hi dhruv,

sorry to hear that you’re facing pacing challenges as an international student. that sounds frustrating! the good news is that you are not alone. many international students struggle with sat reading pacing, either because they are non-native english speakers, or because they are not-so-familiar with the sat’s particular north american style of academic reading passage.

without knowing a little more about the exact challenges you’re dealing with, it’s difficult to say *exactly* what you should do. but i can give some general guidance here. 🙂 here on our blog, thomas offers some general thoughts on preparing for the sat as an esl student. you may also benefit form certain strategies that are more common in toefl prep, such as strategies for better pacing and comprehension even when you don’t understand all the words in a passage. (see this magoosh toefl blog article.)

speaking of the words in a passage, international students can often benefit from going through vocabulary word lists, such as rachel’s list of the top 100 “must know” sat words.

another resource i’d recommend is “act reading strategies for slow readers.” because act and sat reading are very similar, this video lesson is applicable to sat reading too!

in general, as an international student, you’re going to want to look closely at a wide variety of strategies, tips and advice for reading in english. kristin’s overview of the best strategies for sat reading is a good place to start. so i also recommend skimming this blog’s archives for both sat reading and act reading.

i hope all of this helps. if you need any specific additional advice, feel free to reply to this comment. 🙂

international students like yourself certainly do face some unique challenges on the sat. this is especially true when it comes to sat reading.

there are a few ways to overcome your anxiety– or at least be a little bit less anxious. the first thing you should do is remind yourself that you don’t need to be a native english speaker in order to do well on the sat. with or without native proficiency, you can take advantage of good multiple choice strategies in sat reading. you can also practice active reading strategies on the sat and follow other best strategies for sat reading comprehension.

these kinds of strategies and approaches can help you understand sat reading passages more quickly and accurately. and they can help you get to the answers faster and get the answers right more often, with our without native-english reading skills. and doing better on the test is the best way to reduce sat reading anxiety!