did anyone’s kids read sci fi and score high on the reading section of the sat
Do you think there is a correlation? What are you trying to get at here?
Yes. My son read a ton of sci fi and fantasy and scored an 800 on the CR section. But he also read other genres as well. You have to read a wide variety of quality literature for it to have an impact.
A good way to judge whether a book is stretching your mind is the frequency of vocabulary words you don’t know, and the number of literary and historical references you encounter. (For example, does the author reference Greek or Roman mythology? Religious texts? Historical events?) Look these up when you encounter them.
Mine read gobs of fantasy. Both did very well on the CR section and on the Lit subject test with minimal prep. Now they did read other things, and did well in their English classes, too. Their dad used to fume because he thought they should be reading “better literature”. But it worked out okay.
My S is a sci-fi / fantasy / anime fan. 780 on the CR portion of the SAT.
Re: better literature - at the heart of many, probably even most, SFF literature you will find themes along the lines of courage, perseverance, standing up for what’s right, and, especially in sci-fi - “what does it mean to be human?”
Every time sci-fi looks at an android, robot or alien and ponders whether or not the thing is sentient, has feelings and/or should be accorded “human” rights, it’s actually an exploration of the “Other.” It is impossible to explore the boundaries of Otherness without also exploring the boundaries of Self.
Include other genres did anyones kids read harry potter
I liked Harry Potter and had 800 CR / 800 W the first time I took it.
I’m sure plenty of people read that and scored differently, though?
what do you like to read
My kids, my wife, and I, read every Harry Potter. At first, my daughter refused to read them, thinking they were just for boys, but then one Memorial Day weekend before the fourth book came out she opened the first book Saturday morning and didn’t get up from the couch until she had finished the third.
My son read a ton of sci-fi and (less) fantasy. He professed not to like “literature,” but it turned out that he did like some of it. My daughter read voraciously, pretty much everything except sci-fi, and wrote a lot of her own fiction, too. Both did very well on the CR and Writing SATs.
Yep, S2 read some sci-fi but mostly fantasy books, 770 on the SAT R+W, and 36 on the ACT subsections, no studying and no prep. I think reading a lot, regardless of genre, is great prep for the SAT.
One of my kids never read a book except for the ones assigned for school. Never. She hated to read. She got an 800 on the SAT critical reading.
My oldest read sci fi, fantasy and computer theory, scored an 800. (He read the sixth Harry Potter book in a day.) My youngest read similar stuff and scored a 790. Both read a lot for pleasure. I think much sci fi is written at a fairly high reading level, but it’s not boring. My kids also read very, very fast. That said, as Marian’s kid demonstrates, you can do well without being an avid reader.
My youngest did very well on some geography bee in middle school - he claims he learned all the terms from his genre reading.
Of course. Good sci-fi can be as challenging as many classics
Sci Fi and fantasy readers tend to be voracious readers and super intelligent.
My S read everything from The Chronicles of Prydain in K to Dostoevsky in HS. He, like those above, scored an 800 on the CR section with no prep.
There’s plenty of SF that is well written and aimed at an intelligent audience. And it tends to be heavy on ideas and philosophical questions. (There is also, of course, a fair amount of pedestrian filler, but although I love good fantasy I have to say it is more prone to that sort of thing than SF.)