i really suck in sight-reading
i`ve been learning the violin for `bout 2 yrs. now...
but i really really suck in sight-reading
does anybody out there have any tips on how i can improve ?
i need them so badly..please
thanks

1- You need to follow a long term course by only one instructor.
If you have many instrutors and they each has different course
from one another, you do not have a path to the destination.
If you have only one instructor and she does not have a long term
plan for you, you cannot go far.

2- At a certain point of time in the course, you are able to
play by sight-reading the next piece. I think 2 years are too
long, that may result from the lack of a long term course. I
have a relative who is practicing violin. She learns quickly
new pieces, but she need to listen first. The reason is that
she does not want to follow a course. She wants to perform
after short time practicing, and she jumps to the pieces she
has not been ready for.

Sight reading is the same as actually playing the instrument, but with sight reading you need to also look at
1. What the beat of the music is
2. How fast each note goes
3. After you know how fast the music goes along with each individual note, you then need to see see wether each note is a sharp, flat or natural and basically figure out how the music sounds.

They always taught us STARS:

S: Sharps or flats in key signature
T: Time signature and Tempo
A: Accidentals
R: Rhythm
S: Signs

Hope that helps!

The stars acronym is great for sight-reading. As for how to practice it, try to find a book of orchestral excerpts, any place that sells sheet music should have them, and just sight-read, no real special tricks, just follow stars and do it a lot.