Reading Guide

From the Massachusetts Department of Education's guide:

DESCRIPTION OF THE READING SUBTEST

The Reading Subtest assesses vocabulary, main idea, writers purpose, relationship of ideas, reasoning, and outlining/summarizing.

The subtest consists of multiple-choice and short-answer items. The multiple-choice items are matched to reading passages of up to 750 words each. The reading passages reflect a variety of subject areas and are similar to reading materials used in college. Responses to the multiple-choice items are scored as correct or incorrect.

The short-answer items ask for a definition of given words. Responses to the short-answer items are scored as correct or incorrect based on the accuracy and sufficiency of the definition provided.

A Seven Step Strategy for the Reading Subtest

1. Answer all questions--questions left unanswered will be scored as incorrect.
2. First Reading--quickly read each passage to get an overall sense of its contents and intent.
3. After your first reading, review the passage's questions and associated answers--this will enable you to establish a context for a second (and much slower) reading of the passage.
4. Second Reading--reread the passage again, only this time much more slowly; identify any key words, phrases, and details that seem to be keyed to specific questions.
5. Return to the questions--answer all questions that you can answer with 80% to 100% confidence; skip any questions that you cannot answer immediately.
6. Third Reading--quickly scan the passage again, this time looking for information associated with any remaining questions.
7. Return to the remaining questions and eliminate any obviously incorrect answers; try to reduce the number of possible answers for each remaining question to two, then make your best informed guess.