The Single Most Effective Strategy to Use on Standardized Reading Tests

Most standardized reading tests – and many classroom reading tests as well – require students to read a story, poem, or article, and then answer questions on it. 

Based on 28 years of teaching English and Reading, my conclusion is that the single most effective thing that students need to do is to read the story or article first before going to the questions.

This sounds very obvious, and I know many adults that read this post might say, “Really?? Duh!” I assure you, though, that many, many kids go straight to the questions first, and their parents would probably be shocked to know it.

Their intention is to look at a question first and then skim through the story to find the answer.  Doubtless they think this will save them time and be just as effective.

In fact, it isn’t effective at all. Students who skip reading the passage first almost invariably score lower.  Yet many keep doing it.

As a teacher, I myself have seen untold numbers of students do this, and often I can’t tell them not to do it because it is a state-testing setting and I’m not allowed to give any advice or suggestions.

On my own class tests, I definitely did address it.  We had a lesson on it, and many reminders.  Sometimes I just gave students the story first to read before even giving them the questions.

Without fail, every student I persuaded (or pushed!) into reading the passage first saw a dramatic increase in their testing scores.

The reason that kids need to read the story first is that there are almost always some questions that require a full and complete knowledge of the article or story. 

They need to know the author’s purpose, the point of view, and the mood and tone of the passage.  That all requires the full story.  Of course, even after reading, there will still be some questions that require the tester to look back at the story for specific evidence.  That’s just how testing goes. 

Education literature is full of testing strategies – previewing, highlighting, underlining, summarizing, etc. etc.  All of these strategies pale in comparison to this simple one.  Read the passage first.