Chapter 2: Is it Relevant? Adding, Deleting & Revising

In the New SAT, you can see questions that ask you to add, delete, or revise information. While taking the test, you can expect to experience around 12 of these types of questions per exam, or three per passage. These types of questions can be rephrased in many ways, but they all essentially test the same thing: whether information is relevant or irrelevant to the main topic of the passage/paragraph.

Most questions will therefore require you consider the context of the surrounding sentence and paragraphs. There are the three specific steps that you should follow to answer these questions.

1. Reread the paragraph.
2. Briefly restate the topic in your own words
3. Check each answer choice against that topic.

When a question asks you to take the entire passage into account, you do not need to spend time reread the entire passage. Instead, all you need to do its focus on a couple of key places: 1) the beginning of the passage, where the main idea or theme is most likely to be presented; 2) the surrounding sentences

• It is important that you go through these steps on your own before you look at the answers. Otherwise, you are more likely to be distracted by plausible-sounding choices that don’t actually answer the question.
• You don’t need to provide detailed answers. Just take a few moments to get a general idea of the paragraph’s focus and determine what sort of information the correct answer should contain.
• Some of these types of questions will ask you to identify the information the best begins or concluded a given paragraph. Although these questions ask you about different parts of the paragraph, they are both testing whether you understand the topic and main idea
• The general purpose of both the topic sentence and the concluding sentence is to present or reinforce the main idea of the passage/paragraph.
• The information in the middle is what you need to focus on
• Remember that also that topic sentences and concluding sentences tend to contain main ideas. As a result, answers that include specific details are less likely to be correct.

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Examples

Which of the following sentences is most relevant to the passage?

a. The author's favorite color is blue.

b. The main character in the story has a pet dog.

c. The article discusses the history of the Great Wall of China.

d. The writer often goes to the gym in the morning.

Which of the following sentences should be deleted from the passage?

a. The restaurant had a wide variety of menu options.

b. The main character in the story was tall and handsome.

c. The author was born in a small town in the Midwest.

d. The article was written by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist.

Which of the following sentences should be revised to make it more clear and concise?

a. The young boy, who was wearing a red shirt, walked down the street.

b. The restaurant, which had a lot of customers, was very busy.

c. The scientist, who had been working on the project for many years, finally made a breakthrough.

d. The book, which was very long and complicated, was difficult to read.

This is how some of the types of questions will look on the exam. In order to do well on these types of questions, it's important to carefully read the passage and to pay attention to the details and information presented. Look for clues and keywords that will help you identify relevant information, and use your knowledge of grammar and sentence structure to revise or edit sentences as needed. With practice and careful attention to detail, you can improve your ability to tackle these types of SAT problems.

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