The Reading Test on the SAT is a difficult challenge for many students, but making significant improvements in your score is possible. You don’t even have to be a bookworm to do it! (Though this bookworm thinks reading is pretty cool!)

What makes the Reading Test such a challenge? To begin with, the format of the test itself is absolutely harrowing. Having 65 minutes to read five passages and then answer 52 multiple-choice questions tests not only your critical reading skills but also your ability to remain focused over a long period of time. The other sections are broken up into shorter time frames so they at least seem more manageable. Just thinking about all the hurdles of the Reading Test is enough to stress anyone out!

Furthermore, while the skills you practice in English class are the same skills you will use on the exam, they are assessed in very different ways than what you may be accustomed to at school. You might have a class discussion to talk about major themes in a novel or analyze a character by creating a profile of him or her. You have definitely written essays to analyze a text or persuade an audience of your viewpoint. None of that happens on the SAT. It is just five passages and multiple-choice questions with only one right answer. 

Thus, improving your Reading score is–in part–about learning how to apply the skills you have to those questions. The good news is that this is an Evidence-Based Reading test, so all the answers are in the text. They are literally on the page in front of you. It is just a matter of learning how to see them, which we will talk about soon.

It will take time and self-discipline on your part to improve your score, but the work you do will show universities that you are ready for college-level reading, no matter the subject, and be more likely to be accepted into your preferred schools!

There are several strategies you can follow, though, to make the most efficient use of your time.

#1 Skim or Skip

If you do nothing else to prepare for the Reading section, DO THIS. Practice this one strategy and you WILL improve your score. 

I mentioned before that part of the challenge of the Reading Test is having to read five passages. Here is a scandalous secret that just might make your English teacher faint: you do not have to read the passage first. I know it sounds crazy, but if you find yourself leaving half the questions blank because you ran out of time trying to read the passages, then you have to try this. 

I coach my students to skip reading the passage and go straight to the questions. The questions will point you to the lines that you need to read. Many will give you the exact line numbers. If they do not, you can look for keywords or match the order of the questions with the order of the passage–questions are in chronological order, so questions in the middle of the set refer to the middle of the passage. Any questions about the whole passage are skipped over until you have answered all the other questions.

This is a good strategy to practice with a tutor who is familiar with it because it may feel a little awkward the first few times. With practice, however, you will find yourself breezing through the easy questions and having more time to spend on the harder questions. You should also find that you are answering more questions than you were before, which will lead to improvements in your score!

If this technique does not seem to be working for you, try just scanning the passage to get the gist of it. Use the questions to focus your reading. This is a good option if going into the questions without having read the passage makes you feel panicked. If you already have test anxiety, there is no need to add to it!

#2 Look for Evidence

As I mentioned before, this is an Evidence-Based Reading Test, which means that you do not need to know anything beyond what is in the text. All of the answers are right there.

This is one of the major ways in which the exam is different from English class. In class, students may have different interpretations, but that is acceptable as long as they can explain themselves (with evidence from the text). There is no explaining yourself on the SAT. There is just one right answer.

The best way to find the correct answer is to read carefully, predict the answer based on what you read, and then look at the answer choices. If you already have your answer in your head, it will be easier to notice the wrong answers. Furthermore, you should be able to point to a specific part of the text in relation to your answer: the answer is C because in lines 5–7 the author says such and such. 

When you practice reading passages, you should be marking the evidence for your answers. You may go slower in the beginning, but the process will become faster with practice. After all, part of your SAT prep for the Reading Test is practicing your critical reading skills; it is okay to slow down in the beginning. 

#3 What do you really need to know?

Unlike the Math Test that assesses particular skills, like how to use the Pythagorean Theorem or how to solve a linear equation, the skills on the Reading Test can seem more general. You are assessed on your ability to comprehend what you read and make inferences based on that, as well as your ability to analyze the choices that the author makes when writing. 

In this case, it is easier to consider the types of questions you will encounter. According to Khan Academy, which offers Official SAT Practice, there are three categories of questions on the exam.

Information and Ideas

These questions cover basic reading comprehension skills. Can you identify main ideas? Can you summarize a text? Can you make inferences based on a close reading of a text? Can you cite evidence that justifies a particular claim?

Vocabulary also falls under this category. However, you will always be asked to define a word within the context of the passage. You are being assessed on your ability to use context clues rather than isolated definitions of words. This means that you do not need to memorize lengthy lists of vocabulary words. 

However, if you stumble over a lot of unfamiliar words during SAT Reading prep, it will not hurt to familiarize yourself with some high-frequency SAT words. There are a lot of lists online. Choose sources that are more recent (less than 5 years old, at least). But again, there is no need to spend a lot of time on vocabulary.

Rhetoric

These questions relate to the choices writers make when composing their texts. You will be asked to analyze their purpose, how they structure a text and choose words, and how they make arguments as a whole.

If you have yet to do any rhetorical analysis in your English class, I recommend watching an explainer video or working with a tutor to help you understand the basics. It is not nearly as hard as it sounds!

Synthesis

These questions specifically relate to the dual passages and graphs you will see on the exam. You will be asked to make inferences and identify relationships based on the passages or the passage and the graph. These questions rely on careful reading, so as long as you practice these a few times, you will be just fine!

You do not need to know these question types for exam day but being able to recognize the different types will help you understand where you need to improve. It will also inform your plan of attack, discussed next.

#4 Plan of Attack

The above tips are meant to help you with your SAT prep by providing you with strategies and skills to practice. However, even with all of that practice, how should you approach the Reading Test on exam day?

The Reading Test will be the first part of the exam. You will encounter five passages—four individual and one set of paired passages. Each will have 10–11 questions to answer in 65 minutes. The passages will cover different subjects: literature, social science, science, and a text from the Great Global Conversation. That text will be a historical primary source from American or World History considering themes of freedom and human rights. It is likely that either the literary or historical text will date from the nineteenth or early twentieth century when Standard English usage was slightly different from how we use it today.

I tell you all of that because you have the ability to choose. Within those 65 minutes, you can read the passages in whatever order you like. Therefore, play to your strengths by reading the subjects you are better at first. 

For example, one of my students could always answer every question from a literary passage correctly but often struggled with the science passages. Because she knew this about herself, on exam day, she found the literary passage and completed it first, leaving the science passage for last. 

A strategy like this allows you to spend time on passages and questions you are more likely to do well on. You might as well not waste time on what you are likely to get wrong anyway. Guess on those questions instead. The same goes for the question types discussed in tip #3. If you know you tend to miss questions about graphs, guess and move on.

If you have done enough prep, you will know which questions are worth answering and which are not. Using this strategy, along with tip #1, will greatly increase the amount of time you have during the Reading Test.

#5 The Good Stuff

Finally, when practicing for the SAT, use questions that actually look like what is on the real test. The best options are to use the practice tests offered by the College Board on the SAT website. After that, use Khan Academy for more practice. The College Board has partnered with them to create Official SAT Practice, so the questions they provide will be like what you see on the test.

If you are working on practicing a particular concept, like rhetorical analysis, it is perfectly alright to use a text from your English class. In fact, if you do struggle with reading comprehension like what is asked in the Information and Ideas questions, it will help to stay focused in your English class. Participate as much as you can and ask questions. Not only will your English teacher love to see it, but working harder in English class will help you on the exam. After all, the SAT is meant to assess what you are learning in school. Thus, the more you read (regardless of what exactly it is you read), and the more you think about what you read, the more likely you are to do well on this portion of the test.

It is possible to improve your reading score, and the above tips will help you do it. The key is that you have to put in the work it takes to improve; so grab your pencil, and get started!