getting your speed right are to know your reading speed and your answering
speed.
*It’s like cruise control—once you find your speed, you won’t have to even think about it anymore. That is, until you come to the red lightthat is the proctor announcing the end of the section—then it might be time to stop.
—Samantha
THE RIGHT READING SPEED
But you may be asking, “Is my speed the right speed? Because it feels a bit . . .
slower than the right speed.”
Look, you’re going to have to read about 3,000 words in the reading passages
on this section of the SAT. This means the ability to read quickly can be a big
advantage.
So we recommend that you read only those words that start with the letter w.
“Hold it,” you say, “but then I won’t understand anything.” To which we
respond, “Oh yeah, you’re right, sorry,” and then suggest, “Try reading
everything very carefully and make sure you comprehend it all.” To which you
respond, “But then I won’t have time to finish the test.”
This is the heart-wrenching conflict you must deal with on the Reading Test:
To speed or not to speed? All we can say is: Do as many practice tests as you
possibly can so that you know how fast you can read while still understanding as
much as possible of the passage. It would be great if you could get your “time
per passage” to under six minutes.
Fancy speed-reading tricks probably won’t help much. Psychologists have
found that speed-reading tricks really only teach you how to skim a text by
skipping details. But for reading questions on the SAT, you have to know the
details.
There’s no substitute for practice—practice reading the kinds of texts that
will be on the SAT, and take enough practice tests that the right reading speed
becomes natural to you.
THE RIGHT ANSWERING SPEED
Remember, you’ve got 65 minutes to answer the 52 reading questions. This is
more time than previous versions of the SAT allowed per question, but don’t be
fooled: The Serpent isn’t being generous. The questions are a bit more
demanding now—all because of the pesky focus on evidence.