How Can I Improve My SSAT Reading Comprehension?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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  1. Find Evidence. The most important rule of reading comprehension is that the passage will always provide all of the information needed to answer the question. …
  2. Think of Your Own Answer First. …
  3. Eliminate Extreme Answers. …
  4. Main Idea Strategy. …
  5. Tone Strategy. …
  6. Vocabulary in Context Strategy.

How can I improve my reading comprehension score?

  1. Improve your vocabulary.
  2. Come up with questions about the text you are reading.
  3. Use context clues.
  4. Look for the main idea.
  5. Write a summary of what you read.
  6. Break up the reading into smaller sections.
  7. Pace yourself.

How long should you study for the SSAT?

We encourage students to allocate

at least three months

for effective SSAT prep. In many cases, students begin their SSAT prep at least a year prior to an official test date.

Why can’t I understand what I read?


Reading comprehension disorder

is a reading disability in which a person has trouble understanding the meaning of words and passages of writing. … If your child is able to read a passage out loud but can’t tell you much about it afterward, they might have specific reading comprehension deficit.

How can I improve my 11 comprehension skills?

  1. Read the passage carefully. Write nothing.
  2. Read through all the questions. Write nothing.
  3. Skim-read the story or passage as you work out answers to each question, using clues and evidence from the passage. Write nothing.
  4. Write answers in complete sentences, unless asked not to. …
  5. CHECK EACH ANSWER CAREFULLY!

How can I improve my SSAT?

  1. Make learning vocabulary a family competition. …
  2. Study root words. …
  3. Create a word journal. …
  4. Read articles, not vocabulary lists. …
  5. Start with words you know. …
  6. Don’t try to finish the whole test, even if you want over 700. …
  7. Link words to sensory experiences.

How do I teach myself to prepare for the SSAT?

  1. Practice, practice, practice – early! …
  2. Read – a lot! …
  3. If you know you are weak in a particular subject, get help before you take the test. …
  4. Be prepared. …
  5. Get a good night’s rest. …
  6. Be on-time for your test. …
  7. Relax! …
  8. Set a pace.

What should I do the day before SSAT?

  • Do go for a walk.
  • Do know how to get to your testing center.
  • Don’t try to cram.
  • Do gather the essentials.
  • Do take your mind off the test.
  • Do go to bed at your normal time or earlier.
  • Don’t bring your cell phones, iPods, any type of tablet, or cameras.
  • Don’t stay up all night.

How do you fix comprehension problems?

  1. Re-read. This is one that most readers want to skip. …
  2. Read out loud. Sometimes it just helps to hear yourself read out loud. …
  3. Use context clues. …
  4. Look up a word you don’t know. …
  5. Ask questions. …
  6. Think about what you’ve already read. …
  7. Make connections. …
  8. Slow down.

What causes poor comprehension?

What Causes Poor Reading Comprehension.

Disinterest and boredom

causes children not to pay attention to what they’re reading. … Decoding individual words slows down or prevents reading comprehension. If the assigned material includes too many words a child doesn’t know, they’ll focus on decoding rather than understanding …

What are the 5 reading comprehension strategies?

  • Using Prior Knowledge/Previewing. …
  • Predicting. …
  • Identifying the Main Idea and Summarization. …
  • Questioning. …
  • Making Inferences. …
  • Visualizing. …
  • Story Maps. …
  • Retelling.

What are the 7 comprehension strategies?

To improve students’ reading comprehension, teachers should introduce the seven cognitive strategies of effective readers:

activating, inferring, monitoring-clarifying, questioning, searching-selecting, summarizing, and visualizing-organizing

.

Why is my reading comprehension so bad?

There are many different causes of reading struggles. …

Slow readers

simply forget what was going on, and this is especially bad if they have low working memory. So, don’t expect comprehension to be good before decoding is. If someone NEEDS to comprehend some passages, read to them.

How can I improve my multiple choice comprehension?

  1. Create Your Own Answer First. Students should use a notecard or other piece of paper to cover up the answer choices as they read the question. …
  2. Forget What You Know. …
  3. Find the Evidence. …
  4. Beware of Trap Words. …
  5. Consider all the Possibilities. …
  6. Eliminate the Wrong Answers.

Is SSAT hard?

While the test is designed to be of

“middle difficulty

,” this is a very competitive group of students against which you’re being scored—these are the select students applying to the finest independent schools.

When should I start studying for the SSAT?

It’s a critical question: when should I start preparing for the SSAT? As a general rule, we recommend starting

six to eight months prior to your test date

. This means that if you plan to take the official test in the fall and have not already taken a practice test, you should consider starting now.

How do I study for the SSAT in a week?

Rather than cramming the week of the test, focus on reviewing strategies and content for a manageable amount of time each day (

30-90 minutes

, depending on your stamina.) Focus on how much you have already learned, and make sure you know each type of question that will be on the test.

How many questions are on the SSAT?

Section Number of Questions Duration Verbal 60 30 minutes Quantitative 2 25 30 minutes Experimental 16 15 minutes Totals

167

3 hours, 5 minutes

Which is harder SSAT or ISEE?

The

verbal section of the SSAT is more difficult than that of the ISEE

, whereas the math section of the ISEE is more difficult than that of the SSAT. … SSAT verbal isn’t only more difficult than ISEE verbal—it also makes up much more of the total exam score.

How many times can you take the SSAT?

The SSAT at Home is offered every Saturday, as well as a few Sundays, and can be taken up to

five times per year

. The SSAT at Home is the same test as the traditional SSAT— the only difference is that the test is administered on the computer rather than on paper.

What does the SSAT consist of?

The SSAT consists of a brief unscored writing sample and multiple choice sections that include

quantitative (mathematics), reading comprehension

, and verbal questions and a experimental section at the end which is unscored.

What are the three best comprehension strategies?

  • Activating and Using Background Knowledge. …
  • Generating and Asking Questions. …
  • Making Inferences. …
  • Predicting. …
  • Summarizing. …
  • Visualizing. …
  • Comprehension Monitoring.

How can adults improve their comprehension skills?

  • Learn New Vocabulary. Your vocabulary is a large part of your reading comprehension. …
  • Remove Distractions. …
  • Prepare Before You Read. …
  • Slow Your Pace. …
  • Break It Into Chunks. …
  • Question What You Read. …
  • Reflect on the Text.

How can I improve my reading speed and understanding?

  1. Avoid distractions. …
  2. Go easy. …
  3. Cover words that you’ve already read. …
  4. Know what you want from the text. …
  5. Benchmark your progress. …
  6. Practice, practice, practice.

How long does it take to improve reading comprehension?

If you are 6 years old you can expect to improve your reading comprehension over

the next 12 years or so

. If you are 16 you can improve your skills faster if you are behind and you practice a few hours each day.

How can you help a struggling reader at home?

  1. Find the “holes” and begin instruction there. Find where the confusion begins. …
  2. Build their confidence. Most struggling readers, especially older ones, know that they struggle. …
  3. Don’t leave them guessing. …
  4. Model the strategies. …
  5. Give them time to practice WITH your help. …
  6. Make it multi-sensory.

How can I improve my comprehension?

  1. Have them read aloud. …
  2. Provide books at the right level. …
  3. Reread to build fluency. …
  4. Talk to the teacher. …
  5. Supplement their class reading. …
  6. Talk about what they’re reading.

What are the 3 main type of reading strategies?

There are three different styles of reading academic texts:

skimming, scanning, and in-depth reading

.

Can adults improve reading comprehension?

But sometimes elementary things get overlooked. So even though adults tend to have larger vocabularies and better word recognition than children,

enlarging your vocab and generally practicing reading is likely to improve reading comprehension over time

.

How do you teach struggling readers to read?

  1. Reading Mastery. Reading Mastery is very systematic. …
  2. Read Naturally. Read Naturally aims to improve reading fluency and understanding in kids and adults. …
  3. READ 180. …
  4. Project Read. …
  5. Read, Write and Type! …
  6. LANGUAGE! …
  7. Reading Recovery. …
  8. Read Well.

How can I help my child with reading comprehension?

  1. Make connections. When kids connect what they already know to what they read, it helps them focus. …
  2. Ask questions. Asking questions encourages kids to look for clues in the text. …
  3. Make “mind movies.” …
  4. Look for clues. …
  5. Figure out what’s important. …
  6. Check understanding. …
  7. Try new things.

Why do I struggle with multiple choice?

Multiple choice exams can be tricky, and it is common for students to struggle with this format. … Often, students are

misled

by distractors—choices that can look, sound or mean about the same thing as the correct answer, but are incorrect because they are either too specific or too general.

How do you outsmart a multiple choice test?

  1. 4 ways to outsmart any multiple-choice test. A few simple tips can give you an edge on multiple-choice tests. …
  2. Ignore conventional wisdom. …
  3. Look at the surrounding answers. …
  4. Choose the longest answer.
  5. Eliminate the outliers.

How do I study for MCQS?

  1. Rephrase the question, making sure to keep the core question valid.
  2. Consider each of the choices as true or false statements.
  3. Use reasoning to eliminate wrong answers increasing your chance of selecting the right answer.
  4. Watch for qualifiers that may catch you out (“always”, “never”)
Rachel Ostrander
Author
Rachel Ostrander
Rachel is a career coach and HR consultant with over 5 years of experience working with job seekers and employers. She holds a degree in human resources management and has worked with leading companies such as Google and Amazon. Rachel is passionate about helping people find fulfilling careers and providing practical advice for navigating the job market.