Help with DD1 "understanding" questions

[CeciCC]

Hi, DD1 is in Y10 and she has noticed, as questions gets longer and harder, that she has to read them several times before she "understands" what she is expected to do. She is getting quite worried as, she won't have enough time in exams to answer them and do as well as she thinks she can do. We, my DD1 and I, would like to know what can we do? she will be talking to the form tutor about it, but I was wandering if any one has any advice on what we could do or who might be able to help. My younger brother is dyslexic so I always been aware how bad for one's confidence is if something like this goes unchecked. TIA

Is this for all subjects, or one or two in particular?

My DD1 did GCSEs last year, and we found that questions in a lot of subjects followed a certain type, so once you knew what was needed you could recognise it the next times.

DD1 did loads of practice with past papers then looking at the mark scheme in order to help her understand what was needed. School should ramp up the question practicing once they have done a bit more of the syllabus.

Of course you will be on for new style GCSEs (?), so I don't know how much that helps.

I think it is no bad thing to read a question several times - it makes sure that you answer the question being asked rather than the one you think.
I assume you are talking about more complex, essay style questions.
Would it help, after reading it once, to go through and highlight/underline the critical points eg compare & contrast, describe, list, argue, etc. Also make sure that she can break a question down into manageable parts.

thanks for your replies.
I agree that is good to read several times so she does understand the questions and not just read once and missed some of the points.
I know she is worried with history. Last year, she realised that she loves history, and she had in some of the test they did last year, the highest mark for the year, even though she was not on the highest set, as her English is not very strong. So she choose it as one of her options. Then she went to a history trip to Belgium, and when visiting museums, she realised that she couldn't " comprehend" or understand what was written as explanation of the exhibits. A friend did explained to her, so she would know. She never mentioned anything to me until now, that she is having this problem when reading exam questions. She "missed" part of a maths questions. which meant she lost 9 marks and didn't get top marks for the exam.
Probably is nothing to worry about and is just practice need it, but as I said, my youngest brother is dyslexic, but it went unnoticed until he was 13. By then, his confidence was non-existent, but because he was very good at making the class laugh, no one ever noticed.
Sorry for the essay....

It could be that the signs in a museum in Belgium might not have been written in 'correct' English which made them harder to understand.

My DS is quite bright but as he got older his test results didn't tally with his intelligence. I tried raising the matter with the school but got nowhere so in the end I paid for a private assessment. The assessment said that he was bright but he was being hampered by his memory and processing skills i.e his ability to read a text - e.g. an exam question - and extract the meaning. He said sometimes he had to read a sentence half a dozen times before it sank in.

He was given a diagnosis of Dyspraxia and given extra time in exams. It has made all the difference.

We have dyslexia in out family too. There is some correlation between dyslexia and dyspraxia.

Stupid question! Has she been assessed for extra time? It sounds like that would be really helpful?