When it comes to SAT and ACT reading, I'm often asked the same question:

"Sure, you have tips and tricks for the tests themselves - but how do I improve my child's overall reading skills in preparation for your tutoring?"

In other words, parents recognize the value of proper testing strategy, but they also understand that students who are "good readers" will always do better on these tests than students who aren't.

While the SAT and ACT aren't intelligence tests, it would be ridiculous to say that they don't reward students with better mathematical and verbal processing abilities.  Think of these tests like basketball: anyone can be good, but it still helps to be tall.

So how do you make your child "taller?"  How do you improve his/her reading comprehension abilities before he/she ever steps into the testing center?  While the best answer would be, "a lifetime devotion to developing your child's reading ability and love of learning," there are four things parents can start doing immediately that'll have a large impact:

1. Your child needs to read challenging material every single day.  I had a conversation yesterday that went something like this:

If you want high SAT and ACT scores, you need to prepare.  While the material within might be familiar, the styles and formats of these exams are different from anything you're used to - this is where the myth of the "bad tester" comes into play: students who do very well in algebra class bomb the SAT, and think it's because they're simply "not good at testing."

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.  The reality is simple: these tests present material in their own "language" - if you want to get high scores, you need to learn how to speak it.  Most students and parents assume that, because they have high grades in math and English, these grades will translate into high test scores.  They're shocked when this isn't the case, but they shouldn't be - the SAT is far from a simple math test.  It combines esoteric wording, material from multiple mathematical disciplines, logical reasoning, and time pressure to create an entirely new testing experience.

If you want to get good SAT and ACT scores, you need to prepare for the SAT and ACT - NOT for the isolated material that's tested by these exams.

In other words: it doesn't matter how good your math, vocabulary, reading, and grammar skills are if you've never applied them to the SAT / ACT.

A good analogy: a man spends years and years studying Russian vocabulary words in school.  Every day, he learns a few more, and every week he's tested on their meaning.  He's a straight A+ Russian student.  Then, one day, he's flown to Russia and asked to speak to a bunch of Russians in their native tongue...and what happens?  He'll have no idea how to do it.  Sure, he might have all the vocab words down, but he doesn't have the grammar, the ear for the language, the rapidity of comprehension, the idioms...the list goes on.  And so, even though this student has the material mastered, he still can't speak Russian.

Does this mean the student is "bad at Russian?"  No.  Does this mean the student "just can't do Russian?"  No.  It means that he has never spoken Russian before, so OF COURSE he isn't good at speaking it AT THAT MOMENT!

If you want high SAT / ACT scores, you can't just know the material - you need to be good at taking these tests.  And these tests are unlike anything that you're probably used to.  While tutoring and self-study programs are both good options, classroom courses are the absolute worst way to prepare for the SAT, the ACT, and any other standardized test.  

Why?

Classroom SAT and ACT courses replicate the EXACT errors in instruction that prevent students from getting good test scores in the first place!