A secret strategy to increase your SAT Critical Reading score

We don’t pay attention to boring things. I know this isn’t earth shattering information. 🙂

However, I’ve got a twist on it that you can use to increase your critical reading score.

John Medina, author of the brilliant book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, lists 12 key ideas for learning by working with how your brain (and body) naturally learn.

One of his findings is that we don’t pay attention to boring things. But the corollary is that we do pay attention to exciting things.

 “Emotional arousal helps the brain learn.”

John Medina

Aha! You can turn this to your advantage while working on the critical reading passages on the SAT.

If you read the passages as if they are fascinating and you are so excited to be reading them, your brain will wake up and pay attention and it will be easier to absorb the information.

My students usually roll their eyes when I tell them about this strategy. But once they use it, they are amazed at how much easier the critical reading sections are.