Hints and Tips
Just some helpful hints from three semesters of observations and several successful test-taking years:
Relax. When people become stressed, they stop being logical and rational and become more emotional, leading to panic and the rush of adrenaline that triggers the "fight or flight" mechanism of human survival.
Read only the questions first, then read the passage. Reading the questions first will give you a good idea of key ideas or terms to look for in the passage.
Pick out key question words which express the essence of the question, then do a "word search" for either those words or synonyms for those words.
Start with the last question and work your way to the first one, either for the entire test OR for each passage. Usually the vocabulary questions are placed at the end of the passage so you will not only have some key terms to help you understand the main idea of the passage, you will also have gained some confidence by answering the vocabulary questions--typically the easiest of the four types of questions--and will carry that positive attitude into the other questions for the passage.
If you are pressed for time, go through and answer all the vocabulary questions you have left, then answer any questions you had passed over but had a pretty good idea which it would be, then attempt to answer any new questions you had not yet reached. The vocabulary questions do not usually take long to answer as they do not require much reading for general meaning.
When you have narrowed down your choices to two, decide which answer has the most proof from the text. Usually the answer that has very similar wording in the passage will be the answer though not always.
Understand that you will not get every question right, but you don't have to get every question right; the Regents Reading Test requires you to get 39 out of 54 questions correct, meaning you can miss 15 questions and still pass. Your score has no bearing on your GPA, so don't try to get a perfect score.
Know and understand some of the types of terms that will creep up on some of the more difficult questions on the test.
Sources of Information for Answering Items
Ø Some answers are found in a single sentence, following the wording in the passage. More often synonyms or paraphrases are used
Ø The answer information is given in two or more sentences(or portions of sentences), requiring you to combine information. The answer might be in two consecutive sentences or different portions of the passage.
Ø Reader’s prior knowledge must be combined with information from the passage, usually when asked about the tone or style of a passage.
Scanning for Information
v First, differentiate between questions that can be answered by scanning and those that can’t.
v Second, identify key words or ideas in the test question and the response options to scan for in the passage.
v Third, read the passage for ideas and information.
Typically the questions follow the order of the passage. In other words, the first question will usually be answered by something in the beginning of the passage while the last non-vocabulary question will usually be answered toward the end of the passage.
Sometimes the passage will contain a thesis statement or general statement of the main point of the passage. Usually such a statement will be supported by one of the following: details, examples, definitions, comparisons/contrasts/analogies, statistics, sensory data, or quotations.