SAT Reading Test PR

difference between reading and SAT reading

• your opinion is negligible, only one right answer

no-thinking approach

• do not master subject topics

• accuracy, efficiency are key

• don’t read every word

• passages are there for assistance

POOD approach: reading passage

• look through section

• determine best order to attack passages

• complete in personal order of difficulty

POOD: three tiers of difficulty

• easy: could answer accurately and quickly

  • Answer and move on

• medium: could answer accurately but slowly

  • Skip and come back

• hard: could not answer accurately

  • guess and move on

points of consideration for each passage

• choose most friendly first

• type of passage: genre, format

• topic of passage: blurb at the top

• date of passage: modernity can be more friendly

• type of questions: line references and lead words

line reference question

• asks about a specific point in the text with a given line number

• allows you to find information quickly, more approachable

lead words

• asks about a specific point in the text, without an indicated line number

• can be difficult to fish out information

LOTD

• letter of the day

• pick one letter to answer if you run out of time

Strategies if stuck on a question

• Process of Elimination

• Skip and Return

How to approach a reading passage

• Read the blurb

• Read the questions

• Start with easiest, most specific questions (line references, lead words)

• Mark Answers in the passage

• Finish with the General Questions

• (POE, S&R, LOOD)

Passages: Reading the blurb

• Identify type of passage to know how to read it and how information will be presented

Passages: Reading the questions

• Identify specific vs. general questions

• Find line references and lead words

Passages: attacking very specific questions

• Very specific: line references, quoted lead words

• After identifying specific questions, attack each one in sequential order, as given by the college board

• Helps to create a chronological understanding of the passage, which will later contribute to the comprehension of general questions

Passages: Medium General Questions

• typically no reference, but alludes to a specific portion of the text

• Ex: (what was the effect of…)

• associate key words with the question type and skim the passage to identify which portion of the passage is targeted

• read quickly but carefully to gain a solid understanding of the question

Passages: General Questions

• Using specific cited evidence, try to surmise the general question answers such as the author’s purpose, main idea, etc. prior to checking the answer choices

Passages: How to understand what a question is asking

• Questions are often given as statements, with the answer choices completing the affirmative sentences

• Instead of handling the questions in their given format, try to transform them into What/Why/How interrogative sentences

“What” questions

• search for a specific person/place/thing/idea that answers the question

“Why” Questions

• Search for a general cause of a given effect within the question

“How” Questions

• Describes an event or sequence of events that detail the method or nature in which something was done or occurred

How to identify targetted portions of the text without a line reference or a lead word

• Since specific questions appear in chronological order, the relevant information to answer a given question is likely to fall between the previous and subsequent questions’ relevant information

Once you find the targetted portion of a passage or a line reference/lead word, how much should you read to understand that particular segment?

• Start roughly five lines before a LR/LW and finish roughly five lines after

• If question is medium general, read an approximate 10-12 lines in the general area

Can you read only the sentence that contains the line reference?

• NO

• The five-six previous and subsequent lines likely contain crucial info to answer the question

How to locate window for a medium general (after identifying previous and subsequent windows)

• Look for key words: specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, or proper nouns that were given by the question

Marking Answers in the Text Approach

• Prior to looking at answer choices, mark specific information in the text that could be used to support a potential answer to the given question

• DO NOT paraphrase

• just highlight the information and do not try to understand it beyond what is directly stated

• surmise an answer based on the marked information

• THEN look at the answers and choose the one that

  • is supported by the highlighted evidence

  • roughly corresponds to your conjecture, using POE when necessary

After selecting an answer choice, how can you quickly check the answer?

• Revisit the highlighted information and form a statement in the format, “[Question] + [Answer], because [Specific cited Info]

• If it is logical, the answer is likely correct

POE: “mostly right/slightly wrong”

• Looks almost perfect

• BUT

• one-two word(s) that invalidate the answer choice

POE: “Could be True, but not Supported”

• logically answers the question based on pure common sense, but not directly supported by evidence in the text

POE: “Right Answer, Wrong Question”

• THe statement s true, but it does not directly tackle the objective of the question

POE: Right Words, Wrong Meaning

• Contains key words that were specifically used in the passage

• BUT

• Reverses the meaning of the words as they were used

• OR

• Includes literal interpretations of figurative questions

• etc.

Infer/Imply/Suggest

• Do Not be fooled by the word choice into forming original conclusions

• Still reformat into basic What/Why/How

• cite specific textual evidence

Vocab in Context Approach

• Ignore choices

• Read small window (2-3 lines previous and subsequent)

• Surmise original answer

• Find match

Specific Paired Question Sets + Approach

• Set of 2 questions in which the first asks a specific question, and the following asks for the best evidence to the previous answer

• Approach

  • Using key words, line references, or lead words, use basic approach to answer by finding evidence in the passage that affirms an answer choice

  • If done correctly, your surmised evidence should be an answer in the following question

General Paired Question Set + Approach

• General or medium general question paired with an “evidence to the previous” question

• Parallel POE

Parallel POE

• Parallel Process of Elimination

• Start with the Second Question

• Read the evidence provided by the given line references

• POE the evidence answer choices

• Connect remaining evidence answer choices to their corresponding previous answer choices

• Find the best match

Parallel POE: How to eliminate evidence choices

• if the evidence doesn’t answer the previous question

• OR

• if the evidence doesn’t correspond with an answer choice from the previous question

“in order to” (What, Why, or How?)

• Why

Purpose Question + Approach

• “Why the author…” questions

• Rephrase into “Why” question

• Find 10-line window using key words, line reference, or lead word

• Identify and Highlight evidence in the passage that answers the question

• Match highlighted evidence to answer choice

• Check with “question” + “answer” because “textual evidence” formula

Main Idea Question + Approach

• Central claim questions

• Answer last out of all the given questions on the passage, once you’ve built understanding using specific questions

• Read Answer Choices

• Eliminate any answer choices that:

  • Don’t correlate to the other, specific questions that you’ve already completed

  • Cannot be supported by evidence you found answering the other questions

  • Don’t broaden the scope of the passage to apply to everyday life

• Find the answer that matches central claim criteria

Central Claim Criteria (CCC)

• Pairs well with all other previously-answered specific questions

• Can be supported by evidence in the passage, identified throughout previous questions

• Generally broadens scope of passage to apply to everyday situations

Analyzing Text Structure Questions

• General Questions

• Abstract, Descriptive Answer Choices with multiple parts

• Asks about the structure of the overall text

Multiple parts of Analyzing Text Structure Answer Choices

• Description of structure

• Descriptions of types of information, and how it was presented in the passage

Analyzing Text Structure Questions: Approach

• Answer after specific questions

• Read answer choices

• Break down into bite-sized pieces

  • general structure

  • descriptions of info or claims in the passage

• POE: Eliminate Answers

POE: Analyzing Structure (Bite-Sized pieces)

Eliminate answer choices that contain at least one incorrect bite-sized piece

• Ex.

  • Don’t correspond to the claims of previously-answered specific questions

  • Don’t correspond to the evidence used in previously-answered specific questions

  • Don’t accurately describe the structure of the passage

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