Every year, we meet students who are preparing seriously for the SAT for the first time. After a diagnostic test, they usually know exactly why they missed certain math questions. Maybe they haven’t mastered a particular concept yet, or maybe they simply need more practice.
Reading scores often feel different.
Many students finish the SAT Reading section convinced they understood the passages, only to discover that they missed far more questions than expected. Their first reaction is often to search for a strategy, shortcut, or test-taking trick that will solve the problem.
Strategies certainly help, and we teach plenty of them. But after working with thousands of students, we’ve noticed something important:
The strongest SAT readers are usually not the students who know the most tricks. They’re the students who have spent years reading. Reading anything.
The SAT is fundamentally a test of a student’s ability to understand complex written language. Our brain is not naturally wired to read. Students who read regularly have spent thousands of hours practicing. They are comfortable following complicated ideas, interpreting unfamiliar vocabulary, and recognizing how authors build arguments.
Students who read regularly process text very differently from those who do not. Experienced readers naturally group words into larger ideas, anticipate where an author is going, and use context to understand unfamiliar concepts. Less experienced readers often devote much more mental energy to decoding individual sentences, leaving fewer resources available for understanding the passage as a whole. As a result, strong readers tend to focus on meaning, while struggling readers are often still working to make sense of the words themselves.
One of the biggest advantages regular readers develop is vocabulary. Although today’s SAT is no longer filled with obscure vocabulary questions, students still need a strong understanding of language to succeed. Reading exposes students to thousands of words in meaningful contexts, allowing them to build vocabulary naturally over time.
Parents often ask what their children should read to improve.
The answer is simple: almost anything they genuinely enjoy.
Novels, biographies, sports journalism, history books, science articles, and quality magazines can all help. The goal isn’t to find the perfect book. The goal is to build a consistent habit.
Of course, reading alone won’t guarantee a great SAT score. Students still need to learn the structure of the exam, practice effective strategies, and review key concepts. But reading provides the foundation upon which all of those skills are built.
This applies to basic math as well. Many kids who are in advanced classes but are performing poorly on tests have simply forgotten (or never built) the “foundation.” We have recently rolled out a series of subject-specific “boot camps” to focus on building this reading and math essentials and students are finding them really helpful!
At Broward Tutorial Services, we teach students how to succeed on the SAT. But we also encourage families to remember something simple: while test-taking strategies can raise scores, a lifelong reading habit can change the way a student learns for years to come.
