’ during English language classes. We also had the same activity in Afrikaans classes, and it was called begripstoets. The term begripstoets translates as ‘comprehension test,’ which is a much better term than ‘reading study’.

We used to think that reading study was a waste of time. We had to read a page of something about a frog swimming in a pond and then answer questions like: What did the frog do after it had jumped into the pond?

In later life, I realised just how important reading study is. Reading something and seeing the words is one thing. Actually, fully understanding what the words are really saying is another thing. These days, I often come across cases where someone tells me that they have read the document. When I look at it and say something like: “Oh, I see that deliveries have to take place in 24 hours”, the person says: “Wow! Really? I didn’t see that.” Then I say: “I see that you will have to cross the border into another country – what approach are you going to use with the customs, since the cargo is classified as dangerous?” Then the guy says: “Gee, I didn’t realise that.” And so it goes. Eventually, it turns out that, although the fellow says that he read the document, his comprehension and absorption are like 20%. So, he is completely unprepared to actually act on the information in the document.

It can go a lot deeper than that. There are potential legal ramifications. A small phrase stating that you are responsible for delivery can imply that you have to arrange insurance cover and that you could be exposed to a huge claim for damages if the cargo is damaged or degraded during delivery.

So, when you hear stories that some students are not up to standard in reading when they get to university, that is much more serious than many may realise. It is not just a case of reading; it is also a case of being able to clearly understand what you have read. It is really important that the student can later write down clearly what he or she understands of the topic. If the student cannot write it clearly, it usually means that he or she does not know what he or she is trying to write down.

The ‘comprehension’ is, in turn, linked to maths. What maths does is to train the brain to use alternative paths. Imagine a map showing the main freeway as well as a number of side roads. What happens if someone says: “Travel from A to B, but the freeway is blocked by building activities, so take another route.” The person needs to be able to look at the map and to mentally imagine which of a few alternative routes would be best.

In choosing an alternative route, one has to note that, although one road might be the shortest, it is a dirt road. Or that another road looks good, but it does not go near any towns, so there are probably no petrol garages or refreshment shops. All options have to be examined to choose the optimum solution.

That is exactly what maths training does for the brain of a person. The maths requires one to mentally examine all possible options and then to choose one. At times, with more complex maths, a person has to choose two or more starting options, and then take the answer from one to feed into the other, and so on.

When this type of thing is done mentally in the world of business and industry, the person eventually has to write it all down, so that anybody else reading it can understand clearly what the outcome and conclusions are. There again, ‘reading study’ training plays an important role. In reading, one has to be able to ‘read between the lines’ and to be able to interpret alternative outcomes of what is read.

So, the combination of a maths-trained brain and a reading-comprehension-trained brain is extremely important.