How to get a Perfect Score on SAT Reading

Do you find Reading the most difficult section on the SAT? Are you stuck between 600-700 on Evidence Based Reading? Do you put the maximum time practicing on the Reading passages to improve your scores? Are you aiming for a perfect score on these sections? If yes, then read on...

Admittedly, getting a perfect score is not easy and takes a lot of hard work coupled with effective strategizing. 

Why should you try to improve your scores on the Reading? Because colleges want to know that you can process complex information and difficult texts at the college level. A low reading score cast your skill sets in doubt. Hence, it’s really worth putting in hours to improve the Reading scores. 

So, to start with, keep the following in mind: The SAT Reading is designed to trick you - and you need to learn how. The SAT is purposely made this way to seperate the smartest students from the average students. As the test is supposed to compare students fairly, each question must have only one correct answer, hence, you must understand the passage in a way the SAT does. So, if you prep the right way, you would understand how the SAT plays its cards to trick you. The good part is that it is a simple three step process:

1. Understand the types of questions the SAT tests
2. Learn strategies to answer these question types
3. Practice, Practice, and Practice

Let’s start looking at the strategy.

Strategy 1:

Time management v/s Strategy

Do you run out of time while reading the passages or maybe you don’t understand the passage properly? Every student has a unique flaw. So, figure out your flaw before you get started on the track to improve your SAT reading scores. 

How should you do this?

1. Practice a complete Reading test on one of the official SAT tests.
2. For each passage, keep a timer. Try to keep the time under 13 minutes for each passage.
3. In case, you run out of time before answering all the questions on that passage, then do complete the questions and check the extra time you spent.
4. When you are done, score yourself. Put your scores under two headings: The Real Score (Score that you got without the extra time) and The Extended Score (Score that you got with the extra time).

This exercise will help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses. 

• If your two scores differ by more than 10 correct questions, then you are struggling both with time and strategy.
• If your two scores differ by a number between 5 and 10, inclusive, correct questions, then you are struggling more with time management and less with strategy. 
• If your two scores differ by fewer than 4 and more than 1 correct questions, then you are struggling more with strategy than time management. 
• If your two scores are exactly the same, then you are on your way to a perfect score. 

Strategy 2:

Elimination is the king on SAT

Always remember that there are 3 answer choices that are 100% incorrect. Hence, you must know how to eliminate the incorrect answer choices. How can you decide to eliminate an answer choice? Keep a check on each word of the answer choices. Even one single word can make an answer choice incorrect. This word, most probably, will not be supported by the passage, even if the rest of the answer looks good and well supported by the passage. 

Some of the most common incorrect answer types on the SAT are:

1. Too specific: Ask yourself if this answer choice can describe the whole passage.
2. Too broad: Ask yourself if this answer choice has information related only to the passage.
3. Flipped relationship: This answer choice has all the right words except one. This one word makes the answer go against the idea in the passage.
4. Outside information: This is generally the correct information but something not mentioned in the passage.

Strategy 3:

Work on your weaknesses

You worked on a full length reading test to identify the strengths and weaknesses. Now, is the time to start working on improving these. Each of the question types requires a different strategy to get to the correct answer. So, most probably, you are good at some of them and not as good at some others. And also, you are running against the time as, most probably, your test is in a few weeks. So, you need to find your best areas of improvement and have a plan to improve on them. Keep in mind, that you don’t need to cover your boat entirely with a new base but you just have to fill those holes to make it work. So, keep an eye out for the pattern in your errors. This pattern will help you identify the skills that you need to work with. 

Strategy 4:

Predict an answer before looking at the answer choices

Answer choices on the SAT are made for you to get confused. So, it is a good idea that you predict an answer choice before you get to the answer choices. Just keep one thing in mind: Your answer must be supported by the passage. Your own answer choices helps you not get biased to a similar but incorrect answer. 

Strategy 5:

Read the italicized passage introduction

Each passage comes with an italicized introduction that many students ignore. You should not do the same. This portion provides the context to the entire passage. This helps you get ready for the passage in the very first sentence. It can also give you an answer to the ‘Main Point’ question. 

Strategy 6:

Get yourself involved in the passage’s subject matter

You will see passages from many topics involving history, social science, and many more on the SAT. So, we definitely know that you will not be interested in everything that comes in front of you. However, you need to adapt yourself to it. For those 10 minutes, you must think that you are the most passionate person on that topic. You need to take the passage as the most interesting piece to read. This engagement with the passage will help you understand the passage much better and also help improve the accuracy. 

Strategy 7:

Don’t spend too much time on Vocabulary

Most students spend umpteen hours and in some cases, even days, to improve their vocabulary. For a lot of time, it does feel good and makes you feel that you are making progress. Fortunately, vocabulary does not play a big part on the SAT. You just need to know how a word works in the context. The time that a student spends on improving the vocabulary can be better spent on improving the reading strategies. 

Strategy 8:

Skip the difficult questions and do the easier ones first

Why should you do this? Because this gives you more time to spend on questions that you have a higher chance of getting correct. If you are someone who struggles with time management more than strategies then this is the best strategy for you. The problem here is that unlike math questions, the reading questions are not arranged according to the difficulty level. This is why you should try each one but move to the next if you are not getting anywhere within the next 30 seconds. 

Do your SAT Reading prep with all of this in mind. If you get stuck on a question, think about what type of question it is, and figure out whether there's a pattern to the questions that consistently trip you up.

These are some of the tried and tested strategies that can help you improve your reading scores. But, be prepared to see a slight drop in your scores sometime. Don’t let that faze you. Keep a calm head and keep working. Review your mistakes every time you try a test. Also believe that with hard work and smart prep you can get a perfect score.