SAT 2040, 10th grade, need prep?

tokenadult
Sun, 04 Jan 2009 12:53:18 +0000

these courses are much more helpful for low-scoring kids



Or at any rate, those courses are designed for low-scoring kids. I’m not sure they are helpful for anyone. A child who has a 2040 in tenth grade mostly just needs to read a lot for fun, keep learning inside and outside of school, and take the practice sample SAT under actual test time limits before taking the SAT “for keeps” again. That should be enough preparation.

Here’s my FAQ on test prep:

READ, READ

To learn how to score well on a standardized test reading section, the number one piece of advice is READ, READ, READ, and READ. Read about what you like to know more about. Read things that are fun for you. Find books and magazines about interesting topics and read them. Turn off the TV and read. Put away the video game controller and read. Read hard things, and read easy things. Read a lot.

For years, I wondered why it came so readily to mind to write “READ, READ, READ” in all capital letters like that when I give advice on this subject, as I have frequent occasion to do. Recently, I reread the section “Suggestions for Study” in the front matter of John DeFrancis’s book Beginning Chinese Reader, Part I, which I first used to learn Chinese back in 1975. In that section of that book, I found this passage, “Fluency in reading can only be achieved by extensive practice on all the interrelated aspects of the reading process. To accomplish this we must READ, READ, READ” (capitalization as in original).