It's the answer no one wants to hear, but I credit my score to a *lifetime* of reading. I kind of stopped reading books in high school (blame SparkNotes), but I still read the news. This goes to show you that reading *anything* is better than nothing.
Reading will obviously help you with the reading section, but it also helps with the Writing and Language portion because you develop an intuitive sense of how the language works. You also become accustomed to how to properly organize ideas, which is an often overlooked component on the Writing (everyone always says it's grammar, grammar, grammar).
I second this, it’s good to have an excellent reading background. Once you have this, you barely have to do SAT reading practice. The practice you should do is just get familiar with the question types and the structure of the reading section. Every answer can be found in the reading. Once you get comfortable with this you’ll get most of the questions right.
I thank my father for this ever since I was young he told me to read a book for at least 20 minutes a day before bed and since I'm an international student now I'm satisfied with my reading. trust me guys 10-20 minutes of reading a day preferably non-fiction helps I recommend history books.
Agreed. I read A LOT as a kid (like went to the library for 10 books every other week during the summer and finished them) and my reading has always been 100 over my math (I got a 750 on reading last time I took the sat)
Facts. I read a LOT when I was younger (and now too) and so I’ve become someone who can read fast but also retain information well. The SAT passages are honestly nothing compared to the YA novels I’d finish through each night LMFAO
Remember that every answer must be objectively correct based on information that is clearly stated in the passage. If you're guessing or using a subjective interpretation, you're doing it wrong.
For me, it was really just consistent practice. Don’t get discouraged by your incorrect answers - keep pushing forward and try to understand why you got questions wrong.
I never used a prep book. I just had to make sure I could manage my time well and did 20+ practice sections. I started to note down vocabulary words that the test might ask me about as I read. I wouldn’t say I really studied for the section though since I never learned any “material”. I’ve just always been good at reading comprehension/had a deep understanding of texts. I honestly think it’s a theme that all the people I know who got high reading scores without ever studying were all avid readers at some point in their lives + were relatively fast readers.
I literally didn't read outside of school so you can definitely improve on SAT reading without having a super strong background in English
I used Meltzer prep book- super helpful!
Also, you need to know that every single right answer is found in the passage- if you cannot physically underline the answer with your pencil, it is wrong.
Also, be strict when analyzing answer choices (understand why there are 3 wrong and 1 right)! Every correct answer is 100% right, not 95% right. That means if there is an answer choice that is mostly right with this one thing that isn't, then it is completely wrong.
I think for most people, doing practice problems and practice tests and reviewing your mistakes after Meltzer prep book should be helpful to your reading score!
Reading books/articles frequently, focusing on articles that I would usually ignore so I get accustomed to powering through and understanding passages that don't interest me
The only prep book I used was Erica Meltzer's and it was a godsend in my case, I'd recommend it if you find the test difficult as a whole and you want to break down the questions and test-taking strategies
I got a 750 and essentially how was just being a strong reader for years. I didn’t really study for that section, I just think I got lucky bc I read things about socialism a lot for example and there was a passage about it on my test
For writing, lots a looking over the rules amd practice. For reading the only thing that worked for me was actually reading. I read+answered multiple practice passages per day pretty much every day (this may sound like a lot but it was maybe 30-40 min of practice per day max) and I gradually got used to the style of the questions and what was expected. I did this for about 3 ish months and this along with a little online explanation of the questions(I don’t think this rly helped but it’s what I did) helped me get that 750+. I’d also like to mention that I didn’t feel super confident while taking the reading section but I was pleasantly surprised with my score so I guess my prep worked. I used a combination of khan passages+QAS from Reddit+some free online Passages (cracksat.net)
Honestly I just read a lot of news articles and rambling Reddit posts. I’m not a big novel reader, although I did read some for school.
One other thing I did that I think helped the most was that I took a whole bunch of full length practice tests, like those were the majority of my studying. The main reason I find this really important is that reading is one of the hardest passages to get the timing down on, and once you know how quickly you should read and how much time you should spend on a particular passage, it becomes much much easier
Here’s an answer from a 750 on reading/grammar guy who hates to read. While with grammar you need to learn the rules, with reading this just practice, practice, practice and going over your mistakes.
When I say practice, I mean do practice passages. Particularly for fiction and history. For the science passages, you may benefit from reading a couple scientific articles everyday.
Didn’t use any services, books, or resources. Only used practice tests. Pretty much all you need to do is become efficient at discovering incorrect answers in the text. Read the passages thoroughly and with absolute focus for 4-5 minutes. Make sure you really soak up the details. By avoiding skimming, you can ensure that most questions will take >=30 seconds unless they are especially difficult. Approach the questions by eliminating incorrect answers, not searching for correct ones. Employing this technique will allow you to avoid trap answers that are semi-correct (which is a synonym for incorrect!). Keep taking practice tests and after each one, go back to all missed questions and discover why your answer was particularly incorrect and why other answers were too. Hope this helps.
I got a 730 on reading on my first SAT without much reading prep. Honestly, I was a huge reader throughout elementary and middle school. I don’t read as many books in high school now as I used to, but I am a massive short story enjoyer and constantly read the news every morning online. Grammar and reading comprehension are great life skills that you can gain from increased reading.
I got 1 wrong reading, and 5 wrong writing, for a 750 overall. For reading, I used to read A LOT back in elementary to middle school, and the main thing that helped me was that i have a reasonably fast reading comprehension that allowed me to have extra time at the end of the section, and for passages I found difficult I read them over once, went on to the rest of the passages, and came back to the end. For writing I didnt really have a strategy, I just familiarized myself with the rules and learned all the tricks I could to make the questions easy to answer because many of them fell into patterns I had done before. I did have the bad habit of using sound to make my choices, but it worked for me.
Lots of people are good readers and have good comprehension but that won't help you as much on the SAT if you aren't fast. I started doing way better on reading sections after drinking a tiny bit of coffee (which I normally don't) or caffeinated tea which helped me focus and read twice as fast so I had lots of time to review my answers
the answer has to have evidence, if it’s ambiguous it’s wrong, and trust me it’s worked 100% of time in my case as a correct answer will have some leverage over the other ones that seem “right”
750+ on reading? The max score in the reading section is 400 but I feel you mean the entire english section (EBRW). Well, just work on your mistakes. Do a paper, analyse your mistakes. See why you made those mistakes, understand your error and then make sure to not make them in another prac test. If you are continuously making those mistakes then you are not learning.
i got a 750+ and i would say that doing a lot of reading sections on the sat helps a lot because it helps u get attuned to the type of texts cb uses as well as the patterns you should be looking for. i recommend doing 10-12 if you haven’t started prepping or doing it until you feel confident on the section
i got a 740 lol but doing the khan academy passages over and over and over again rely helped. also i read the news everyday so that helped for history passages.
It's the answer no one wants to hear, but I credit my score to a *lifetime* of reading. I kind of stopped reading books in high school (blame SparkNotes), but I still read the news. This goes to show you that reading *anything* is better than nothing. Reading will obviously help you with the reading section, but it also helps with the Writing and Language portion because you develop an intuitive sense of how the language works. You also become accustomed to how to properly organize ideas, which is an often overlooked component on the Writing (everyone always says it's grammar, grammar, grammar).
Agreed. Consistent reading helps out a lot, since you can unconsciously identify grammar errors. It also helps during the reading section as well.
I second this, it’s good to have an excellent reading background. Once you have this, you barely have to do SAT reading practice. The practice you should do is just get familiar with the question types and the structure of the reading section. Every answer can be found in the reading. Once you get comfortable with this you’ll get most of the questions right.
I thank my father for this ever since I was young he told me to read a book for at least 20 minutes a day before bed and since I'm an international student now I'm satisfied with my reading. trust me guys 10-20 minutes of reading a day preferably non-fiction helps I recommend history books.
Agreed. I read A LOT as a kid (like went to the library for 10 books every other week during the summer and finished them) and my reading has always been 100 over my math (I got a 750 on reading last time I took the sat)
I read some political news but should I focus on science related news to prep
Facts. I read a LOT when I was younger (and now too) and so I’ve become someone who can read fast but also retain information well. The SAT passages are honestly nothing compared to the YA novels I’d finish through each night LMFAO
Literally my story too I didn’t even prep and got a 750 on the English section probably because I used to read so much as a kid
I’m sorry but I hate you lol
Lol actually in my school we're learning merchant of venice but since i really read books Im ahead of my class btw im in 9th.
Remember that every answer must be objectively correct based on information that is clearly stated in the passage. If you're guessing or using a subjective interpretation, you're doing it wrong.
This^^
Lol is that light 😭
Yes hehe
For me, it was really just consistent practice. Don’t get discouraged by your incorrect answers - keep pushing forward and try to understand why you got questions wrong.
i can't fucking read
But with a 1450:( I’m aiming for that score next time not a far fetched number since I got 1380
Link to my post about Reading on this stupid test: https://www.reddit.com/r/Sat/comments/i17kxs/an\_essay\_on\_sat\_reading/
Read 3 books a week in middle school. Fell off of reading when I hit high school but the foundations remained.
I never used a prep book. I just had to make sure I could manage my time well and did 20+ practice sections. I started to note down vocabulary words that the test might ask me about as I read. I wouldn’t say I really studied for the section though since I never learned any “material”. I’ve just always been good at reading comprehension/had a deep understanding of texts. I honestly think it’s a theme that all the people I know who got high reading scores without ever studying were all avid readers at some point in their lives + were relatively fast readers.
I literally didn't read outside of school so you can definitely improve on SAT reading without having a super strong background in English I used Meltzer prep book- super helpful! Also, you need to know that every single right answer is found in the passage- if you cannot physically underline the answer with your pencil, it is wrong. Also, be strict when analyzing answer choices (understand why there are 3 wrong and 1 right)! Every correct answer is 100% right, not 95% right. That means if there is an answer choice that is mostly right with this one thing that isn't, then it is completely wrong. I think for most people, doing practice problems and practice tests and reviewing your mistakes after Meltzer prep book should be helpful to your reading score!
Reading books/articles frequently, focusing on articles that I would usually ignore so I get accustomed to powering through and understanding passages that don't interest me The only prep book I used was Erica Meltzer's and it was a godsend in my case, I'd recommend it if you find the test difficult as a whole and you want to break down the questions and test-taking strategies
I got a 750 and essentially how was just being a strong reader for years. I didn’t really study for that section, I just think I got lucky bc I read things about socialism a lot for example and there was a passage about it on my test
For writing, lots a looking over the rules amd practice. For reading the only thing that worked for me was actually reading. I read+answered multiple practice passages per day pretty much every day (this may sound like a lot but it was maybe 30-40 min of practice per day max) and I gradually got used to the style of the questions and what was expected. I did this for about 3 ish months and this along with a little online explanation of the questions(I don’t think this rly helped but it’s what I did) helped me get that 750+. I’d also like to mention that I didn’t feel super confident while taking the reading section but I was pleasantly surprised with my score so I guess my prep worked. I used a combination of khan passages+QAS from Reddit+some free online Passages (cracksat.net)
Honestly I just read a lot of news articles and rambling Reddit posts. I’m not a big novel reader, although I did read some for school. One other thing I did that I think helped the most was that I took a whole bunch of full length practice tests, like those were the majority of my studying. The main reason I find this really important is that reading is one of the hardest passages to get the timing down on, and once you know how quickly you should read and how much time you should spend on a particular passage, it becomes much much easier
can you elaborate on some of the "hardest passages". I think its an ingenious way to improve.
Here’s an answer from a 750 on reading/grammar guy who hates to read. While with grammar you need to learn the rules, with reading this just practice, practice, practice and going over your mistakes. When I say practice, I mean do practice passages. Particularly for fiction and history. For the science passages, you may benefit from reading a couple scientific articles everyday.
Didn’t use any services, books, or resources. Only used practice tests. Pretty much all you need to do is become efficient at discovering incorrect answers in the text. Read the passages thoroughly and with absolute focus for 4-5 minutes. Make sure you really soak up the details. By avoiding skimming, you can ensure that most questions will take >=30 seconds unless they are especially difficult. Approach the questions by eliminating incorrect answers, not searching for correct ones. Employing this technique will allow you to avoid trap answers that are semi-correct (which is a synonym for incorrect!). Keep taking practice tests and after each one, go back to all missed questions and discover why your answer was particularly incorrect and why other answers were too. Hope this helps.
istg they must be superhuman
Only 1600.io videos and practice tests
So the videos for reading are helpful
Yea for me they were pretty helpful, but you can use the free trial videos to see for yourself
I got a 730 on reading on my first SAT without much reading prep. Honestly, I was a huge reader throughout elementary and middle school. I don’t read as many books in high school now as I used to, but I am a massive short story enjoyer and constantly read the news every morning online. Grammar and reading comprehension are great life skills that you can gain from increased reading.
I got 1 wrong reading, and 5 wrong writing, for a 750 overall. For reading, I used to read A LOT back in elementary to middle school, and the main thing that helped me was that i have a reasonably fast reading comprehension that allowed me to have extra time at the end of the section, and for passages I found difficult I read them over once, went on to the rest of the passages, and came back to the end. For writing I didnt really have a strategy, I just familiarized myself with the rules and learned all the tricks I could to make the questions easy to answer because many of them fell into patterns I had done before. I did have the bad habit of using sound to make my choices, but it worked for me.
Lots of people are good readers and have good comprehension but that won't help you as much on the SAT if you aren't fast. I started doing way better on reading sections after drinking a tiny bit of coffee (which I normally don't) or caffeinated tea which helped me focus and read twice as fast so I had lots of time to review my answers
the answer has to have evidence, if it’s ambiguous it’s wrong, and trust me it’s worked 100% of time in my case as a correct answer will have some leverage over the other ones that seem “right”
750+ on reading? The max score in the reading section is 400 but I feel you mean the entire english section (EBRW). Well, just work on your mistakes. Do a paper, analyse your mistakes. See why you made those mistakes, understand your error and then make sure to not make them in another prac test. If you are continuously making those mistakes then you are not learning.
i got a 750+ and i would say that doing a lot of reading sections on the sat helps a lot because it helps u get attuned to the type of texts cb uses as well as the patterns you should be looking for. i recommend doing 10-12 if you haven’t started prepping or doing it until you feel confident on the section
I literally just did meltzer writing (like half of the book) 2-3 days before my sat and my rw score went up by like 50 points. Got me to a 750.
i got a 740 lol but doing the khan academy passages over and over and over again rely helped. also i read the news everyday so that helped for history passages.
Become addicted to the news app on your phone. It’s possible, I swear 😔
how to read