SAT READING TIPS
What SAT Reading tips do you need to gain a perfect score at the SAT Reading section?
This question is commonly posed on us.
The SAT’s first section is the reading test. The time allotted for this section is just over an hour, and it consists of 52 questions and 5 passages.
For many reasons, this is a challenging section, but the good news is that students who use the right strategies and prepare appropriately can achieve a perfect SAT Reading score.
We provide , expert SAT reading tips in this article to help you succeed in this section.
Many students preparing for the SAT believe that the reading portion of the test consists solely of passages that examinees must read and then respond to.
That can only be said in part.
The Evidence-Based Reading section is a little more complicated than that, in actuality. For example, it has a variety of reading passages, a strict time limit, and challenging questions.
To achieve a perfect SAT Reading score, you must first fully comprehend how this section is structured in terms of the following:
The first section on the SAT schedule is the Reading section.
The structure of the SAT Reading section is as follows:
History, social science, or natural science will always contain dual passages, which are passages that combine two condensed excerpts from distinct works; literary narrative will never.
It’s also important to keep in mind that not all of these passages will be contemporary, or recently written. There will be at least one “older” passage, like:
Your combined SAT Writing & Language and Reading scores yield a verbal score range of 400–800.
Your SAT Reading score is determined separately and is based on a 200–400 point scale. In essence, the College Board converts your raw SAT Reading score—the number of questions you correctly answer—into a scaled score between 200 and 400.
Every SAT is unique, so this conversion process is different for each test. However, the correlation between raw and scaled scores can be approximated.
For instance, we can infer that students must correctly answer X questions on the SAT Reading section in order to receive a “perfect” score based on our analysis of the raw score conversion tables for the College Board’s officially released SAT practice tests.
That’s right, you don’t need to correctly answer each and every question to ace the SAT Reading section.
This has to do with the “equating process” used by the College Board to turn raw scores into scaled scores based on how difficult the exam was.
Only the SAT Reading section excludes the need for outside subject matter knowledge. The news is both good and bad.
The good news is that you don’t need to commit any author, text, or date information to memory for this section. You don’t even need to focus on learning a ton of vocabulary.
The bad news is that this section requires you to learn and use strategy. This portion of the test is unfamiliar to many students. Students aren’t assessed on their ability to take tests strategically in a typical high school English class.
The good news in that, however, is that there are numerous tried and true methods for doing well on the SAT Reading, many of which we cover in this post.
Furthermore, it’s a warning sign that you’re headed in the wrong direction if you find yourself using outside information to answer a SAT Reading question. You should only rely on the passage for all of your information.
We advise you to read through these additional 5 SAT Reading-related facts before continuing.
If you haven’t already, it’s critical to take an SAT practice test before you begin studying.
The most accurate way to determine where you stand on the SAT Reading is to take an official practice test in test-like circumstances.
A diagnostic score report can be extremely instructive regarding the following:
After finishing your initial SAT practice exam, reflect on the following:
By responding to these questions, you can set objectives for your SAT Reading preparation. They can also be useful for identifying the areas of this section where you do well.
Some students believe they can increase their SAT score by studying for it. Sadly, this is not a reliable method for getting an Perfect score on any SAT section.
Prep for the SAT requires time. We advise students to dedicate at least three months—and commonly much longer time —to study for this test.
This is crucial for the SAT Reading section in particular because it demands for a lot of planning and preparation. SAT goal-setting is covered in greater detail in this post.
We also want to emphasize that, unless you are already very close to this score, setting your target score as a perfect 400 right away may not be realistic. Set attainable objectives that will help you progress toward the ideal score over time.
It can be helpful to think in terms of the number of questions answered correctly when setting these goals (as opposed to the scaled score itself).
A reasonable objective, for instance, would be to get 40 questions right on the following section if you get 35 questions right on your first SAT Reading section (then 45, 50, etc.). Consider increasing your raw score (the number of questions you correctly answer), as this will increase your scaled score.
The SAT Reading section is intentionally difficult according to the test-makers. They want students to choose the wrong course of action and waste their time. They want students to provide predictable responses to questions.
Because of this, it’s crucial to read strategically on the SAT. Be aware of how the SAT is trying to trick you; the more you are able to foresee these traps, the more likely it is that you won’t fall for them.
Let me give you one example.
On the SAT Reading section, the literary narrative passage is always the first passage. This passage seems simple enough at first. Fiction? Characters? Dialogue? Cool!
On closer inspection, however, the questions that go along with this passage are time-consuming and detail-oriented. Particularly if the passage is from an older literary work like Pride and Prejudice, many students who start with it end up wasting a lot of time.
The test-makers do this for a reason, as you might have guessed. In order to give you little time to read the others, they want you to waste time on this first passage. The test-taker who is to be expected will start with this passage.
The observant test-taker won’t do that.
The SAT does not penalize incorrect answers. This indicates that students do not lose points for giving the wrong answer to a question.
Simply put, they do not receive any points.
Therefore, there is no harm in speculating! Never leave any questions on the SAT Reading blank.
On each section of the SAT, every question is worth the same number of points. An easy SAT Reading question and a hard one have the same number of points.
Organize your priorities according to what is simpler for you in terms of:
Start with passages related to science, for instance, if your accuracy on questions related to those passages on the SAT Reading section is consistently high. Do the Words in Context questions first for each passage if you consistently get them right.
Save the more difficult passages and questions for the end—or leave them open to guessing. starting with your SAT strengths The most reliable way to help you get closer to a high score is to read.
In keeping with the previous tip, it’s critical to understand the various SAT Reading question types you’ll encounter.
Your ability to speak fluently will help you identify your strengths and play to them. It can also give you hints about how predictable the SAT Reading section is. After all, the questions will always be of the same nature.
Additionally, each question type will be predictable in its own way, particularly in terms of incorrect response options.
The following are the kinds of questions you can anticipate seeing on the SAT Reading:
As in the following example from the College Board’s Official SAT Practice Test #1, these questions ask students to select a word or idea that is similar in meaning to a word or idea used in the passage.
These ask students to select a line reference in the passage that best supports their answer to the previous question. Students can expect to encounter 8-10 of these on SAT Reading.
Function or Purpose questions are interested in a student’s knowledge of the purpose of a part of the passage, whether that’s a line, word, paragraph, idea, or passage as a whole.
All of these questions concern the central ideas of entire passages, groups of lines, or entire paragraphs.
Examiners are questioned about specific details in the passage in detail or line reference questions, which frequently include a line reference. These frequently center around character analysis of the literary narrative passage.
A logical conclusion that can be drawn from the evidence presented is known as an inference. On SAT Reading Inference questions, students must display a logical conclusion based on a particular passage passage.
Students are always surprised by this kind of question. Why do graphs and charts appear on the verbal SAT Reading section? A good query! All of this is done as part of the SAT’s effort to gauge a student’s capacity for synthesizing a wide range of information.
Fortunately, most of these questions aren’t too challenging. Some of the questions don’t even require reading the passage. Others rely on having a solid grasp of the passage’s main idea (s).
One of the ways to improve your score in SAT in general, is to seek proffesional assistance from an experienced SAT tutor or from a well-established educational institute. We at Apostrophe Educational Center will help to not only pass the SAT exam, but also to get a high score.
A program that covers all the necessary SAT subjects to help you get the highest score in the SAT exam. Through the program, your skills in mathematics and English will be enhanced through using articles, grammar, and vocabulary lessons as well as Mathematical problems. In addition, specific strategies are taught to help you to use your strengths in the test. Students are also trained on how to use their time wisely and increase their practice in order to build confidence before taking the real exam
For more information regarding the course, please do not hesitate to visit our website OR contact our representatives using the link below.
As an SAT Examinee, you must have knowledge about SAT Exam dates, so you can plan your schedule based on the date you intend to set for the SAT exam. Planning will help in managing time for studying and preparing properly for the SAT Exam. Down below is a link that shows the SAT Exam Dates for the Acadmic year of 2022/2023.