Sorry, had a knee jerk reaction to Portia's post.
Our DD crashed and burned on her first go at the Explore test - she also did not do very well (relatively speaking) on the reading. One year later (this was her first 'serious' exam.
One year later with the AoPS Pre-Algebra class under her belt and a better idea of time management under times conditions aka exam technique she took it again. She basically maxed out on Science and Maths, her Grammar maxed out but her Reading score was still surprisingly low.
The Science section is also a reading comprehension test so was still a little puzzled until I realized that some of the readings are probably about things that were age/maturity/life experience related and were probably not fully understood - like a fish would have no idea of what snow is.
DD is now doing the Davidson Comp class to ensure that her 'close reading' is also being scrutinized and stretched.
Hope the above is useful to you, OP.
