<p>I will be taking SSAT as a 9th grader this year, and judging on my score last year, I need to work on my reading the most. I have Petersons, Princeton Review, Arco... and several other SSAT prep books, but I can't seem to find one that gives me straight forward reading tips. I've also heard that with SSAT reading, you just need to know some basics, and it will be the easiest to improve on. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>How many questions did you get right last time, and where do you want to get to?</p>
<p>last time i got 29 right, i hope to get around 35… just a few more. there have got to be some tricks for this!</p>
<p>After each paragraph in a passage, label it with a couple of words on the main point. Underline key words and sentences. That’s what helped me on the SSAT passages.</p>
<p>thanks! i read that in one of the prep books, but i was quite skeptical if it was going to work.
anymore suggestions?
please! im kind of desperate (im taking the ssat soon, and ive studied math+verbal, but im completely lost for what to do with reading)</p>
<p>My S improved from 26 to near perfection with practice. So here are my suggestions:
- Get SSAT preparing and applying book. Practice from it. Do lower level RC first, then the upper level.
- Concentration is critical for RC. Practice in a quite place. Do not do it on the kitchen table when mom/dad is cooking. No music, no distractions, no little bro running around.
- For questions you get wrong, get a second opinion. Ask a parent, a teacher or a friend. You might be missing something obvious in the paragraph. Post them here on CC if nobody else helps.
- Try panda’s suggestions and see if they work for you.
- Read each paragraph carefully and deliberately, focusing on each word before you read the questions. There is plenty of time. Use all of it. You should not have more than 3-4 minutes left. Otherwise you are rushing it.</p>
<p>Hope it helps. Good luck.</p>
<p>Kaplan is the way to go</p>
<p>anymore suggestions?
i tried pandapandaa’s suggestions and they really worked! i took a practice test and only got 3 wrong!
does anyone have any other suggestions about the reading section in the ssat? also, i was looking at the scale in the princeton review book. for a 9th grader, if you get like, 2 wrong or omitted in the reading section, then your dropped from a 99 to a 98.
im not aiming for a 99, but that is still pretty bad.</p>
<p>btw, thank you pandapandaa and dakshima and snapepotter!
your suggestions are exactly working very effectively!</p>
<p>Not sure if this will help for SSAT, but here’s what I do when I am reading something technical that I really want to understand. </p>
<p>I read as far as I need to in order to get a general idea what the reading is about. I then immediately stop reading and try to think of questions that I have about the subject. What would be interesting for me to learn about this? Where do I think the author is going? How does this relate to things I already know? After I have thought of some questions that I am at least marginally interested in, I continue reading. I find that when I do this, it makes the reading more interesting. And when it is more interesting, it is easier for me to understand.</p>
<p>Hey there!</p>
<p>I took the SSAT last year, in eigth grade, and got a 99% on my reading, and I’ve got pretty much the same advice as everyone else.</p>
<p>After you finish reading each section, try to jot down a few notes about the general idea of the topic, and after reading each question, try to think about the answer without looking at the answers. Generally, your first hunch is the correct one. </p>
<p>Also, like dakshina said, make sure you’re focused during the test! It’s incredibly easy to be distracted when you’re nervous and running out of time, and just push through it.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>-Read the questions first so you know what to look for.
-Read veeery carefully. On one practice test I took, I was being lazy and rushing it… Yeah, my score dropped exponentially.</p>
<p>I agree with heps1996. I rushed through one of the practice tests, and got 10 wrong. But when I actually timed myself and did everything carefully, and checked my answers, my score went up a lot. But I’m still not very good at reading section (I’m around 690).</p>
<p>The biggest problem for me is that I pick an answer that CAN be correct, but not the BEST answer. It frustrates me when I fall into those traps.</p>
<p>I’m also really bad with poems, because they’re hard for me to understand…</p>
<p>A problem with the reading section is that occasionally the questions seem to be matters of opinion- especially those stupid “which title” questions. I think this is why a lot of kids who aren’t necessarily “bad” readers struggle with it.</p>
<p>Also, one thing I’ve learned from doing the practice tests is NOT to rely on your own knowledge of the subject/event decribed-- for example, on one practice test there was a passage on the relationship between the moon and the earth, and I’m an intern at the local observatory. I ended up picking an answer choice that was TRUE, but not mentioned in the passage. Moral of the story: answer only with what the passage has given you.</p>
<p>My advice isn’t a last-minute cram tactic. In general, increasing reading skills takes time, and background knowledge. If English is a second language for you, it can be more difficult. When I was learning a second language, a teacher recommended that we students read a newspaper article in the new language every day. Note any unknown vocabulary words. Try to restate the article in a few sentences, both your native language and the new language. Over time, this should help.</p>