There’s no escaping the dreaded SSR book reading, whether you’re in regular or pre-AP English. SSR stands for sustained silent reading, but in reality no one actually could sustain the reading. Juggle other homework, projects and extracurriculares and you got yourself one busy life to manage.

Some people don’t even finish their SSR book in time, and end up not doing well on the issued test. Other people have to rush to finish last minute, since they couldn’t find the time to read before. Is SSR reading even worth doing? It feels like busy work sometimes, just doing for the sake of completing some meaningless assignment. It feels that all this reading won’t benefit us.

But it actually does. Reading SSR books helps improve vocabulary, and that helps on SAT, ACT and AP multiple choice tests (because we know those are difficult as it is without all those complicated and confusing vocabulary words). By reading advanced, college-level books, we get exposed to big words. We read the words and understand the meaning by reading it in context. This subconsciously adds more complex vocabulary into our memory for using later.

Rushing to finish a book just to be on time for the big comprehension test doesn’t help us absorb the new vocabulary. Instead, it is better for teachers to extend the reading period time to give us the time to leisurely read and actually comprehend and even enjoy the book. That way, we actually grasp a better understanding of the book, increase our vocabularies and do better on all tests.