Click here for video tips on the PSAT's Critical Reading section.
The Critical Reading section accounts for one-third of the total PSAT score. You can earn between 20 and 80 points on this test. The average Critical Reading score is around 46 for sophomores and 48 for juniors.
You will take this test in two 25-minute sections. Each part will include 24 multiple choice questions.
There are approximately 16 sentence completion questions. You'll be presented with sentences that have a word or two missing, and you'll choose the the word combinations which best fit each sentence. Sentence completion measures your vocabulary and grammar, as well as your ability to organize.
The Passage-Based Reading questions test your ability to understand the major points of an excerpt from a story, book or magazine. The excerpts -- or passages -- range from one paragraph to 900 words. There might also be a "paired passage," two related excerpts presented together.
Sentence Completion Strategies
Sentence completions are arranged with the simplest questions first. You may find the first few to be very easy, the middle group to be more challenging and the last completions to be the hardest.
- Read the sentence carefully and think about what it's trying to say.
- Keep an eye out for words like "but", "therefore", "although", and "because".
- Before you look at the possible answers, see if you can guess which words would fit best.
- Then look at the answer choices and select the one that's closest to your prediction.
- If no single answer seems to stand out, eliminate the answers that don't work at all... and choose the best remaining.
Click here for practice sentence completion tests.
Reading Comprehension Strategies
- Read each passage and its introduction carefully. Pay attention to the author's tone: Is it opinion or factual? Humorous or serious? Sarcastic or earnest?
- Think about the theme of the passage: What is the writer trying to tell you?
- Don't focus on details -- you can find them later if you need to.
- Underline sentences you think are important.
- After reading, start with questions that refer to a line number of the passage. Go back and read that line and surrounding sentences, and you should find the answer.
- Be sure to read each question and answer set very carefully.
- Don't pick an answer just because it is factually correct -- make sure your choice answers the question that's being asked.
- When reading paired passages, your answers must apply to both excerpts.
- When you're taking a practice test, try reading the questions first to see if they give you an idea of what to look for in the passage. If this strategy works, use it during the real test.
This video has some great strategies for the PSAT Critical Reading test:
