Reading Passages

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Description:

The SAT consists of three Reading Passage sections.

Two short passages (~15 lines each) with two questions each; 2 medium-length passages (~50 lines) with 10 questions
A short, two-passage comparison (~15 lines for each passage) with 4 questions; 1 long passage (~100 lines) with 15 questions
One medium-length double passage (~50 lines for each passage) with 15 questions

Reading Passages ask questions about the specific lines from the passage, the author's tone, and the overall meaning of the passage. One of the passages on each SAT test will be fiction; the rest are nonfiction passages. Many students think the reading sections are the hardest part of the SAT. However, with a little preparation and solid strategy, these sections are very beatable.

Approach:

Adapt Your Reading Strategy to the Test

Reading Passages require a different type of reading than that with which many students are unfamiliar. In school and in life, we are encouraged to interpret literature in our own way, to derive our own meaning from what we read. In English class, it is very common to hear the teacher ask "What did you think of the reading?"
However, the SAT is a standardized test.
There is only one right answer, and it is not open to interpretation.

The strategies below will help you figure out the answer rather than interpret the passage.

1) Read With Intent

Know what you're looking for when you start reading. Ask yourself big questions: what is the author's main point? What is the author's attitude or tone?

2) Manage Your Time

Many students have a hard time finishing the reading sections. Your goal when reading is to find the main idea of the passage, not to understand every tiny detail. Don't read anything two or three times! Don't worry about the details! Keep moving! Also, you need to find a reading style that works well for you.
Here are three possible reading strategies:

1. Read the whole passage.
If you are a pretty comfortable and quick reader, you can read the entire passage. But, remember, don't slow down or go back to read anything twice.
2. Skim the whole passage.
If you have experience skimming and are comfortable doing so, you can skim quickly through the entire piece.
3. Read in the outline style.
1. 1. Read the entire first paragraph.
2. 2. Read the first and last sentences of all of the other paragraphs.
3. 3. Read the entire last paragraph.

The outline reading method works because the above parts of the passage give most of the important information in the passage quickly and do not slow you down with unnecessary details.

3) Work from Specific to General

After you read the passage, answer the questions with specific line number references first. After you're done with the line reference questions, go back and do the questions that don't have line numbers.

4) Read Around the Line Reference

Be sure to read three or four lines before and after the line reference. For example, if the question refers to line 15, start reading at line 10 or 11 and read all the way through line 19 or 20.

5) Find the Proof

There must be proof for the right answer. In contrast to what we often do in English class, you cannot interpret the material in the a reading passage. You must search the passage and find solid evidence for every one of your answers. Specific answers will only be right if there is direct support for them.

6) Avoid Extreme Language

On the reading sections, most correct answers feature moderate, wishy-washy language. Avoid extremely positive or extremely negative language and words like "all", "always", "never", and "none." Also, very opinionated statements are wrong more often than more middle-of-the-road ideas.

7) Five Steps to Successful Reading Comprehension Questions

Read the Question.
Go back to the passage and find the proof you need.
Make up your own answer. Don't look at the provided answers before you do this.
Eliminate three answers that don't work.
Choose the best answer.

8) Short Passages

Short Passages are a couple of paragraphs long.
Read the questions first. Then, read the entire passage and answer the questions. Make sure that your answers are supported by proof from the passage.

9) Long Passages

Long passages are a half page to a full page in length.
Read the passage in your preferred style. Then, answer the questions from specific to general.

10) Dual Passages

Dual Passages present two passages next to each other, Passage 1 and Passage 2. These sections can be made up of either short or long passages.
For short dual passages, read both passages first and then answer the questions.
For long dual passages, read Passage 1 and do the questions that only ask about it. Then read passage two and answer any questions about it. Save the questions that ask about both passages for the end.

11) Types of Passage-Based Reading Questions

1. Line Reference
Do these questions first. You must look up the PROOF on Line Reference questions. Start reading three or four lines before the reference and read through three to four lines after the reference. The right answers to these questions must have evidence to specifically support the answer. If the answer includes an idea that is not specifically mentioned in the passage, it is probably wrong.

2. Big Picture
Do these questions after you finish the line reference questions. These questions will ask about the overall idea of the passage. Your answers to the Line Reference questions should add up to prove the answer to the Big Picture questions.

3. Specific Questions
These questions refer to certain parts of the text even though they do not have line number references. Look back to the specific sentence or paragraph mentioned in the question.

4. Vocab-in-Context
Treat these questions like Sentence Completion questions. Make up your own definition for the word in question before looking at the answers provided. For questions that ask about easy words, the right answer will usually not be the "normal" definition of the word!

5. Tone
Tone questions are a lot like Big Picture questions. The right answer will be a general concept that describes the author's attitude in passage.

6. Technique
These questions ask about the author's writing style. Ask yourself how and why the author chose to write the passage in the exact way that it appears.

7. Two Passage Comparisons
These questions will ask you to compare the ideas from Passage 1 with those from Passage 2. The answer to comparison questions will usually involve the main ideas from these passages rather than specific details.

8. Inference / Suggestion
These questions ask what the author suggests or implies. Even though they seem open to interpretation, they aren't. You still must find proof for the right answer to these questions.

9. Assumptions
Assumption questions ask what the author must believe to be true in order to write the things she does. The right answer to an assumption question describes an idea that is necessary for the author to believe her own statements in the passage.
- Let's say an author states the following in a short passage: "Very little is known about the true style of Smith's music because, although there are many surviving pages of Smith's sheet music, we have no recordings of his work."
- An important assumption in the above sentence is that recordings of music help us to understand the music's true style. The author's statement can only be true is this assumption is true.

10. Hypotheticals
These questions ask you to comment on a situation that is not specifically discussed in the passage. This situation will relate the author's main idea in the passage.
- For example, let's say the author of a passage claims that "recent college graduates are always better job candidates than people without college degrees." Keeping this in mind, try the following question:
Which of the following hypothetical job applicants would the author believe to be most qualified for a job at his clothing store?
1. a recent high school graduate
2. a young woman who reads many books about clothing
3. the middle-aged former owner of a clothing store
4. a recent college graduate who studied Economics
5. a teenage fashion model
- Answer D) is the only one that matches the author's idea that "recent college graduates are always better job candidates than people without college degrees," and is therefore the right answer.
The right answer to Inference/Suggestion, Assumption, and Hypothetical questions will always agree with the main idea of the passage!