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How to improve the reading score


knok

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Hi everyone,

 

Do you have any strategies to improve the scores in reading section? I talked to Princeton Review today. The director recommended students to have a private tutoring. It is $110 per hour. It seems that the problem about the reading is that the topics of reading are not interesting at all. Students do not like to read it. I can imagine that. What are other problems? ;)

 

Thank you for your help. :tup:

 

Knok

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I'm wondering how you got $110 per hour. Princeton Review has 3 tiers for private tutoring: Regular, Master, and Premier. Premier is around $180 per hour (depending on the package) for supposedly the most experienced instructors with the highest reputations. Master is for an instructor with supposedly somewhat higher abilities than Regular for around $130 per hour. Though perfectly legal, this is marketing at its ethical worst. Why? First, TPR puts a psychological anchor on parents that if they don't pay more, they risk not getting the very best SAT prep quality as well as not loving their child enough.

 

Second, TPR insiders know that they have very very very very few high quality instructors who were high scorers on SAT. Kaplan generally has higher quality instructors than TPR because Kaplan, being bigger and having more money than TPR, pays its instructors more. Still, the vast majority of Kaplan SAT instructors are terrible. All prep companies like Kaplan and TPR are subject to regional differences. I'm in southern California and what this means for us here is that Kaplan and TPR in Riverside (both across the street from UC Riverside) have a much much harder time getting qualified instructors than their centers in Westwood (right next to UCLA). So, for example, Riverside Kaplan will be so desperate that they will hire a bunch of UC Riverside undergrads without a degree who scored around 1100 on the old SAT. Riverside Kaplan is a small-medium center/region and will have around 30 SAT instructors on their call list, of which possibly only 1 or 2 are high quality experienced instructors who scored high on the SAT. Westwood Kaplan is one of the biggest and might have around 50 instructors, of which possibly 5 are high quality. TPR in the respective regions is about the same or slightly worse. And that ain't good.

 

Third, managers have a terrible time finding available instructors to take on private students (as well as classroom courses, for that matter). The vast majority of instructors stick around for 2 or 3 rounds of classes over 1 year. Their goal is to have something on their resume for grad school applications. They are not committed to gaining experience and perfecting the art of test prep. They put in minimal preparation before their sessions. Kaplan and TPR know turn-around is roughly 1 year so they put minimal resources into training. So my question is: How is TPR going to guarantee you a "Master" or "Premier" instructor, whatever those are, when (1) unpredictable availability is everyday life in the test prep industry and (2) they'll have at best a handful of instructors who are barely just good?

 

I'm curious what region of the US you're in. I'm also wondering if you discussed a Master program with TPR and they gave you a "discounted" rate from the $130 per hour.

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@Odyssey: Great insider's info. What you describe sounds perfectly reasonable, even expected. For what it's worth, the Kaplan and TPR instructors who've worked at TM have lasted longer at TM than at the other places. Yay! I like to think that our work environment is more rewarding on several different levels--professionally and with the students.

 

@Knok: Of all the sections of the SAT, reading is probably the least coachable, and you will likely see very little return on your investment. I'm speaking from years of experience teaching and from second-hand experience from my students who've had private tutoring specifically for reading. I know you want the best for your son, but honestly, I think you should resist the temptation, unless of course you are aware that your son will probably need many, many hours to improve.

 

And much of my experience jibes with Odyssey's post--paying the high price is not a guarantee of quality, unfortunately. Because there's so much on the line for you, both in terms of money and your son's SAT scores, I would strongly recommend that you not hire a tutor until you and your son can meet him or her and see how you feel. Knok, I know you have a lot of experience with teachers, and I feel confident that you would know pretty quickly whether or not somebody's a good teacher. You should also check out smaller companies or freelance teachers. Smaller companies often offer a great bargain because the owner, i.e., the one with enough experience to start a business, is often the one who does the teaching. A disadvantage of smaller companies is that they may not have other tutors available if your son doesn't like the owner, which is a real possibility.

 

Finally, if your son has been here only a few years, he'd really probably be better off with someone with an ESL background, i.e., an SAT tutor who's familiar with ESL, too. That's a combination that's somewhat uncommon, but at the rate you've been quoted, you should get what you need.

 

Knok, you're a valuable member, and you've been around for a long time, so I'd be happy to talk to you or your son personally to give you my honest advice. If you PM me your phone number, I'll give you a call. And I think you know this, but I won't try to sell you anything. (TM operates only in San Francisco right now.) I think that if I could talk to your son for even just a few minutes, I could get a good idea of him and what may help him.

 

No matter what, please keep posting your questions. I'll always keep an eye out for your posts in the SAT forum, Knok. I'll share information if I can. :)

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Hi Erin and Odyssey Think SAT,

 

Thank you for your input. I will talk to my son this evening about how to improve the reading score and will have him call you. He has Volleyball game-varsity tonight and may get off late.

 

About the cost of Princeton $110, I don't know for sure which level it is.

 

As I mentioned earlier, my son went to take the SAT without reviewing a page of SAT at the period of 6 months. It was terrible. He did some practice tests during the summer. I won't blame him because five honor classes- Chemistry, Physics, Pre-Calculus, English, German and sport practices after school keep him really busy.

 

He took advanced Math- honor Algebra II and Geometry last year and pre- Calculus this year. I won't worry about Math. I even can give tutoring this section by myself. I got 97 percentile on GMAT score.

 

The thing is that he got 10 and 53 of writing section but got a terrible score in reading. :( I think that he can improve on multiple choice section of writing with a little preparation.

 

However, I know how it feels when foreign students do the reading section. That also scares him. Mom! I really don't like to read the passages. They all are boring. :( I cannot help him with that since my GMAT -verbal was also terrible. (30 percentile) However, children should have a sense of language learning better than adult.

 

At first, I thought I would put him in intensive tutoring session package with Princeton this June ($899-$100 discount= $799) but not sure that it will help him with the reading score when now the result obviously shows that he needs only reading section tutoring.

 

I agree that improving this reading section is really hard but there should be some ways out. I am sure that he can improve. He is smart than I am. ;) He is a straight A student since the first year he has studied in the US until last year. We came to the US in 1999.

 

My question is that when we compare GMAT and SAT. Are these two tests comparable in the sense of difficulties and reality? :rolleyes:

 

Thank you for any advice.

 

Best Regards,

 

Knok

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Knok, please read my post in the "First new SAT-- how was it?" thread about advanced math students and the new SAT math.

 

What was your son's math score on the March 12 test? And what region of the US are you in?

 

One surprising thing about your son is that he got 5's (out of 6 possible) from both graders on his essay (thus a total score of 10). That is pretty good, even for a native English speaker. It is unlikey he could have achieved that score without fairly high English writing ability. There may be hope afterall for your son with the reading passages, as far as making great gains in a very short amount of time.

 

There are 48 reading comprehension questions on the new SAT. Could you tell me how many he got correct out of the 48?

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Erin,

 

My son called you at sunset tonight. He has a question about the writing. He would like to ask if he can skip taking writing for the next SAT. He said that he worried about the writing when he was doing the reading or other parts. If he can skip the writing, that will allow him to save energy for other sections or may do better in a whole test. He even asked me tonight if he quit taking SAT and pay attention to ACT only. I don't know about the criteria of schools. He said that all schools accepted ACT not SAT. As far as I know, some schools require both. ;)

 

Odyssey,

 

Thank you for your reply. I read your post about the Math but not quite understand how they grade the whole test. The reading score does not show how many questions he did correctly. It just showed the whole score of reading, 450. :( He got 640 on Math. How many questions did he miss from these scores? I am sure that he can improve next time. I am thinking that on the reading section, he did not finish reading the passages. When he found that the stories were boring, he might just make guesses. He told me that he did not know anything about the stories. It was complicated.

 

We are in St.Louis, MO. Most tutors in my city are graduate students at Washington University.

 

Thank you very much for taking your time to answer my questions.

 

Knok

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If he fixes up his vocab, he can improve his sentence completions greatly. Of course, I'm assuming he missed quite a few. I believe I may be able to make this assumption.

 

Because he got 5's on his essay, I believe he can learn to be a faster and at the same time better reader- indeed an ACTIVE reader- while learning about the "mind" of the testmaker regarding essay structures, question types and trap answer choices. This falls under SAT STRATEGIES, real strategies, and you will be surprised by what can be done in this area, IF you get an outstanding instructor (3-4 hours sentence completions along with vocab building off the side and at least 8 hours on critical reading).

 

In the math, I believe your son fell victim to the nuances of the SAT scoring scale...partly. A person not strong in high school math can not pull out a 640 with no test prep. However, a 640 without test prep indicates that (1) your son is missing at least several advanced math concepts as well as short-cut strategies and thinking tools, regardless of how well he performs in high school math, (2) he is not familiar enough with the testmaker to know EXACTLY the categories AND the VARIATIONS of those categories of math on the test, and (3) he will absolutely benefit greatly from a minimal number of private tutoring hours on the math, provided he gets an outstanding instructor. I'm saying, with decent math SAT prep, your son can easily get to the 700 and possibly 800 level in less than 1 month (at least 14 hours).

 

People are surprised how efficiently and methodically a person with decent English ability can improve on grammar multiple choice IF you know all the grammar categories that are tested (surprisingly few, by the way) and then train to actively search for those categories (most probably exactly 7 hours. 3 hours grammar categories. 4 hours applying those categories to each of the 3 multiple-choice grammar question types).

 

Essay writing? For money concerns, possibly skip it since your son got 5's on his own.

 

I have concluded that test prep, whether an in-class course or private tutoring will absolutely help your son on both critical reading and math. One way to do it is take an in-class course over 1 or 2 summer months for about $900 to $1000 and hope for a 50-point increase on math, critical reading, and writing multiple-choice, respectively (150-pt increase total). Then get him a private tutor for the final gains necessary. You have enough time with summer coming (take a crash in-class course that's twice a week so you finish in 1 month, then you have 1 or 2 summer months for private tutoring before the start of the school year), but the question is do you have the money capability? If money is tight, you can bypass the in-class course entirely and go with the private tutor, which could worry you inside because of the added expense but might be faster and actually cheaper overall, although it's not guaranteed.

 

Finally, an area that I must tread carefully. Do NOT go with the Kaplan SAT in-class program as the current program is TERRIBLE (please read my post in the other thread where I discuss the history of Kaplan's SAT courses and how in the world they can design a 20-instructional-hour course for the new SAT). I am intimately familiar with the current Kaplan course, let's just put it that way. Because of this, do NOT go with a Kaplan private tutor BECAUSE the vast majority of them know only to use the Kaplan lesson book for private tutoring and that lesson book is terrible. Makes sense? Although I am familiar with TPR's previous lesson book, I do not yet know about their new course. TPR's instructors are generally about as bad as or slightly worse than Kaplan's average instructors. However, TPR's current in-class course provides 35 instructional hours plus 4 practice tests. I believe the new course materials should be no worse than Kaplan's. Rolling the dice, worse comes to worse, probably go with TPR because the lesson book, upon which most instructors depend, is probably more comprehensive. But, like Erin said, INSIST on interviewing and cross-examining the prospective instructor. Perhaps go with an independent instructor but not before you INTERVIEW. Regardless, a truly outstanding instructor doesn't even need a lesson book AND can utilize any lesson book from any company ON THE FLY, providing extremely efficient and detailed instruction in the least amount of time.

 

I'm not understanding why your son says more schools take the ACT. Is there a recent change I'm not aware of? It used to be that all schools accepted the SAT and only some schools accepted the ACT as well. For the sake of competition combined with a growing distrust of ETS (designers of the SAT), virtually every college these days will accept either test (you don't have to take both). I'm not aware that more schools take ACT than SAT, so this I find surprising. Even if it were true, the vast majority of major universities and liberal arts colleges will still accept SAT.

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Hi Odyssey,

 

Thank you very much for the details of strategies. It is really helpful. I am still not sure about SAT and ACT. Which one is more important? While the counselors and my son told me that ACT is more acceptable and is used by many colleges in the Mid-West, his close friend is taking only SAT. :rolleyes:

 

Anyone has information, your opinions are welcome. Thanks.;)

 

Knok

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The reading section is not meant for the passages to be read.

 

Excuse me, what??

 

That's right, DO NOT READ THE PASSAGES. SKIM THEM. Notice in the reading section:

 

1. The questions are in chronological order. Most require you to go to a specific line.

2. There are some word replacement questions which simply require you to pick a synonym from the choices. Do you have to read the passage to pick a synonym?

3. How many points do you get for reading the passages? That's right, NONE!

 

Eureka kids go up an average of 300 points using this as one of their strategies. Save your brainpower. This is a long test, so why do extra work?

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Welcome to the TestMagic forum, Eureka.

 

I would have to vehemently disagree with your method advocating skimming the passages. There are many different strategies that overlap to some extent out there. Students hear this and that and get confused. One method is to read the questions first and try to get a gist of a few. In cognitive psychology (one-third of my educational background), there is something called Miller's Law, that the human can hold around 7 plus or minus 2 units of information in present or working memory. In other words, our bandwidth is only 5 to 9 units wide. If you are not an exceptional reader, a person who can read a thick novel in 4 hours with high comprehension, then holding the "gist" of even just 3 questions in your head is going to, what we call, compete for limited cognitive resources when you finally read the passage. Exceptional readers of the type I'm referring to are exceptionally rare. If you're like me, you will need ALL your resources applied to the reading task. This method can get a student into the 600's and is designed for students who are below average to slightly above average (500 level) coming into test prep, which is the vast majority of test prep students. It is unlikely to get a student into the 700's.

 

So what about the hybrid method of reading the 1st question, then reading the 1st part of the passage, then 2nd question, then next part of the passage, and so on? This method is more closely related to what Eureka advises because it takes into account the fact that MOST questions are in the order in which they appear in the passage. I have had students from popular Asian test prep centers in southern California like ACI Institute, Alpha Academy, and Elite come to me for private tutoring after failing to find success. Some of these students employ such a hybrid method, which works quite well for EASIER passages but not for difficult passages. For the old SAT, there were 5 long passages (counting the paired passages separately). In the old days, you might get 2 difficult passages. Analyzing the industry closely since 2000, I observed an increase in the number of difficult passages starting with the March 16, 2003 SAT. From that point on, tests would contain 3 to 4 difficult passages. This was consistent with the trend toward a greater emphasis on reading and writing. Students who insisted on using the hybrid method got disastrous results from March 16 onward.

 

Why did the hybrid method fail to continue to work? Because when using that method, a student fails to get the whole, the Gestalt, of the passage. They are not able to connect the paragraphs, to eke out the subtler aspects of the Big Picture or gist when the passage is difficult. Most of the questions are detail questions and detail inference questions BUT one still needs the Bigger Picture to provide a critical context for the details. Even for detail and inference questions, the hardest types of questions, you can almost never consider the details by themselves. That is deadly for a student who wants or needs an ideal score.

 

So now we come to Eureka's method, a method that has been out there for a while. Skimming the passage is terribly terribly risky, considering the fact that more difficult passages appear on today's SAT. The new SAT still has the 40 questions from long passages. The difference is that 8 questions from 4 short passages have been tacked on. I would not even advocate skimming the short passages just to get to the questions. NO WAY. ANOTHER CRITICAL DIFFERENCE that you will hear from me for most probably the very first time because I have not seen a single other test prep company out there (I research companies on my free time) saying it is that there are more difficult reading comp QUESTIONS on the new SAT. In my analysis, there are roughly 2 questions out of the 48 that are beyond those on the old SAT. Where did they come from? From the GRE, of course, according to my analysis. (Btw, something similar happens in the sentence completions on the new SAT!).

 

I can go straight to the questions without reading, much less skimming, the passage and get half the reading comp questions correct based solely on eliminating trap answer choices. Getting half of the raw points on the Critical Reading section will get you slightly above 500. Is there any student out there who wants a 500, whose target is a 500? By skimming the passage first, a student can break the 600's, but is that what we train for? Certainly, high performing students target scores above 700, and skimming passages ain't gonna do it, I promise you. My experience in SAT training clearly indicates this.

 

The best, most uncompromising method is to learn how to read actively, whatever that means (I'm not here to divulge all my secrets) UP FRONT. I have devised incredible methods based on cognitive psychological and neuroscience principles (two-thirds of my educational background). Some of these methods take advantage of the way the human memory system works. Of course, one has to know how the memory system works.

 

Too many companies make unwarranted claims that are based on nothing more than an unethical and overzealous approach to marketing. I am greatly opposed to these ways of doing business; otherwise I would have stayed with Kaplan and Princeton Review. Do you know how many test prep companies claim they are the best or are the premier...? We do business the right way. We would never claim increases of "an average of 300 points," which is totally bogus. Breaking down systems, methods, tools, and concepts specifically for each question type, in this case reading comp, we would NEVER advocate skimming passages or "do not read the passages" as an ideal method. We talk openly about the various methods for reading comp, introduce the relevant science in simple-to-understand language, let the students convince themselves, and give them a slight nudge by leaning toward one method (You guys know which one!). We would NEVER advocate skimming passages as a way effective for getting a 300 point increase on the test. If you advertise yourself as the premier in whatever, you have to be able to back it up in some way, such as by your system, approach, method, or set of strategies. Right off the bat, your strategy of "skim the passages" belies your statement.

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Thank you for welcoming me to the pack so warmly, Odyssey.

 

First of all, as a marketing professional, I must take exception to you calling my claim of a 300 point increase "totally bogus." I and most of my colleagues in marketing, unlike what most people think, hold ourselves to high ethical standards, and would never lie in a marketing statement. Just because you can't raise your score 300 points by using our methods doesn't mean there aren't people who do. If you like, I can give you a temporary password, and you can do the math yourself. The average increase of our students IS 300 points. Of course, I would think you have too many cognitive science mags to read and other companies to research to waste time perusing our thousands of pointless, overzealous hard data.

 

As for Miller's law, it would be true if we were to use our method as you dictate. Our students never "finally read the passage." Their memories never have to "compete" with the "gist of 3 questions," and you don't have to be an exceptional reader. Just a smart one.

 

Our system makes the use of memory a non-factor. Neuroscience being 2/3rds of your education, you should know that one of the quickest ways to fatigue your brain is to repeatedly access short term memory while confronted with constantly changing stimuli, especially under pressure of immediate performance (the SAT!)

 

If you are asked for a synonym in line 15, you don't even have to read line 15. Just pick the synonym! One of the things we teach is to believe in the education you have already been given. One of the tricks the SAT pulls is to make students waste time and mental energy going back and forth between passage and question on a simple synonym replacement second-guessing themselves. Our students believe in themselves and trust their educations. We also teach them some of the same things you do; that is, quick answer elimination, correct guessing technique, and most importantly, VOCABULARY.

 

By skimming the passage first, and then following our methods through to completion, our students can raise their reading score considerably beyond a 600. Why would we adopt a method with a cap on the success rate?

 

I would argue that your method needlessly teeters back and forth between passage and question and makes the student waste time.

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First of all, as a marketing professional, I must take exception to you calling my claim of a 300 point increase "totally bogus." I and most of my colleagues in marketing, unlike what most people think, hold ourselves to high ethical standards, and would never lie in a marketing statement. Just because you can't raise your score 300 points by using our methods doesn't mean there aren't people who do. If you like, I can give you a temporary password, and you can do the math yourself. The average increase of our students IS 300 points. Of course, I would think you have too many cognitive science mags to read and other companies to research to waste time perusing our thousands of pointless, overzealous hard data.

 

Why do you take me and the other people in here for idiots? The new SAT was just given on March 12 for the first time. Where did you get your data for the 300-point average increase? There is no data...yet. Well actually students received their score reports a week ago but your website claiming an average increase of 300 points was up long ago. Even if you used tests from the Official Study Guide, exact scoring scales for EACH test are not given.

 

So does that mean you're using before (baseline) and after scores solely from your simulated NEW SAT practice tests? If so, that's not a valid method. How did you create the scoring scales? Through actual distributions from hundreds of thousands of new SAT students? Of course not. REGARDLESS, I guarantee you that your company did NOT see an average increase of 300 points even from your practice tests.

 

 

 

Here's a statement from your website: "The New SAT Standard Program consists of 15, 90-minute lessons and, based on historical analysis, is expected to have an average increase of over 300 points!"

 

Yes, I believe your background is in marketing, but it's in unethical marketing and purposeful misrepresentation. What is your "historical" analysis? Above, you assert that the average score increase IS in fact 300. Why then would your website qualify things with the word "expected" to have a 300-point increase?

 

I'll tell you where you got your data from: from virtual space. You never had the data from the new SAT because it just came out. Your "historical analysis" is from the old SAT, for which you presumably were claiming a 200-point increase. Then you figured the new test with the Writing section is 1/3 more test so you extrapolated an additional 100 points. This scenario is consistent with your CAREFULLY chosen, manipulative phrasing on your website.

 

BTW, a claim of an average increase of 200 points on the OLD SAT would have been bogus as well for 2 very solid reasons. First, unless you hand-selected each of your students to be from a certain favorable region (e.g., Irvine) AND then further selected only the ones who were already high performers in high school AND who were highly motivated for the SAT, you had ZERO chance of getting students an average increase of 200 points on the old SAT or 300 points on the new SAT. Let's go further. High performers who are TOO high will hit a ceiling effect where they may not even have room for a 200 or 300 point gain. In addition, gains are more difficult up in that area of perfection, as you should know. Therefore, you would have to handpick high performers who are low on the SAT coming in! Obviously, you don't handpick your students, but you can handpick your data. Or just make the numbers up because they sound good.

 

Second, your private SAT program for the new SAT has ONLY 22.5 instructional hours. My experience dissecting the new SAT and working with students on the new SAT clearly indicates 22.5 instructional hours is NOT ENOUGH for private tutoring. Not enough for what? NOT ENOUGH for even a 200-point average score increase on the NEW SAT, much less 300. Your hours are insufficient by a large margin, which means your instructors could not compensate regardless of how incredible 100% of your instructors might be (even though a single Kaplan or Princeton Review center would have around 5 out of 40 who are barely just decent). Then, is your private tutoring program that good? No matter how good, it can NOT compensate for only 22.5 instructional hours. Plus, I guarantee you that your private tutoring program isn't close to the private tutoring system I created for Odyssey Test Prep. Finally, even if your old SAT private program had 22.5 instructional hours, it would not be enough to attain an average score increase of 200 points on the OLD test.

 

It seems you should have spent more time dissecting the SAT and less time on marketing. This industry needs more scholars and SAT experts and fewer business people. I have cited some strong evidence that clearly indicates, at least for me, that your claims are preposterous.

 

I have a suggestion, an idea. Why don't you send me and/or Erin (the owner of Test Magic who runs this forum) the phone numbers for every single student of yours who took the March 12 SAT and let us collect the data for you? Would you be willing to do this?

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As for Miller's law, it would be true if we were to use our method as you dictate. Our students never "finally read the passage." Their memories never have to "compete" with the "gist of 3 questions," and you don't have to be an exceptional reader. Just a smart one.

 

Our system makes the use of memory a non-factor. Neuroscience being 2/3rds of your education, you should know that one of the quickest ways to fatigue your brain is to repeatedly access short term memory while confronted with constantly changing stimuli, especially under pressure of immediate performance (the SAT!)

 

If you are asked for a synonym in line 15, you don't even have to read line 15. Just pick the synonym! One of the things we teach is to believe in the education you have already been given. One of the tricks the SAT pulls is to make students waste time and mental energy going back and forth between passage and question on a simple synonym replacement second-guessing themselves. Our students believe in themselves and trust their educations. We also teach them some of the same things you do; that is, quick answer elimination, correct guessing technique, and most importantly, VOCABULARY.

 

By skimming the passage first, and then following our methods through to completion, our students can raise their reading score considerably beyond a 600. Why would we adopt a method with a cap on the success rate?

 

I would argue that your method needlessly teeters back and forth between passage and question and makes the student waste time.

 

Again, as I mentioned in the post before, you should have spent more time researching the NEW SAT as well as the HUMAN BRAIN. You are arguing a position that simply does NOT fit the test or the human brain.

 

Your reading comp method already tells me that you do not understand the NEW SAT. Your method, which is the same method used by Princeton Review and one that I'm very very familiar with utilizing as well as it can be utilized, is a compromise, and that is a fact that is inarguable. The only people who would argue it are people who do not sufficiently understand the new SAT.

 

This is the second time you've mentioned vocab-in-context questions, which mystifies me. Why are you so focused on that question type? Please go count the number of vocab-in-context questions on the new SAT. There are only 3 to 5 of them out of 48 reading comp questions! As a test-taker, I would not be disproportionately concerned about those questions. I'd be more concerned about the detail and inference questions, some of which are viciously difficult when combined with a difficult passage. Many of these detail and inference questions are specific yet require one to consider the overall context of the paragraph and/or the overall passage. If you skim or read in bits and pieces, you will not be able to acquire the big picture for the difficult passages, which is a majority. You will not be able to connect the paragraphs and the ideas in the paragraphs cohesively.

 

You clearly do not understand how the human memory system works. Aside from the intricacies of differentiating short-term memory (STM) from long-term memory (LTM), trust me when I say that the method of creating a good roadmap UP FRONT while reading the passage has more to do with LTM than STM and therefore is not held in a choke-hold by Miller's Law. A simple example that should convince you is the observation that people can go into a 2-hour movie and come out with "incredible" memory for details. This is because, if you understand how the memory system works, it's really not that incredible. Even if you didn't understand human memory, you could observe the phenomenon (everyone reading this post can relate, right?), study it by breaking it down, and design a method that takes advantage of the same process. This is what I have done. Even someone without knowledge of human memory could do it. This is applied science. Applying science to dispel myths (because we all have them) and devising ways to reach any number of goals, in this case mastering the SAT. This is what science can do for human beings. Yet your lack of science and lack of understanding for the SAT and human brain have caused you to propagate myth.

 

If you had simply agreed that skimming the passage is not an ideal method, but it could be an EASY method for the average student to make ADEQUATE gains, then that would have been ok. BUT you came back and tried to argue that skimming is an ideal method, which a person educated on the new SAT simply can not make.

 

Focusing on making a strong roadmap up front is not as easy in the BEGINNING of training. That's why you work on it. When you do, what happens is your brain builds circuits that are automatic at a superordinate or more general level. One example is when one learns how to drive stick shift. In the beginning, it's impossible because there are literally hundreds of brain processes going on simultaneously. Yet just about everybody's brain eventually internalizes, masters, and unconsciously automates those hundreds of processes. A second example is how anyone can master the logic games on LSAT and the old GRE by mapping out the characters/elements and the detail rules. These games were initially devised to tax the human brain in terms of Miller's Law (LSAT games will go up to 13 characters). Years ago it was thought that logic games were a purer measure of the construct "g" or general innate intelligence (whatever that was) than math and verbal/critical reading because they were so detail intensive (in a Miller's Law sort of way) that people could not learn general patterns OR retain details from them. This was precisely the reason they were included in some graduate admissions tests. One could do the SAME logic game and its questions a second time immediately after doing them the first time and still not remember a single answer or answer choice for that matter. We now understand that although our brains can not retain the details, we can learn and retain a general process of mapping the characters and the rules that stays away from Miller's Law and can be utilized for virtually any kind of logic game. And this is what is behind just about every LSAT program whether or not they know it (since most test prep companies just absorb the methods from other companies and create their own amalgam). Everyone is able to QUICKLY use a general process of mapping to master logic games...IF you practice.

 

Now take the examples I've given and connect them to reading comp. It's very very similar as far as what is going on in the brain. In fact, I can make a scientifically supported statement that ALL fluent readers unconsciously and automatically utilize roadmapping UP FRONT WHILE THEY READ. Some of these readers will even deny making a roadmap, which is a product of their being so automatic with the process that it's unconscious AND not being students of the brain. Many of these people actually think they were born with high verbal intelligence and/or incredible memories! They do not understand that there was a long path to get to the way they have come to read in the present AND the way they now read just happens to be consistent with how the memory system is designed to work.

 

PLEASE stop making claims that are untrue. First, please stop pushing the skim method as an ideal method. It is not. Second, please stop manipulating the public with claims of a 300-point average increase, which is totally bogus on a number of levels that I have outlined in a post above. Your first fault is merely the result of lack of research and knowledge. Your second fault is much much more egregious, as you know without any doubt, and therefore unacceptable.

 

This forum is for helping each other, not for manipulative self-promotion.

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Eureka,

 

What in the world you recommended students to jeopardize their academic future by skimming the passages?

 

Even though some students understood every word in the passage, they might not get a perfect score. If they just skimmed the passage, they might be dead!:eek:

 

GMAT or SAT reading required analytical skill or analytical thinking. Passing or skipping some words may lead to a score of zero or minus. One of my classmates was very sure on one passage and hoped to get a perfect score. Once he requested for answer sheet score from ETS, he found out that he got zero on that passage.(all were wrong.)

 

Reading the whole passage is important. One word may shows connotation of the whole context.

 

The strategies of skimming the passages may be applied for TOEFL but not SAT.

However, I found that your message seemed to be too commercial. Please do not mislead all students.

 

Knok

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I skimmed the passages... which is what TPR told us to do... but whatever... I only did it because I was lazy and didn't want to read it all... so I just went and searched for what I needed to know... and I didn't do too bad... 690... okay... yeah, that's kind of bad... 8 wrong... I think the long passages and sentence completions screwed me over... why can't they ever put interesting passages in the SAT?... maybe more people will look forward to the test then... (haha, yeah, right... SAT fun?...)

 

btw, I'm not sure where I stand on the whole skimming the passages thing because you miss a lot of key info... but I just go to the questions and look for the answer... not sure how great that strategy is, but oh well

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shuttupjessmah, are you who I think you are?? :whistle: :D If so, nice to see you here. :)

 

I should weigh in on this here as well--for the record, I cannot recommend skimming, at least not for the SAT. Knok was right on the money on this--it can work fine for the TOEFL, but not for the SAT, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, etc.

 

And I can imagine it working for a low-scoring SAT test-taker, say somebody who starts off at 4xx or so, has trouble concentrating, really, really hates the SAT, and just needs 5xx for a relatively uncompetitive university.

 

But if your goal is to do your best and get the highest score possible, you simply must read pretty much every single word in the passage and the questions, including the little intro part in italics. Just one word buried somewhere can change the whole tone of the passage. And I would also like to say, and I hope this doesn't irritate people too much, that I do have a great amount of respect for the creators of the SAT (the actual question and content writers). Say what you will about their administrative policies, but their test questions (for the major tests) are quite well done; it is rare to find a single question to fault. And the people who create the test questions are very smart as well; if there were any simple "tricks" in their tests, they have long ridden their tests of them

 

:2cents:

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I should also say that I have not found one reading method that works well for every student; not just for SAT, but for all the other tests I prepped people for as well. I, for example, much prefer the obvious approach--read the entire passage paying close attention to it, going to the questions, and then checking my answers before I go to the next question. This method works for me if I'm able to sustain a good level of concentration while reading the passage. If I'm tired, distracted, or simply unmotivated, I'm just wasting time by doing the reading first. In this case, I might try a slightly lazier, and IMHO less accurate, approach--read the first question that I plan to answer, keep it in mind, then read the passage a bit beyond the point at which I feel confident I can answer the question.

 

You'll see something similar with the math questions--people who have a solid background in math have a definite tendency to want to know how to solve the problem using math, not tricks. They want to know how to set up the equations and how to solve it. People who have less interest are quite content to rely on backsolving, on the old "guess and check" method, or process of elimination. If one method works better than the other for that student, a coach should not, IMHO, impose his views on his student.

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We talk openly about the various methods that are out there. Many students these days are not naive coming in, have heard all kinds of things, and are confused as to which is "better" or "the best." Sometimes students will sit there afraid to mention another method they've heard of or learned, afraid to mention the other company. In our course, we discuss the phenomenon that anything that is unanswered actually stays with us at the unconscious level and weights us down as a negative emotional anchor (e.g., when you see an SAT-type word while reading a magazine or newspaper but are too lazy to check a dictionary asap until you eventually forget the word).

 

So WE INITIATE discussion of various techniques at the beginning of Day 1 on reading comp. We encourage students to bring up techniques they've heard of, then we ask where they've heard of them. Kaplan and Princeton Review will explicitly tell instructors to not mention the names and methods of other companies. We say "don't worry, it's ok to mention the names of other companies." Instead of knocking the other companies, we describe in a watered-down, easy-to-understand way what goes on in the brain (just like I did in a post above). We state explicity that each of the various methods can work effectively but, based on what science knows about the workings of the brain, Odyssey Test Prep has chosen and developed a method of making roadmaps up front. We acknowledge that it can be more difficult in the beginning but if you train, it becomes automatic. We emphasize that it is a complete system of reading better, analyzing question stems, analyzing answer choices, AND researching (after you get to the questions) the passage better. We state that we will push them to master all 4 aspects but eventually they can tailor the 4 aspects to themselves, essentially creating their own personalized method. We tell students that in the end, they can borrow the system in its entirety, modify it, or even reject it. BUT NOT in the beginning of our course. In order to evaluate a method, a beginner on that method must give it an honest go, right?

 

Imagine a student who, at the END, decides he/she would like to transition into the "skim the passage and get to the questions" method or the hybrid method (which goes back and forth from question to passage) or even a combination method. Then that's up to the student. Regardless, we would feel very confident that such students would now be able to employ those methods EVEN MORE EFFECTIVELY because our instruction pushed the envelope of what their brains could process from the passage, even if it's skimmed up front or read intermittently.

 

Thus, our approach to reading comp is more WHOLISTIC, more complete, and more flexible, and in that sense it is more ideal and less of a compromise.

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I skimmed the passages... which is what TPR told us to do... but whatever... I only did it because I was lazy and didn't want to read it all... so I just went and searched for what I needed to know... and I didn't do too bad... 690... okay... yeah, that's kind of bad... 8 wrong... I think the long passages and sentence completions screwed me over... why can't they ever put interesting passages in the SAT?... maybe more people will look forward to the test then... (haha, yeah, right... SAT fun?...)

 

btw, I'm not sure where I stand on the whole skimming the passages thing because you miss a lot of key info... but I just go to the questions and look for the answer... not sure how great that strategy is, but oh well

 

Hey, you could be a great spokesperson for the skim method!

 

No but seriously, you didn't really skim SKIM, right? I suspect you're a good reader so when you say skim, you probably mean you read fast. LOL.

 

Princeton Review (and Eureka) should elaborate on the term "skim." They don't really mean skim SKIM, which is a guaranteed formula for disaster. They mean read fast and don't worry about the details. Kaplan wants you to read up front BUT don't worry about the details, which could actually be the same method as the skim method!

 

Erin's approach is fundamentally different from the above because he mentioned the importance of reading every word CAREFULLY. I agree completely. We have brain game and memory techniques that will allow you to process details quickly and automatically while retaining or even improving reading speed.

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Good question. Erin might be better to answer that. I don't know the ACT that well.

 

But I can say something in general. You know your reading speed isn't good enough. Are the top ACT scorers skimming or reading every word (and actually finishing on time)? I would imagine the latter.

 

Could it just mean that you need to TRAIN to improve your reading speed? I had to do this for both SAT and GRE, because I'm a slow reader to this day. So I trained coming up to my test and improved my reading speed to finish on time.

 

Obviously, if you are out of time for training, don't have the time in your schedule, or are simply not willing to put in the time, then you may have no choice but to skim.

 

You'll have to work it all out.

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haha... my definition of skimming... is more like a glance... reading every few sentences... yes, I know it's bad, but hey, 8 wrong isn't that bad... but I'm not sure if I'd recommend it or not. When I took TPR, I was in the class which "needs help" with Critical Reading... and I found it interesting that my diagnostic score was a 680 and everyone else in the room got in the low 500's or low 600's... so I think they were teaching us things that would work for low scorers?... er... lowER scorers...

 

Do I reccomend skimming (the way I define it)? No, I don't. Why? You miss certain things. But of course, there isn't always time to read everything. Personally, I think everyone's got to find their own way to do things. I have friends who read the entire passage, answer the questions, and get in the 700's... I also have friends who don't even bother reading the passage, go straight to the questions, and get in the 700's... and there are also people who get in the 500's... but to each his/her own.

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