Hi Seve,

I found these tips online, but cut out most of the marketing fluff. 😊 Use what you can but take it
with a grain of salt and go more with your instincts.

Cheers,

Teacher Ria

Overview:

Strategy 1: Understand Your High-level Weakness: Time Management or Passage Strategy

Strategy 2: Learn to Eliminate 3 Wrong Answers

Strategy 3: Predict the Answer Before Reading the Answer Choices

Strategy 4: Experiment with Passage Reading Strategies and Find the Best for You

Strategy 5: Understand Every Single Mistake You Make

Strategy 6: Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them

Strategy 7: Read the Italicized Passage Introduction

Strategy 8: Be Interested in the Passage Subject Matter

Strategy 9: DON'T Spend Time on Vocab

Strategy 10: Finish with Extra Time and Double Check

Strategy 11: Be Ready for Turbulence in Scores

***

Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness — Time Management

or Passage Strategy?

Every student has different flaws in SAT Reading. Some people don't have good
strategies for tackling the passage questions. Others don't manage their time correctly
and run out of time before getting through all the questions.

Here's how you can figure out which one applies more to you:
  Find an official SAT practice test, and take only the Reading section. We have
the complete list of free practice tests here.

 For each section, use a timer and have it count down the 65 minutes for the
Reading section. Treat it like a real test.

 If time runs out for that section and you're 100% ready to move on, then move
on. If you're not ready to move on, keep on working for as long as you need. For
every new answer or answer that you change, mark it with a special note as
"Extra Time."

 When you're ready, grade your test using the answer key and score chart, but we
want two scores: 1) The Realistic score you got under normal timing conditions,
2) The Extra Time score. This is why you marked the questions you answered
or changed during Extra Time.

Get what we're doing here? By marking which questions you did under Extra Time, we
can figure out what score you got if you were given all the time you needed. This will
help us figure out where your weaknesses lie.

If you didn't take any extra time, then your Extra Time score is the same as your
Realistic score.

Here's a flowchart to help you figure this out:

Was your Extra Time score a 35 or above?

If NO (Extra Time score < 35), then you have strategy and content weaknesses. All the
extra time in the world couldn't get you above a 35, so your first angle of attack will be to
find your weaknesses and attack them (We'll cover this later).

If YES (Extra Time score > 35), then:

Was your Realistic score a 35 or above?

If NO (Extra Time score > 35, Realistic < 35), then that means you have a difference
between your Extra Time score and your Realistic score. If this difference is more than
3 points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure
out why this is. Are you using the best passage reading strategy for you? Does it take
you too much time to get the answer for each question? Generally, doing a lot of
practice questions and learning the most efficient passage strategies will help reduce
your time. More on this later.
If YES (both Extra Time and Realistic scores > 35), then you have a really good shot
at getting an 800. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score - if they differed by
more than 2 points, then you would benefit from learning how to solve questions more
quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last content
weaknesses and avoiding careless mistakes (more on this strategy later).

Hopefully that makes sense. Typically I see that students have both timing and content
issues, but you might find that one is much more dominant for you than the other. For
example, if you can get a 40 with extra time, but score a 35 in regular time, you know
exactly that you need to work on time management to get a 40.

This type of analysis is so important that it's a central part of my prep program,
PrepScholar. When a new student joins, he or she gets a diagnostic that figures out
specific strengths and weaknesses. The program then automatically customizes your
learning so that you're always studying according to where you can make the most
improvement.

No matter what your weakness is, my following strategies will address all weaknesses
comprehensively.

Strategy 2: Learn to Eliminate 3 Wrong Answers

This strategy was by far the most effective for me in raising my Reading score. It
completely changed the way I viewed passage questions.

I spent some time talking above about how the SAT always has one unambiguous
answer. This has a huge implication for the strategy you should use to find the right SAT
Reading answer.

Here's the other way to see it: Out of the four answer choices, three of them have
something that is totally wrong about them. Only one answer is 100% correct, which
means the other three are 100% wrong.

You know how you try to eliminate answer choices, and then end up with a few at the
end that all seem equally likely to be correct? "Well, this can work...but then again this
could work as well..."

STOP doing that. You're not doing a good enough job of eliminating answer
choices.Remember - every single wrong choice can be crossed out for its own
reasons.

You need to do a 180 on your approach to Reading questions. Instead, find a reason
to eliminate three answer choices. "Can I find a reason to eliminate this answer
choice? How about this one?"
 You have to learn how to eliminate three answer choices for every single question.

"Great, Allen. But this doesn't tell me anything about HOW to eliminate answer choices."

Thanks for asking. One thing to remember is that even a single word can make an
answer choice wrong. Every single word in each answer choice is put there by the
SAT for a reason. If a single word in the answer choice isn't supported by the passage
text, you need to eliminate it, even if the rest of the answer sounds good.

There are a few classic wrong answer choices the SAT loves to use. Here's an example
question.

For example, let’s imagine you just read a passage talking about how human evolution
shaped the environment. It gives a few examples. First, it talks about how the transition
from earlier species like Homo habilus to neanderthals led to more tool usage like fire,
which caused wildfires and shaped the ecology. It then talks about Homo
sapiens 40,000 years ago and their overhunting of species like woolly mammoths to
extinction.

So then we run into a question asking, "Which of the following best describes the
main subject of the passage?" Here are the answer choices:

 A: The transition between Homo habilus and neanderthals

 B: The study of evolution
 C: How the environment shaped human evolution
 D: The plausibility of evolution
 E: The influence of human development on ecology

(We're using five answers for purposes of illustration - the SAT will only have four
choices).

As you're reading these answer choices, a few of them probably started sounded really
plausible to you.

Surprise! Each of the answers from A-D has something seriously wrong about
it. Each one is a classic example of a wrong answer type given by the SAT.
Wrong Answer 1: Too Specific

A: The transition between Homo habilus and neanderthals

This type of wrong answer focuses on a smaller detail in the passage. It’s meant to trick
you because you might think to yourself, "well, I see this mentioned in the passage, so
it’s a plausible answer choice."

Wrong! Think to yourself – can this answer choice really describe the entire passage?
Can it basically function as the title of this passage? You’ll find that it’s just way too
specific to convey the point of the overall passage.

Wrong Answer 2: Too Broad

B: The study of evolution

This type of wrong answer has the opposite problem – it’s way too broad. Yes,
theoretically the passage concerns the study of evolution, but only one aspect of it, and
especially as it relates to the impact on the environment.

To give another ludicrous example, if you talked to your friend about your cell phone,
and he said your main point was about the universe. Yes, you were talking about the
universe, but only a tiny fraction of it. This is way too broad.

Wrong Answer 3: Reversed Relationship

C: How the environment shaped human evolution

This wrong answer choice can be tricky because it mentions all the right words. But of
course the relationship between those words needs to be correct as well. Here, the
relationship is flipped.Students who read too quickly make careless mistakes like
these!
Wrong Answer 4: Unrelated Concept

D: The plausibility of evolution

Finally, this kind of wrong answer preys on the tendency of students to overthink the
question. If you’re passionate about arguing about evolution, this might be a trigger
answer since ANY discussion of evolution becomes a chance to argue about the
plausibility of evolution. Of course, this concept will appear nowhere in the passage, but
some students just won’t be able to resist.

Do you see the point? On the surface, each of the answer choices sounds possibly
correct. A less prepared student would think that all of these were plausible answers.

But plausible isn't good enough. The right answer needs to be 100%, totally right.
Wrong answers might be off by even one word - you need to eliminate these.

Carry this thought into every SAT Reading passage question you do and I guarantee
you will start raising your score.

Strategy 3: Predict the Answer Before Reading the Answer Choices

As we've discussed already, the SAT is designed to goad you into making mistakes by
putting really similar answer choices next to each other.

In Strategy 2, we covered the strategy of ruthless, unforgiving elimination of answer

choices.

Here's another Strategy that works well for me. Before reading the answer choices,
come up with your own answer to the question.

Gaze into your crystal ball and predict the right answer.

This strategy is exactly designed to counteract the trickiness of the answer choices.
If you DON'T apply this strategy, your thinking process likely meanders like this:

"OK, I just read the question. Answer A is definitely out. B can kind of work. C...it
doesn't exactly fit, but I can see how it might work." and so on. By now, you've already
fallen into the College Board's trap of muddling the answer choices.

Take the opposite approach. While you're reading the question, come up with your
own ideal answer to the question before reading the answer choices. This
prevents you from getting biased by the SAT's answer choices, especially the incorrect
ones.

If it's a "Big Picture" type question asking about the main point of the passage, answer
for yourself, "What would make a good title for this passage?"

If it's an "Inference" question, answer for yourself, "What would the author think about
the situation given in the question?"

Even if you can't answer the question straight away - for example, if you have to refer
back to the line number to remember what the passage was saying - try to solve the
question before looking at the answer choices.

The key here is that the passage must support your answer choice. Every correct
answer on SAT passages needs to be justified by the passage - otherwise the answer
would be ambiguous, which would cause problems of cancelling questions I referred to
earlier.

Warning: this only works if you can read and understand passages well, and if you have
prior experience with SAT Reading questions! That's why I don't recommend this
strategy yet before you hit a 600 level since you're more likely to come up with the
wrong answer choice in your head.

Strategy 4: Experiment With Passage Reading Strategies and Find the

Best for You

In your prep for the SAT, you may have read different strategies for how to read a
passage and answer questions. Some students read the questions before reading the
passage. Others read the passage in detail first.

At your high level, I can't predict which method will work best for you. We're going
for perfection, which means that your strategy needs to line up with your strengths and
weaknesses perfectly, or else you'll make mistakes or run out of time.
What I will do, however, is go through the most effective methods. You'll then have to
figure out through your test data which one leads to the highest score for you.

Passage Method 1: Skim the Passage, Then Read the Questions

This is the most common strategy I recommend to our students, and in my eyes the
most effective. I prefer this one myself.

Here it is:

 Skim the passage on the first read through. Don't try to understand every
single line, or write notes predicting what the questions will be. Just get a
general understanding of the passage. You want to try to finish reading the
passage in 3 minutes, if possible.
 Next, go to the questions. If the question refers to a line number, then go back to
that line number and understand the text around it.
 If you can't answer a question within 30 seconds, skip it.

My preferred way to tackle a passage: skimming it on the first read-through.

This strategy is a revelation for students who used to close-read a passage and run out
of time.

This skimming method works because the questions will ask about far fewer lines than
the passage actually contains. For example, lines 5-20 of a reading passage might not
be relevant to any question that follows. Therefore, if you spend time trying to deeply
understand lines 5-20, you’ll be wasting time.
By taking the opposite approach of going back to the passage when you need to refer to
it, you guarantee reading efficiency. You're focusing only on the parts of the passage
that are important to answering questions.

Critical Skill: You must be able to skim effectively. This means being able to quickly
digest a text without having to slowly read every word. If you're not quite good at this
yet, practice it on newspaper articles and your homework reading.

Passage Method 2: Read the Questions First and Mark the Passage

This is the second most common strategy and, if used well, as effective as the first
method. But it has some pitfalls if you don't do it correctly.

Here's how it goes:

 Before you read the passage, go to the questions and read each one.
 If the question refers to a series of lines, mark those lines on the passage. Take
a brief note about the gist of the question.
 Go back to the passage and skim it. When you reach one of your notes, slow
down and take more notice of the question.
 Answer the questions.

Here's an example passage that I marked up, with questions coming first. Notice that
beyond underlining the phrase referenced in the question, I left clues for myself on
what's important to get out of this phrase.
(questions not relating to specific lines aren't shown above)
In the hands of an SAT expert, this is a powerful strategy. Just like Method 1 above, you
save time by skipping parts of the passage that aren't asked about. Furthermore, you
get a head start on the questions by trying to answer them beforehand.

But there are serious potential pitfalls to this method if you're not careful or
prepared enough.

Here's one: when you first read the questions before the passage, you won't have
enough time to digest the actual answer choices (nor will they make sense to you). So
you have to make your best guess for what the question is asking when you're writing a
note along the passage.

In some cases, this can lead you astray. Take this example from above:

When I read the question, I saw that it asked me to find how Woolf characterized the
questions I marked in lines 53-57.

The problem is how broad the question is. How something can be characterized gives a
wide range of options. Here are a number of plausible characterizations as I read the
text:

 important, life-changing ("have to ask ourselves")

 communal ("we")
  detail-oriented ("on what terms?")
 urgent ("here and now")
 ambitious
 progressive and future-looking ("where is it leading us")

There's a lot of flexibility in interpretation here, since the questions really do touch upon
all these characterizations.

It turns out "important" and "urgent" are the right interpretations, for answer choice C.

But when I'm reading the passage and see my note, I can waste a lot of time coming
up with potential options that aren't even correct answer choices. In the worst
case, it can bias me toward the wrong answer.

Critical Skill: You need to have so much experience with the SAT Reading section that
you can anticipate what the question is going to ask you for your notes to be helpful. If
you're not sure of this, you can easily be led down the wrong track and focus on the
wrong aspect of the passage.

Passage Method 3: Read the Passage in Detail, Then Answer Questions

This method is what beginner students usually use by default, because it's what they've
been trained to do in school. Some beginner books like Princeton Review and Kaplan
also suggest this as a strategy.

It's my least favorite method because there are so many ways for it to go wrong. But
for the sake of completeness, I'm listing it here in case it works best for you.

Here's how it goes:

 Read the passage in detail, line by line.

 Take notes to yourself about the main point of each paragraph.
 Answer the questions.

As you might guess, I don't like this method for the following reasons:

 By reading the passage closely, you absorb a lot of details that aren't useful for
answering questions.
 The notes you take aren't directed toward helping you answer the questions.
 By interpreting the passage ahead of time, you risk being led astray.

But this might work especially well for you if you're very good at reading for
understanding, and if you have so much expertise with the SAT that you can predict
what the test is going to ask you about anyway.
Choose Which Works Best for You, Based on Test Data

Next strategy: Understand your mistakes.

Strategy 5: Understand Every Single Mistake You Make

On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points
is covered. Even just one mistake will knock you down from an 800, as we saw in the
score charts above.

The first step is simply to do a ton of practice. If you're studying from free
materials or from books, you have access to a lot of practice questions in bulk. As part
of our PrepScholar program, we have over 1,500 SAT questions customized to each
skill.

The second step - and the more important part - is to be ruthless

about understanding your mistakes.

Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason. If you don't understand
exactly why you missed that question, you will make that mistake over and over
again.

I've seen students who did 20 practice tests. They've solved over 3,000 questions, but
they're still nowhere near a perfect SAT Reading score.

Why? They never understood their mistakes. They just hit their heads against the
wall over and over again.

Think of yourself as an exterminator, and your mistakes are cockroaches. You need to
eliminate every single one - and find the source of each one - or else the restaurant
you work for will be shut down.

Here's what you need to do:

 On every practice test or question set that you take, mark every question that
you're even 20% unsure about.
 When you grade your test or quiz, review every single question that you
marked, and every incorrect question. This way even if you guessed a
question correctly, you'll make sure to review it.
 In a notebook, write down 1) the gist of the question, 2) why you missed it, and 3)
what you'll do to avoid that mistake in the future. Have separate sections by
question type (vocab questions, big picture questions, inference questions, etc).
It's not enough to just think about it and move on. It's not enough to just read the answer
explanation. You have to think hard about why you specifically failed on this
question.

By taking this structured approach to your mistakes, you'll now have a running log of
every question you missed, and your reflection on why.

No excuses when it comes to your mistakes.

Always Go Deeper - WHY Did You Miss a Reading Question?

Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don't just say, "I
didn't get this question right." That's a cop out.

Always take it one step further - what specifically did you miss, and what do you have to
improve in the future?

Here are some examples of common reasons you miss a Reading question, and how
you take the analysis one step further:

Elimination: I couldn't eliminate enough incorrect answer choices, or I eliminated the

correct answer.

One step further: Why couldn't I eliminate the answer choice during the test? How can
I eliminate answer choices like this in the future?
Careless Error: I misread what the question was asking for or answered for the wrong
thing.

One step further: Why did I misread the question? What should I do in the future to
avoid this?

Vocab: I didn't know what the key word meant.

One step further: What word was this? What is the definition? Are there other words in
this question I didn't know?

Get the idea? You're really digging into understanding why you're missing
questions.

Yes, this is hard, and it's draining, and it takes work. That's why most students who
study ineffectively don't improve.

Many people don't know the right way to study. Of the people who do, very few will
diligently apply the right methods, day in, and day out, with discipline.

But you're different. Just by reading this guide, you're already proving that you care
more than other students. And if you apply these principles and analyze your mistakes,
you'll improve more than other students too.

Reviewing mistakes is so important that in PrepScholar, for every one of our 1,500+
practice questions, we explain in detail how to get the correct answer, and why incorrect
answers are wrong. We also point out bait answers so that you can you can learn the
tricks that the SAT plays on test takers like you.

Bonus Tip: Re-Solve the Question Before Reading the Answer Explanation

When you're reviewing practice questions, the first thing you probably do is read the
answer explanation and at most reflect on it a little.

This is a little too easy. I consider this passive learning - you're not actively engaging
with the mistake you made.

Instead, try something different - find the correct answer choice (A-D), but don't look
at the explanation. Instead, try to re-solve the question once over again and try to
get to the correct answer.
This will often be hard. You couldn't solve it the first time, so why could you solve it the
second time around?

But this time, with less time pressure, you might spot a new reason to eliminate the
wrong answer choice, or something else will pop up. Something will just "click" for you.

When this happens, what you learned will stick with you for 20 times longer than if
you just read an answer explanation. I know this from personal experience. Because
you've struggled with it and reached a breakthrough, you retain that information far
better than if you just passively absorbed the information.

This is perfect for SAT Reading because you'll often miss a question because of an
incorrect interpretation of the text. By forcing yourself to get the right answer, you'll
practice getting the CORRECT interpretation of the text. Even better, you'll be
scrounging the passage for clues as to why the correct answer is correct, which is
exactly what you need in your passage strategy to begin with.

It's too easy to just read an answer explanation and have it go in one ear and out the
other. You won't actually learn from your mistake, and you'll make that mistake over and
over again.

Treat each wrong question like a puzzle. Struggle with each wrong answer for up to
10 minutes. Only then if you don't get it should you read the answer explanation.

Strategy 6: Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them

Reading passage questions might look similar, but they actually test very different skills.
At PrepScholar we believe the major passage skills to be:

1. Big Picture/Main Point

2. Little Picture/Detail
3. Inference
4. Words and Phrases in Context
5. Citing Textual Evidence
6. Perspective
7. Analyzing Word Choice
8. Analyzing Text Structure
9. Analyzing Multiple Texts
10. Analyzing Quantitative Info

Whew - that's a lot of skills. That's a much more detailed breakdown than what appears
at first glance, and what most books and courses offer.
Each of these question types uses different skills in how you read and analyze a
passage.They each require a different method of prep and focused practice.

The SAT requires a lot of skills. Make sure you know which ones are your weaknesses.

If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in Reading than others. You
might be better at getting the Big Picture of a passage, compared to the Inference. Or
you might be really strong in vocabulary, but weak in understanding the function of
sentences in a passage.

If you're like most students, you also don't have an unlimited amount of time to
study. This means for every hour you study for the SAT, it needs to be the most
effective hour possible.

In concrete terms, you need to find your greatest areas of improvement and work
on those.

Too many students study the 'dumb' way. They just buy a book and read it cover to
cover. When they don't improve, they're SHOCKED.

I'm not.

Studying effectively for the SAT isn't like painting a house. You're not trying to
cover all your bases with a very thin layer of understanding.

What these students did wrong was they wasted time on subjects they already knew,
and they didn't spend enough time on their weaknesses.

Instead, studying effectively for the SAT is like plugging up the holes of a leaky
boat. You need to find the biggest hole, and fill it. Then you find the next biggest hole,
and you fix that. Soon you'll find that your boat isn't sinking at all.

How does this relate to SAT Reading? You need to find the sub-skills that you're
weakest in, and then drill those until you're no longer weak in them. Fixing up the
biggest holes.

Within reading, you need to figure out whether you have patterns to your mistakes. Is it
that you don't get Inference questions? Or maybe you're really weak at interpreting
details? Or from strategy 1: is it that you're running out of time in reading passages?
For every question that you miss, you need to identify the type of question it is.
When you notice patterns to the questions you miss, you then need to find extra
practice for this subskill.

Say you miss a lot of inference questions (this is typically the hardest type of question
for students to get). You need to find a way to get focused practice questions for this
skill so you can drill your mistakes.

Strategy 7: Read the Italicized Passage Introduction

This is a quick tip that many students ignore. Each passage comes with an italicized
introduction, like this for the passage shown above:

This is a freebie. It gives you context for the entire passage. By knowing that the
passage is about "the situation of women in English society," you hit the ground running
when you read the very first sentence. This helps a lot.

Sometimes, the introduction alone can give you the answer for the "Big Picture"
question about what the main point of the passage is.

Always always make sure that you read this introduction, no matter what passage
method you use from Strategy 4.

Strategy 8: Be Interested in the Passage Subject Matter

The SAT has passages about a lot of weird topics. Victorian novels, underwater basket-
weaving, and the evolution of gerbils are all fair game.

It's unlikely that you're naturally thrilled about all the subjects you'll read about.

This makes it easy to tune out when you're reading the passage. This makes it harder to
answer the questions, which will make you more frustrated.

Instead, adopt this mindset: For the next 10 minutes, I am the world's most
passionate person about whatever subject this passage is about. This passage is
the most frickin' exciting thing I could be reading right now.
 For every single passage, be as excited as she is.

Force yourself to care about what the passage is telling you. Pretend that your LIFE
depends on understanding this passage. Maybe you're about to give a lecture on
this subject. Or someone's holding a puppy hostage if you don't answer enough
questions correctly.

Or your crush turns out to be a huge mid-18th century English literature fan, so you pay
rapt attention to every single word.

When I was preparing for the SAT in high school, I took this so far tot he extreme that I
ended up genuinely fascinated by whatever the passage was telling me about. I
remember reading a passage about volcanic activity and thinking, "Wow, I'm really glad
I just learned this." (I know this sounds crazy.)

If you stay engaged while reading, you'll understand the passage so much better,
and you'll answer questions with way more accuracy.

Strategy 9: DON'T Spend Time on Vocab

Vocab typically gets way too much attention from students. It feels good to study vocab
flashcards, because it seems like you're making progress. "I studied 1,000 vocab words
- this must mean I improved my score!"

This is why other test prep programs love teaching you vocab - it feels like they're
teaching you something useful worth your money, but it's not obvious that vocab
actually isn't helping your score.

Fortunately, vocab doesn't play a big role in your SAT Reading score
anymore. This is especially true in the redesigned 2016 SAT. They've completely taken
out Sentence Completion questions, and the words that you have to analyze in context
are usually pretty common.

Here are examples of words that you need to understand in context in the current SAT:

 ambivalent
 clashes
 convey
  plastic
 postulate

These are somewhat advanced words, but they're nowhere near the level of the words
you used to have to know, like "baroque," "diatribes," "platitudes," and "progenitor."

College Board lowered the emphasis on vocab because of complaints that memorizing
esoteric vocab was useless in college success and career success. Instead, it's now
asking you to figure out the meaning of more common words the way the author
intended.

For example, "plastic" can mean "malleable," "artificial," or "sculptural." Only one of
these is right in the context of the passage.

This doesn't mean that vocab is totally useless. For one, SAT Writing still has a few
vocab questions. Furthermore, sometimes knowing the definition of the words in context
is helpful.

Strategy 9B: Don't Spend Time Reading Books or Magazines

Over the many years I've studied for tests or run a test prep company, I've heard this
advice for SAT Reading: "Read great novels and well-written magazines, like in the New
York Times or the Atlantic. This will help with reading comprehension."

I hate this advice.

A test like SAT Reading is very specific. It tests reading comprehension in very specific
and formulaic ways, as I showed with all the question types in Strategy 3.

Reading for general leisure does NOT train you effectively for the test. You're not
exercising the same skills you need on the test, nor is it goal-driven enough to help you
make progress.

This terrible advice is like saying you can train for a swim meet by standing in the
shower for longer. Yes, by being in the shower, you'll be in water, just like you will in
the swimming pool. But you're not using the same skills.

Yes, if you have a lifetime of strong reading, with thousands of hours of leisure reading
experience, you will do better on SAT Reading. But right now, reading general material
won't help you efficiently.

Take your extra time and do SAT Reading practice questions instead.
Strategy 10: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check

Your goal at the end of all this work is to get so good at SAT Reading that you solve
every question and have extra time left over at the end of the section to recheck
your work.

In high school, I was able to finish a Reading section in about 60% of the time allotted.
For SAT Reading, this means finishing all 5 passages and 52 questions in 40 minutes.

This means I have a whopping 25 minutes left over to recheck my answers two times
over.

How did I get so fast?

1) I have an efficient reading strategy that works best for me. Namely, I skim the
passage and work through the questions afterward.

2) Through a lot of hard work, I have a strong instinct for the test. I understand the
test so well that when I read a question, I can predict the answer within a few seconds. I
can rule out wrong answers instantly because they just feel wrong.

Here are some time benchmarks that might help:

 You should finish skimming a long passage within three minutes.

 Each passage question should take you no more than 30 seconds.

If you can do this well, you'll finish the entire section in 40 minutes, leaving a lot of time
to double check.

What's the best way to double check your work? I have a reliable method that I
follow:

 Double check any questions you marked that you're unsure of. Try hard to
eliminate answer choices. If it's a reading passage question, make sure that the
passage supports your answer.

 If I'm 100% sure I'm right on a question, I mark it as such and never look at it
again. If I'm not sure, I'll come back to it on the third pass.

 At least two minutes before time's up, I rapidly double check that I bubbled the
answers correctly. I try to do this all at once so as not to waste time looking back
and forth between the test book and the answer sheet. Go five at a time ("A D B
C B") for more speed.
If you notice yourself spending more than 30 seconds on a problem and aren't clear
how you'll get to the answer, skip and go to the next question. Even though you need a
near perfect raw score for an 800, don't be afraid to skip. You can come back to it later,
and for now it's more important to get as many points as possible.

Quick Tip: Bubbling Answers

Here's a bubbling tip that will save you two minutes per section.

When I first started test taking in high school, I did what many students do: after I
finished one question, I went to the bubble sheet and filled it in. Then I solved the next
question. Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2.
And so forth.

This actually wastes a lot of time. You're distracting yourself between two distinct
tasks - solving questions, and bubbling in answers. This costs you time in both mental
switching costs and in physically moving your hand and eyes to different areas of the
test.

Here's a better method: solve all your questions first in the book, then bubble all of
them in at once.

This has several huge advantages: you focus on each task one at a time, rather than
switching between two different tasks. You also eliminate careless entry errors, like if
you skip question 7 and bubble in question 8's answer into question 7's slot.

By saving just ten seconds per question, you get back 200 seconds on a section
that has 20 questions. This is huge.

Note: If you use this strategy, you should already be finishing the section with ample
extra time to spare. Otherwise, you might run out of time before you have the chance to
bubble in the answer choices all at once.

Strategy 11: Be Ready for Turbulence in Scores

Now you know what it takes to achieve perfection in SAT Reading.

You know the best strategies to use for tackling the passage. You know how to identify
your weaknesses and learn from them. You know how to save time, and you know to
stay engaged while reading a passage.

Even despite all this, sometimes a passage just won't click with you.
Of all SAT sections, I find that Reading has the most volatile score. How you vibe with a
passage has a big impact on your score. You might get a string of questions wrong just
because you couldn't really understand what the passage was really about. This doesn't
happen on Math or Writing.

No matter what happens, you need to keep calm and keep working.

In Overview
Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your SAT Reading score to an
800. If you're scoring above a 600 right now, with hard work and smart studying, you
can raise it to a perfect SAT Reading score.

Even though we covered a lot of strategies, the main point is still this: you need to
understand where you're falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You
need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored.

Here's a recap of all the strategies, in case you want to go back and review any: