SAT Reading Study Tips: How to Study

The first thing you should do is become familiar with the Reading Test format. Over the 65 minutes of testing time, you’ll be reading 5 passages spanning the following genres: US/World Literature, History/Social Studies, and Science.

It sounds simple, but getting regular reading practice (outside of normal school reading) will fine tune your comprehension skills before Test Day. Get started early, and make sure you are reading to your level—this could be classic works of fiction, articles from CNN or New York Times, or actual SAT Reading passages from a review book (see below).

You will find many reliable review books and a few not-so-reliable ones at your local Barnes and Noble or Amazon. Once you find a reputable source of questions to call your own, work through as many passages and questions as you can. It’s especially important to work through full 65-minute Reading sections periodically to understand the pace you need to have to finish the section.

Find a friend who’s taking the SAT. It’s always more fun to prepare together, and your friend may be able to help you see flaws in your technique that are not easily noticeable.

Once you’ve practiced enough to get a feel for test-like questions, pick a news article and try writing your own SAT Reading questions based off of it. This can help you get a glimpse into the ways test-makers come up with wrong answer types. If studying with a friend, you can even exchange articles and questions for some extra practice!