This study attempted to validate both the Fry-Kernel Distance Theory and the De Pierro findings, in determining the suitability of text material for the students to be instructed. First-year community college students were presented with sentences arranged in pairs, each representing two of four prescribed types. Subjects were to select the harder sentence of each pair. Sentence complexity in this study was measured through student judgment. Variables included reading ability, types of sentences, and student judgment. It was concluded that, although subject judgments on individual items may vary within sentence categories, when these were totaled, certain trends emerged: in two of the four types of sentence comparisons, a significant difference in difficulty was reported; for three out of the four hypotheses, good and poor readers did not differ significantly. However, further analysis indicated some tendency on the part of good readers to judge sentences in the direction opposite from that predicted. (HOD)