I have taken 3 SAT reading tests from the blue book and have consistently missed ~15 every time. My strategy for the reading passages is to go directly into the questions and use the line numbers from the questions to find the answers. When I review the questions I first read the explanation from the blue book, then I watch videos of people going through the questions I got incorrect. Finally, I will re-do the reading section and walk through the steps myself to see if I can get the right answer. Should I continue this method or should I change what I’m doing? Thanks.
How successfully do you read questions quickly, accurately and have a good command of vocabulary and comprehensive soon? How well do you read different styles of text. Your issue may have more to do with your reading skill than test takng strategy.
Hey I am in the same exact situation, so I’m going to bump this up too. For reference I think I’m a great reader, but I overanalyze the questions always cutting down to final 2. I know you’re supposed to make sure the potential answer is supported by text, BUT I NEVER GET THOSE (it’s the 2-part questions). Whenever I check my questions, most of the time I bubbled the right answer, overanalyzed it and bubbled the incorrect answer. It’s maddening.
I am referring to skills such as reading text smoothly and quickly and attending to what yo acrozzu dead. Sometimes, people read by running their minds across text but have no recall of what read. In that case reread without laborious effort to remember you don’t want to jerk along when you read because this can hinder comprehension. If you have difficulty reading and remembering, try trading aloud or while standing.
Reading must be accurate for your responses to be accurate. If you think you are correct, mark that answer. Questions are not tricky by design to enhance the connection between the passage and the correct response. If two answers could be correct, the item would be pitched so not to mess up statistics and scores. There is no advantage to unreliable scoring.
The best means of improving reading is reading. It is pretty much irrelevant if you don’t like reading or don’t like a specific test. Remember how early driving skills were not coordinated, fluid, quick? Could you always stop at a reasonable speed and where you needed to stop and having the turn signal blinking also? Driving and reading require practice to remain alert while automatic.
So think about your reading and whether it is as accurate, smooth, meaningful, quick as you need to work for you. Practice reading and answering test questions of all sorts as needed. Don’t analyze possible answers to find secret meanings.
Also practice test taking skills so that you can read, answer and mark answers accurately and quickly. Your goal is accumulating as many points as you can within a time limit. The relative difficulty of items is irrelevant. The easiest and most difficult items are awarded the same score when answered accurately.
@Aconcernedllad In my SAT self studying journey, I have come across various different and contrasting reading strategies.
I would tell you to use the one that fits you the best.
How to find out which one is the most suitable? Take two practice tests, one using the two different strategies. Then reflect upon your experience. Which one did you feel more comfortable with? Which one did you do better on?
Beware– the blue book’s test number 3, reading passage that starts with Lady Carlotta, is extremely difficult for some reason. Don’t use that one as a diagnostic.
First, what have you done to identify the reasons why you are missing the ones you miss? What types of questions are you missing? What are the reasons why you are missing them? Don’t take any more tests until you can answer these questions. I realize the answer explanations in the Blue Book aren’t the best, but you should study them anyway. Do what you can and get help with the questions you can’t figure out. Second, you should try to find an older Blue Book and try taking practice sections using passages that aren’t in the new book. (Expect the older sections to be harder.) As you take the sections, vary your technique. Try reading the entire passage first before you go to the questions. Try writing very short (4 - 5 words) summaries of each paragraph. This will help to answer the global main idea and purpose types of questions. Don’t worry about timing the sections. Learn to identify question types, to get correct answers, and to identify your most effective strategy. Once you’ve done that, then go back to the new book and start taking timed tests.
@Aconcernedllad I was in the same situation too in February. However, if you do Metzler’s book and all the practice exercises in barron’s and the official book, you should do fine. BTW, what types of passages do you struggle with?