The high school class of 2011 across the United States received the lowest scores on record on the reading portion of the SATs, which may impact them negatively.
Only 43 percent of students scored high enough in the reading portion to be prepared for college, according to the College Board.
Some freshmen said they felt held back in college because of the poor scores they received last year.
Nursing major Amanda Rodriguez was held back from being placed into the normal English class taken by most freshmen.
"It definitely affected me because I would be in English 1201 right now," Rodriguez said. "But instead I am in a writing workshop."
Shana Kerr, also a biology major, said she would have liked to not have taken the reading placement test over the summer, but because of her poor reading SAT score she had to.
Junior peer advisor, Rutesha Patel, said the poor reading scores will definitely affect a freshman negatively.
"The poor scores will show that freshmen lack the skills to succeed in a college level English class," Patel said.Some students said reading comprehension is just a difficult subject matter.
"The SATs were just difficult for me," Rodriguez said.
Kerr agreed the reading portion of the SATs did not come easily for her. "I'm not really that good at reading," Kerr said.
Gonzalez said she didn't focus enough on the reading portion.
"I didn't prepare too much for the reading," Gonzalez said. "I didn't care too much. Math makes more sense."
Patel said the reason freshmen scored poorly on the SAT reading portion could be that they are too used to communicating with friends over text in an unprofessional way.
"I notice when the freshmen write they do so as if they're talking to a friend, rather than how they should write in a college level class," Patel said.
Patel said even in class the students communicate unprofessionally.
"The freshmen talk as if they are talking in a social environment rather than in a college class," Patel said.
Patel said even when her students are emailing her they should be doing so in a professional manner.
Lindsay Rittenhouse can be reached at lindsay.rittenhouse@student.shu.edu.
