There’s More Than One Way to Attack SAT® and ACT® Reading Passages
Success on the SAT® and ACT® is never a one-size-fits-all proposition. There is no panacea for a perfect score. That said, one of the most important elements of a high-quality test-prep program is matching students with the skills and strategies that will work best for them.
The ACT’s® and SAT’s® reading tests are best suited for this personalized approach. Everyone reads differently. Pace, interest, prior knowledge, and endurance all play a role in how each test taker chooses to best attack a reading passage.
Setting a purpose for reading
No matter what the context, effective reading comprehension requires attention. For most people, the ability to focus on a reading is directly proportional to their interest in the content. Unfortunately, SAT® and ACT® reading passages can be notoriously boring and obscure.
To combat the glaze-over that can happen when reading about a revolutionary fungus study from the 1970s or the strained relationship between an old woman and her caretaker, there are some tips that can help:
Not all passages are created equal.
The decision about how to dive into a test text can (and should) be made on a passage-by-passage basis. To start, test takers should always begin by reading any provided italicized introduction. This should give enough of an overview to help determine both the background familiarity with and the interest level in the content. From there, a student should choose which of the strategies in their toolbox to use.
Let the questions drive the reading.
Skipping ahead to the questions can create a specific purpose for reading. It provides the literal purpose of the reading while also giving a bit more context beyond the introduction. Reading questions first can also be practical. For instance, it makes it possible for students to answer some of the detail questions as they go (especially line- or vocabulary-specific questions), saving time later. Main idea questions should still be answered after the reading is complete, but knowing the questions and choices ahead of time can make it easier to know what to look out for along the way.
Any interest is good interest.
SAT® and ACT® reading passages are rarely the most exciting texts. However, the stronger the connection between the reader and the material, the stronger the reader’s comprehension will be. When reading the introduction to a passage, students should purposefully try to make meaningful, quick text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connections to try to establish a personal context for reading. When this isn’t possible, adopting an attitude of reading to learn something new can sometimes do the trick.
To Skim or Not to Skim
For the most part, this decision comes down to self-awareness. Strong readers who can read and comprehend quickly are probably best-off reading every passage in its entirety - especially if they can do so with one of the engagement strategies outlined above pushing them forward.
For slower readers (or those who struggle to maintain focus while reading), skimming is a viable option. That said, there are right and wrong ways to skim ACT® and SAT® reading passages. To do so successfully, students should:
Use text structures advantageously.
Start by reading the entire italicized introduction. Then move on to read the entire introductory paragraph. From there, just stick to the first and last sentences of each body paragraph. Along the way, read every title, heading, and caption. Finally, read the entire conclusion paragraph (or last two paragraphs if they are short).The bulk of what a test taker needs from a text will be in these areas. If there are answers to detail questions lurking in the skipped portions, a well-practiced skimmer should be able to identify which paragraph(s) contain the information they need and go back to find them.
Use the questions as a roadmap.
The questions usually follow the chronology of the text. Just like skimming headings can give a rough pre-reading outline, so can the questions. As such, reading the questions before skimming will make it easier to pick up on key information asked by detail questions in the order that they are asked. Getting from detail question to detail question becomes like a game of mental connect-the-dots, drawing the reader through the passage incrementally. In the end, this focus aid will likely also make it easier to surface the answers to more complicated main idea questions.
Practice Tests Are Crucial
Settling on an optimal reading passage strategy should never be a speculative proposition. Use real practice tests in timed, simulated conditions to help determine which approach(es) best match a student’s abilities and tendencies.
Once you settle on what should be the best plan of attack, students need time and opportunities to try it out. Make sure the tactics actually bear fruit before using them for real on Test Day!
Clear Choice offers unlimited score analysis and custom-branded score reports for all of the 28 ACT® and 15 SAT® officially released tests. This means not only can you use authentic tests to assess the effectiveness of your students’ passage reading strategies, but you have a powerful marketing tool you can leverage to win over new clients. Your ability to show that your personalized test taking advice is both student-centered and data-driven will always outshine competitors who rely on speculation and fuzzy “expertise.”
Click the link below for a free demo of our test-prep curriculum, which is chock-full of strategies (like these) and practice opportunities to hone your students’ test-taking skills.
