Critical Reading Speed
I just received the following email, which I thought I’d share because I hear some variation of this, all the time.
Dear Debbie,
My daughter’s taking 45 minutes to complete the 25-minute critical reading sections. She normally gets 2-4 wrong per critical reading section. So I do not think the issue is comprehension; it’s reading speed. (She’s been taking a section a day.)
I came across your website while trying to research ways to improve her reading speed — and listened to your radio interview — priceless. I like you idea of reading non-fiction articles and reviewing vocabulary she’s missed over the last year. But taking 20 minutes off her time is daunting to me.
Do you have any other suggestions or references for helping to get her reading speed up?
I am wondering if I should postpone the test until she does get her reading speed up and has time to practice full length tests. Her first SAT is only 5 weeks away.
Do you have any suggestions or thoughts?
Hi!
I do have thoughts. My daughter had the exact same issue.
I’m actually working on a CR program right now — hoping to launch in the next few weeks. One big lesson will be “effective skimming.”
Kids have so much trouble skimming because they’ve never been taught how to do it.
Basically, you have to know how to find the main point (quickly), read that carefully, then skim the nonessential info. There are textual clues that point to the main point and to information the author thinks is important.
I will go over all of this in the program!
You can sign up here for information about the reading program here: www.perfectscoreproject.com/news
If you’d like to speak before I launch the program, or have me work with your daughter (or work with you to work with her) privately, let me know. I tutor for the reading and writing sections and consult with families who’d like to do test prep on their own.
I would postpone the test, unless she can iron out the speed issue quickly, which is definitely possible.
Once I gave my daughter “the keys,” she got it.
Then, she had the issue of “test anxiety” to overcome, which was a much bigger problem, though completely surmountable. I’ll post something soon about how she overcame paralyzing test anxiety. In the end, a few simple strategies helped her overcome the fear and perform on test day.
Keep in touch: Debbie@PerfectScoreProject.com
Debbie
The SAT Yellow Brick Road
You can sign up for a FREE series of tailored emails that will lead you step-by-step through the entire SAT process:
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