PERT Reading

It is generally required for students seeking placement into Florida College System institutions, including entering freshmen and high school students earning college-readiness status. Requirements vary by campus and program, so confirm with the admissions or testing office at the specific college you plan to attend.

Comprehension of passages across three broad skill areas: key ideas and details (main idea, summary, inference, supporting evidence), craft and structure (vocabulary in context, author's purpose, tone, text organization), and integration of knowledge and ideas (comparing texts, evaluating arguments and evidence).

We could not verify the current timing or item count: the official Florida Department of Education PERT pages returned a 404 error at the time this profile was compiled. Check with your testing center for the format in force on your test date rather than relying on secondhand numbers.

Most candidates find it manageable but not trivial. The passages are ordinary adult-level nonfiction and literary excerpts; difficulty comes from inference and author's-purpose items, where two choices both look plausible. Practicing justification of answers, not just selection, is what usually raises scores.

Retake rules are set by the individual institution and were not confirmable from the official source pages. Ask your testing office about waiting periods, permitted attempts, and whether a retake fee applies before you schedule, since policies differ across colleges.

Start with main idea and supporting detail questions, since nearly every other item type depends on getting the passage's central claim right. Then move to vocabulary in context and author's purpose, and finish with paired-passage and argument-evaluation items, which combine the earlier skills.

Answering from personal opinion instead of the passage, choosing a true statement that does not answer the question asked, and rushing the paired passages at the end. Another frequent error is skimming the question stems after reading rather than before, which wastes time re-reading.

Placement results can determine whether you enter college-level coursework or a developmental reading sequence, and some programs have minimum reading requirements. Ask an advisor how your specific score maps to course eligibility at your institution.

Your institution's testing center is the most reliable source. The Florida Department of Education pages historically used for PERT information returned "404 - Page Not Found" during this review, so official figures such as fees, timing, and scoring should be confirmed directly before your test date.