This paper reports the results of a study in which interviews were conducted with each of 35 sixth graders who made errors that might have been due to reading on the word problem portion of the Metropolitan Achievement Test. To discover evidence of poor reading affecting word problem success, the investigators asked each child to read aloud those problems answered incorrectly in which reading might have contributed to the error that was made. Children were asked to explain the situation in the problem, to identify the question being asked, and to tell how the problem should be worked. Findings showed that although many children did not know how to do the work, they could read and interpret the problems. Finally, audio reading times were measured to discover evidence that slow reading caused failure; little such evidence was found. (DT)