SAT Critical Reading

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SAT Critical Reading

• Reading Passages

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3 Types of Reading Passage Questions

• Long reading passage
• Short reading passage (2 or 3 paragraphs)
• Paired reading passages (2 short or long
  passages, usually presenting different views on
  the same topic)
• Passages can be nonfiction or fiction
• Each passage has an "introductory" sentence above
  it that explains the context of the piece. Don't
  skip over thisit can be very helpful!
• Questions are NEVER based on outside knowledge
  you are supposed to answer the questions only
  from what is given in the passages

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Time

• Generally, you should spend about a minute for
  each question in a passage. So if a short passage
  has 4 questions, you shouldn't spend more than 4
  minutes on the whole thing
• If a long passage has 7 questions, you should
  expect to spend about 8 or 9 minutes to get
  through with it

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About Passages

• Unlike the other parts of the test, Reading
  Passages are NOT arranged in order of difficulty
  like the rest of the SAT.
• Instead, they are arranged by the order they are
  answered in the passage.

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Don't Jump From Passage to Passage

• A section will contain several passages. Don't
  read one, decide you don't like it, read another,
  and another, etc. If you do this, you will spend
  too much time reading and not enough time
  actually answering the questions

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General Tip for All Question Types

• Whenever you are reading for the first time, it
  might be a good idea to quickly summarize each
  paragraph for yourself and maybe make a very
  brief note
• Then, when you are at a question that has you
  look back to a particular section of the passage,
  eliminate any answers that don't fit in with your
  summary

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Approaches to Short and Long Reading Passages

• Skim through the entire passage (read quickly,
  underlining the main points and getting the big
  picture) before going to the questions
• Read the first few paragraphs, answer the first
  few questions (skipping "big picture" questions
  until the end), and continue jumping back and
  forth
• If the passage is very long or on a topic you
  don't understand at all, read through the
  questions first and find the "words in context"
  type questions and other questions that don't
  require you to understand the entire passage

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Approaches to Paired Reading Passages

• Read one passage first, then answer all the
  questions dealing only with that passage
• Answer the questions comparing the two passages
  when you get all the other questions finished

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Topic and Main Idea

• topic what is the passage about?
• main idea the central idea in the passage, which
  can be
• an answer to a question in a analysis
• a thesis statement in an argument
• a conflict that the character deals with or
  overcomes in a narrative
• Answer main idea or summary questions last.
  Eliminate answers that are either too broad, too
  general, or too narrow. Also eliminate answers
  that are either not supported or contradict what
  is said in the passage
• secondary idea the main idea of an individual
  paragraph of the passage, as opposed to the whole
  thing. They give you the lines to look at for
  these type of questions, read the line above and
  below it, summarize, then look at the answer
  choices after you've made your own summary first

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true but wrong

• Occasionally, answer choices will be both true
  and wrong. That is, they may be statements that
  are true, but they are not the best answer to
  whatever the question is.
• In "vocabulary in context" type questions, a word
  may have several definitions, and more than one
  of them might appear as answer choices. You are
  trying to pick the one that best fits the word as
  it is used in the passage, so be careful not just
  to pick the one you know matches the word.

11
"According to the passage"

• If a question says "according to the author" or
  "according to the passage," you must answer the
  question based on what the author has stated,
  even if you disagree with what the author has
  said.
• These questions are testing your ability to
  understand what a writer has written and what
  they mean. It is not meant to test what you
  already know or believe.
• The correct answer to these type of questions
  will be explicitly backed up by a statement in
  the passage. If you have time, try to find it.

12
Implies, Infers, and Suggests

• If the question says "The author implies" or "It
  can be inferred" or "The author suggests" or
  anything like this, the answer will not be
  explicitly stated in the article.
• Again, be careful to answer based on what the
  passage says, and not based on your prior
  knowledge or beliefs.
• Try to find one or two places in the article
  where that help suggest the answer you choose

13
Recognizing Rhetorical Devices

• In fiction passages, you might have to identify
  and understand the use of various rhetorical
  devices
• parallelism (multiple sentences have the same
  structure)
• hyperbole (exaggeration)
• repetition
• imagery
• figurative language
• rhetorical questions
• idioms (sayings that dont make sense if you look
  at the words individually, or that are unique to
  a region, dialect, or situationIll follow
  suit, The government keeps tabs on us.)
• irony (difference between what might be expected
  and what actually occurs)