How Can I Improve My SAT Reading Score?
The best way to improve your score is to use these SAT reading tips and strategies as you prepare for the test:
#1: Practice Timed Passages At Home
While you may have 65 minutes to complete the reading section, many students find themselves running out of time on this section similar to the ACT Reading Section. In order to prepare for test day, doing reading sections in SAT practice tests under the time limit at home can help you get accustomed to the amount of time you’ll have on test day. Even though there are 65 minutes for the entire section, with 5 sets of passages, that breaks down to about 13 minutes per passage set. Even if you are a fast reader, that’s not a lot of time! Challenge yourself to spend no more than 13 minutes reading a passage and then answering the associated questions. Do as much reading practice questions as you can to get the timing down and have enough time to answer all the questions!
#2: Don’t Make Any Inferences (Unless Asked)
One of the biggest mistakes students can make on the test is to bring in outside knowledge to the reading section or start using information that isn’t part of the passage as evidence. The inference questions may seem challenging, but the correct answer will always be entirely supported with evidence from the passage. Never use your own opinion or background knowledge as a reason to pick an answer choice. The SAT isn’t asking for your opinions, and your background knowledge may be incorrect. Occasionally a question will explicitly ask you to make an inference, or what the author is implying. In these cases, any answer choice you pick should still be supported by textual evidence.
#3: Do evidence-based reading questions in reverse order
Students often find these questions challenging because they think if they pick a wrong answer to the first question, it automatically causes them to get the second question wrong. It doesn’t need to be that way! The best way to tackle these questions is to do the second question first. That’s right, go out of order! Read the detailed question first, and then read through all the line numbers in the second question. After you’ve found a line number that answers the first detail question, go back to the first question and match whichever answer choice best corresponds with the line number you picked. Working out of order in this way ensures that you don’t misremember a detail from the passage.
#4: Do main idea questions last
If you had trouble understanding a passage, main idea questions are best saved for last. This means you should skip the main idea question until you answer all the detailed questions. Answering the detailed questions first will help you get a better grasp of what happened in the passage and make you more prepared to choose the right answer to the main idea question.
#5: Use the whole sentence for a vocabulary in context question
The test makers will always include a line number in vocabulary in context questions, so before taking a look at the answer choices, go back to the line number and re-read the sentence that includes the vocabulary word. Challenge yourself to come up with a synonym for the word as it’s used. Then, go back to the answer choices and see which choice best matches your synonym. Answering the question this way helps prevent you from getting confused about the true definition of the word and stuck between the answer choices.
#6: Read the blurb before the passage
Before every passage in the reading section, there will be a small blurb with information for the reader. These blurbs may explain the main characters in a story, or give you context for who wrote a passage and when. For example, if I know a passage is an excerpt from a speech given by an American president, I can safely assume the passage will talk about America, and likely be pro-America, even if I can’t figure out anything else. This information is helpful in figuring out what a passage is about and its purpose.
#7: Look out for misleading answer choices
If you see an answer choice with words like “always,” “never,” or “must,” more often than not that answer choice will be wrong. While a character may act a certain way in a passage, to say that they always act like that would be misleading because we simply don’t have that information. We’re limited to the information presented in a passage, and we can’t make a comment on anything outside the passage.
#8: Pay attention to keywords
Keep an eye out for keywords in the passage that may help you figure out the main idea. Phrases along the lines of “I believe” and “I hypothesize” can tell you what the narrator is thinking. Other phrases like “evidence shows,” “research suggests,” or “we demonstrated” can tell you the conclusion of an experiment. You should also watch out for transition words. Transition words like “however” can point you to a narrator’s contrasting ideas, whereas words and phrases like “therefore” or “for example” can help you figure out the path of a narrator’s thoughts.
#9: Skim the passage
Many questions on the SAT can be answered without fully reading the passage, or understanding it. About half of the questions on the section have line numbers that you can refer to. This means if you’re running out of time at the end of a section, instead of reading the passage in its entirety, skim to get a general idea and save yourself some time.
#10: Don’t let yourself get stuck
The reading section is the longest section of the SAT. You inevitably will have to deal with a passage you don’t understand or answer a question you have difficulty with. With such little time to waste, and so much content to get through, if you find yourself spending too much time on a question or confused about part of your passage it’s in your best interest to skip it and keep moving. All questions have the same value, and skipping one question won’t hurt your score as much as having less time to answer questions you have a better chance of getting right.
#11: Find the best annotating strategy for you
Figuring out the best annotating strategy can be helpful in both managing your time and understanding the passage. Annotating while you read means marking up the passage and writing notes in the margins. This can be useful for improving overall reading comprehension, since you are more actively engaged in the passage. Annotating can also work as signposts for when you refer back to the passage when you answer a question. You can use different annotating strategies for different types of passages: for example, for fiction passages a great way to annotate is to underline/circle character names, the setting, and major plot points. Try out different strategies and see what works for you, as everyone’s reading skills differ.
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