If your goal is to attend a top level American university, you need a top level SAT Reading score. Period. End of conversation. Yes, yes, I know you heard on Reddit about some guy with a 600 on EBRW getting into MIT. But trust me, he was either a myth or an exception.

Your SAT Reading score tells the universities more about your ability to succeed than anything else on the SAT.

Why your SAT Reading score is so important

Everybody at university needs to read. I don’t care what you are studying, you will be required to do a large amount of reading. Probably more reading than you imagine you would be required to ever do. Imagine 200 pages of information per class-per week! Now if you are not a strong and skilled reader, you will quickly fall behind and won’t be able to keep up with the reading which means you may be missing key information in your studies. Not everyone needs to do math in university, but EVERYBODY needs to read.

Yes, you need to read if you are a Math major

Even math majors need to have sharp reading skills. This is why the math section of the SAT has so many word problems. The test is evaluating your reading skills even when you are doing math.

How to improve your Reading Skills

Everyone wants a quick fix for reading, but one of the reasons that it is so important a metric for universities is that is not fixable in a quick and dirty manner. You need to work. Reading is a cumulative skill involving the integration of other skills which when practiced over time becomes easier. But practice is necessary. Now, most SAT guides merely tell you to “read more.” But that isn’t very helpful, is it? What you need is a series of texts that are at the right difficulty level and guiding questions to help you identify the key ideas and an answer key that will help you be certain that you actually read it right. Right?

SAT Reading Guidance

We are going to try a little experiment here at International Tester. I think you will benefit from a regular source of practice reading and explanations. So in November, we will be posting 2 passages per week with a vocabulary list and an audio walk through on Youtube. If you are excited about this leave a comment letting me know what you struggle the most with in SAT Reading. In the meantime, download your free copy of International Tester’s Guide to SAT Reading: Literature Passages. Check back on http://www.internationaltester.com on Friday November 1st for the first passage.