<p>hey this is a fact: this girl i know reads hard-core, and i mean it. She has read 70%, if not all, of the classic books. She reads like 4 hours daily. All she does is read books and non-fiction novels and etc. So today at the library, I asked her to do a SAT reading passage. I was expecting her to ace it, but she kind of hesitated and found it hard. Also, I asked her to do some sentence completions and analogies to test her vocab, and she sucked. </p>
<p>So for everybody that says that ''reading'' helps....it doesnt.</p>
<p>If youre going to read something, dont waste your time reading classic books because they dont help to improve your SAT verbal score. Instead, read magazines like ''New Yorker'' Harpers'' Atlantic'' and newspapers like New York Times and Wall Street Journal. I think these are meant for the SAT.</p>
<p>I completely appall reading. And I got a 440 when I took the SAT 2 years ago on the Verbal portion. Of course, I was only in seventh grade.</p>
<p>Personally, I think SAT Reading depends on how well you can sit and memorize thousands of vocab words. I'm hoping to let my 700 math score cover my pitiful reading score until I finally improve that. </p>
<p>If you like reading, it could help you when you're trying to memorize vocab, but if you don't read much, you could still do well in the verbal. I'm hoping that I can memorize enough to improve my score a couple hundred points.</p>
<p>I totally disagree - I never read any of the magazines or journals you've suggested and I read one newspaper a day, not with the intention of studying for the SAT but because I like to know whats going on in the world. But I have been reading 'classic books' and non fiction (I have no clue what you mean by non fiction novels :confused: ) since I was about 4...which meant I never had to look at a single word list to improve either my vocabulary or my comprehension skills and I did just fine on the Verbal section. So I totally disagree with your POV - all reading is good as far as I'm concerned whether its from the Atlantic Monthly or a James Joyce novel :)</p>
<p>lol, the New Yorker and Harpers are meant for the SAT? I think not. </p>
<p>I've never had a problem with SAT verbal (71 psat: 0 sentence completions wrong, 4 cr wrong) and after reviewing some cr strategies, my practice cr tests have hovered around 800 (taking SAT in May)...And I read mostly fiction and didn't drill vocab or study specifically for the SAT verbal...i really dont think it matters what you read, as long as youre reading - although i do have friends who don't read and perform equally well...</p>
<p>she probably reads nerd fantasy novels with no big words in em... i kno i kinda overgeneralized... but yeah you need to read books that are written in a way that require comprehension of deeper meaning and have some broader vocab...</p>
<p>nerd fantasy novels usually have the longest words - some of them would make excellent substitutes for thesauruses. :p</p>
<p>SalikSyed The OP said that his friend reads mostly classics - I suppose these would require comprehension of a deeper meaning - I personally think that the way you read is even more important than what you read....so long as you do read, that is. I find it kind of hard to imagine that there's any prescribed reading list for the SAT.</p>
<p>Seriously the SATs are NOT only about knowing vocab. There are about what...8 questions like that? After all, the section is called critical reading not vocab. Maybe you're just trying to find a quick, easy way to do well - and there really isn't one. </p>
<p>And I hope you're not basing this theory on one girl's experience.</p>
<p>By the way...I've read many of the classic novels as well - and I've been reading avidly for many years now. I read Time magazine but not necessarily every article. There is no fast track to a good SAT score....good reading comprehension skills are acquired over a long period of time and are usually attained when a person is not looking to improve their scores, but rather just enjoying what they're reading. I know I do and I think that helps, at least for me. =)</p>
<p>^^ I totally agree. Good reading habits such as being able to read fast, or to split up a complex turn of phrase into a simple one, or to scan a dense looking page and graspits main points quickly are definitely not going to come overnight...its a cumulative process and one that you have to enjoy too :)</p>
<p>Reading is highly overrated. I've never been into reading, really, but the SAT does not require you to have read the entire Dickens collection. The best prep for the SAT is doing SAT practice tests. Understanding the type of questions they ask and the type of answers they want is far more useful than understanding symbolism in The Tale of Two Cities. Drill their reading patterns into your head, and you should be fine.</p>
<p>I'll agree that having read specific books won't help much, but reading IS important, or at least it was for me. I've always been pretty lazy about practice tests (ie, I've never done any, other than PSAT and SAT as a 7th grader), and I got an 800 verbal the first, and only, time I took it, then an 800 SAT II LIT and 780 Writing. I don't read any of the magazines you mentioned, but I have always enjoyed reading and I have read a lot of classics. I don't know about the new SAT, but for the old one, I would say a good vocabulary is essential. I'm not saying reading classics is the only way to do well, but if you like to read anyway, it's pretty likely to help. Reading books written a long time ago might usually be better help; i think they tend to have a wider vocabulary. On the other hand, if you are a junior preparing for the SAT who doesn't like to read and hasn't done much of it up to now, it would probably do you much more good ot take practice tests than try to read enough in the next few months to get a high score.</p>
<p>i know a girl who reads A LOT like crazy but she got like 700 while i don't read at all (never did read much since a kid). and she read huge novels in 1 or 2 days. i also got a better essay score (might be luck thyough)</p>
<p>I scored a 620 on my verbal. However, as a kid I loved to read. I would devour them. I stopped reading after that going to high school. Three years later, I took the CR, and got 3 wrong out of 40. My vocabulary was probably horrendously bad, as I got more than half wrong for SC, and Analogies. So, I do think reading does help.</p>
<p>Nonfiction novels. What the hell is this???</p>
<p>Firstly, the mere fact that you base your so called argument on the results of a single subject is atrocious. For all we know this girl could be 8 yrs old. And then you completely contradict yourself. Your whole argument is ridiculous.</p>
<p>Oh my goodness yes ronlivs! After the SAT, the discussion threads on these boards were full of brilliant people making absurd cases for reading questions. You can have a huge vocabulary; test-taking is a seperate skill.</p>
<p>Exactly... The Verbal section of the SAT primarily deals in testing your intelligence and critical thinking skills. Speaking as a girl who never reads anything other than the occasional online article or op-ed collumn and getting a 740 on my CR I can safely say that reading has nothing to do with it.</p>
<p>It tests reading comprehension and not necessarily intelligence, because most people who are good in math/sci do bad on CR because they tend to overanalyze or look too deeply into the passage for the right answer.</p>