<p>For those that got a 30 + on the reading, how do you answer the questions? what methods/strategies do you follow? Do you answer by exactly what is in the reading, or do you try to answer by the overall feel/meaning of the passage? </p>
<p>Also, which of the passages do you start with? hardest or easiest?</p>
<p>I go from beginning to end on the passages. I used to be terrible at Reading, but what really helped is being involved with the passage. Try to really uhh make urself enjoy the passage. It helped when I started doing that.</p>
<p>do you fully read it or do you "skim"</p>
<p>I fully read the passage. The first 2 times I took the SAT, I scored 29's because I just skimmed and had to go back to when I answer the questions. However, the 3rd time, I just read it word for word, but pretty fast too, and got a 36. Also, the reading section is right after the break, so it's extremely important that you maintain your testing concentration throughout. I remember during my second test, I was talking to my friends in the hallway and when I got back into the testing room, I totally blanked out. So yeah, read EVERYTHING, don't skim, and concentrate really hard....concentration is the key...</p>
<p>I took the test cold for the first time in October and aced reading. Do the passages in order. Don't skim, but don't read the entire passage at once either. The questions are always in chronological order, or at least that's how it seemed, so you can usually answer them as you read. This is what I've found to be the most time-efficient method.</p>
<p>I don't know much about concentration strategies. If that works for you, do it. Personally, I try not to stress myself out during tests. On the reading section I pretend that I'm reading the passages because they're interesting and I enjoy them (like UcMichigan), albeit at a very brisk pace. Helps me think about the reading rather than the fact that I'm in mid-test.</p>
<p>My last tip is answer with what you think the answer is. Don't try to answer "the way the test wants", because chances are it's trying to trick you into putting an answer you know is wrong. Be confident in your decision and don't allow yourself to be swayed.</p>
<p>I hope some of that helped.</p>
<p>I'm not going to tell you a definite way to take the test, since there are different strategies for different people, but I will share what allowed me to score 33. </p>
<p>Since I am a quick a reader, and always have been, I read through the entire passage before so much as glancing over at the questions. After finishing the passage, I can usually answer most of the questions without going back –the only questions I ever have to go back to are the ones that ask something like “In line 32-36…” I also won’t deny that my success was somewhat luck: I happened to find all of the passages that I read interesting, and we all know that it’s a lot easier to focus on something interesting. </p>
<p>My advice: try a few strategies and decide which you look best.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>P.S. If you don't know a question, it's usually better to just guess and move on.</p>
<p>P.S.S. Notice the trend of people who did well that first read the entire passage?</p>
<p>I got a 34 on my first shot at the ACT, without any prep at all, but I got a 650 on CR twice on the SAT using the exact same strategy (not so comparable). Anyways, I ALWAYS read the passage and then look at questions. I don't skim, I read. This is really risky, though, and I ended up finishing the reading section with absolutely no time remaining, and I definitely rushed on a few questions. A lot of the questions depend on luck. Like, it will ask you something like, "Which of the following is not a reason so and so gives for whatever?" Then you have to go as fast as you can and look for where it discusses that, and then figure out which one it doesn't talk about, which makes reading and then answering questions so risky: You will have to actually reread a lot of the material to find answers to the questions.</p>
<p>To answer your other questions, I go in order no matter what. Doing a harder section later won't make it any less hard. On the Oct. ACT, I found one of the passages particularly difficult to understand (the one about Indian music and hip hop or whatever). After initially reading it, I was like "*** did I just read?" But I had no time to reread, so I just read the questions, and basically reread the entire thing to find the right answers. Like for one, it asked which person interviewed did not share a common opinion that the others did (or something like that), so I just looked for quotation marks in the passage and read all the quotes to answer the questions, without understanding the text as a whole. Also, rarely do questions ask for the overall tone of the passage, and most questions are directly found in the passage. So, I never answer a question based on tone; I always look in the passage for where the text directly answers the question. This is why the ACT is so much better than the SAT in reading: Virtually all the answers to ACT questions are found directly within the text, unlike the SAT where understanding tone is very important.</p>
<p>Yea, I read in full.. but quicker than normal.
Kinda skimming.. kinda not..</p>