SAT/PSAT Critical Reading Tip

Everyone always says that you should read a lot in order to do well on standardized tests. I can’t disagree—reading a lot helps on a lot of fronts, including the SAT. But many of my students have had much better luck with practicing *critical* reading skills. Think about it -- is the name of the section on the test "Reading" or is it "Critical Reading?" (It's critical reading...)

In order to become a great critical reader, you can practice asking questions as you read. You can read most anything – a newspaper article, a blog entry, the latest Pulitzer-prize-winning poetry – and ask yourself a few key questions in order to help raise your score. This whole process can take no more than fifteen minutes, and it’s great for raising scores, especially if you do it regularly – twice a week, for instance.

Here’s how to do it.

--Read an article. (Or blog entry or poem or what-have-you.)

--Identify a fact or a concrete image. (Any one will do.)

--Ask yourself WHAT the purpose of that fact/image is. What is its job in the article?

--Is the fact there to support a point that the author is trying to make? (This is often the case.)

--Consider what the author’s main point/thesis is. What is the author trying to get across?

--Does the fact or image support the main point?

Going through these steps will help you become a better critical reader. As you get started, choosing articles that are well-written is often a good idea because well-written articles will have more logic and order, so reading them critically is much easier. As you get good, you may realize that you can learn as much from badly-written stories as well-written ones (‘this fact has no point at all – why is it in here??’).

So, read something good. Determine the author’s main point. Choose a detail. Identify the detail’s job. Become a critical reader. Raise your SAT reading score.