Anyone who knows anything about American standardized tests knows that their main difficulty lies in the Reading sections. The Math is fairly rudimentary, particularly on the SAT, which more often than not ends its section by testing content most students learn before they even enter high school. As for the Verbal side of things, half of that score is nothing more than an English grammar test. Learn the appropriate grammar rules, identify them in context, and in no time, you’re looking at a top score. Unfortunately, of course, the grammar score is only half of the Verbal equation. Among test-takers and test preparation experts, the question has always been: how does one consistently maximize that Reading score, which seems to be so resistant to simple tricks. Unlike the grammar and math, there’s no content to know. Vocabulary lists are a thing of the past: since 2016, the newly designed SAT has eschewed strict testing of vocab. So what does one do? What follows are five strategies for success:
1.) Plan to prepare for at least six months
Both the SAT and the ACT choose passages that are intentionally boring and arcane. It takes time to acclimate oneself to the oftentimes difficult syntax and the complexity of ideas found on both tests. The best way to do this is to read these types of things regularly, ideally with a reading list specifically put together for this purpose. Remember: stronger readers achieve higher scores on all sections of the test.
2.) Determine whether you are an SAT or ACT reader
Despite both tests putatively testing you on Reading Comprehension, there’s a reason why the two tests differ so widely in the amount of time they allot per reading passage. Despite asking students to read articles of approximately 80-100 lines and answer ten questions about each of them, the SAT gives you a leisurely thirteen minutes to the ACT’s frantic 8:45. What this means, of course, in practice is that each test is evaluating you on a different skill. The SAT tests your ability to distinguish between the nuances of otherwise similar answer choices; the ACT, on the other hand, is nothing more than a glorified word search, answers most times coming out of the passage verbatim. So, all other things being fairly equal — both tests contain an English grammar section and a Math portion — aside from the Science section on the ACT (which is really an exercise in reading scientific experiments, no real scientific knowledge tested), the question becomes: which type of Reading task better sets you up for success? Oftentimes answering this question effectively is the difference between a top score and one hamstrung by that old bugbear: standardized test reading!
3.) Proof of evidence
There are more strategies for the SAT and ACT Reading sections out there than there are test-takers. I probably exaggerate. It is true, however, that there is a vast literature on the best and most effective way to read the passage; order in which to do the questions; process by which one should attack specific, general, paired, and any other type of question put in front of you. I’m here to tell you that, however helpful these intricate strategies may be, they’re all really secondary to what I like to call the burden of proof. If there is one thing to remember when you’re in that test center taking the real thing, remember this: play the game “did it say that?” Despite what some questions say, there are, I swear to you, absolutely no inferences on either test, no reading between lines or hidden meanings. This should make one’s life easier. Which leads me to my next point..
4.) There’s only one correct answer
This should seem self-explanatory. And yet, I’ve seen far too many students consciously or subconsciously treat the Reading section differently than they do the Math (and Science, if taking the ACT). This line of thinking is not far-fetched. After all, we’re always told that there are no right answers in the humanities, just a difference of opinions and interpretations. Subjectivity would then seem to reign. How would one then consistently achieve a top score on the grammar or reading sections? Just as anyone who has mastered the SAT Writing or ACT English knows: once you know what grammar rule you are being tested on, there is only one right answer. One must approach the Reading with the same mentality. Those who put together these standardized tests, tests that as we know have so much riding on them, tests that must then be irreproachable — it is these who make literalists of us all. And it is never good enough to “get it down to two” and then figuratively shrug one’s shoulders and choose one with less than full conviction in one’s answer. Ladies and gentlemen: there is always a reason for a (no, THE) right answer, and the difference between a 1420 and 1570 is the difference between the figurative shoulder shrug and that testing wizard who knows that every correct answer can be made to reveal itself.
5.) Develop a radar for right answers / think like the makers of the test
Many a test-taker of especially the SAT have remarked to me how the Reading section seems to be a section of splitting hairs. What they mean is that the difference between right and wrong answers is so slight (though not subjective of course, see #4) that consistently choosing the correct one and avoiding its disguised evil twin seems exceedingly difficult if not impossible. If you didn’t already know, standardized tests don’t evaluate your intelligence, and they surely don’t measure how well you perform in school. If they did, everyone’s test scores would more or less correlate with their transcripts. They don’t, of course. What the SAT and ACT do provide a wonderful assessment of is how well you take the SAT or ACT. And so other than gaining familiarity with the format and content of the test, it’s up to you to go further. One must think like the makers of the test. On the reading section this means that one must be able to sniff out “trick” answers, answers that look tempting (and that the makers of the test want poor test-takers to choose — after all, they need to create a curve and some must fail!) but that one must train oneself to spot and avoid like the plague. These are wrong for a myriad of reasons depending on the answer itself: either too extreme in its expression or absolute in its construction, too broad or too specific, a slight inference unable to be proven, you name it. Be savvy. Develop a radar for right answers.