SAT Reading: Our Tips and Tricks

Do the passages you're strong at first

It also helps to know what score you are realistically aiming for. If you are aiming for somewhere around 600 on the SAT Reading, then it is definitely better for you to skip your "weakest" passage and do well on the ones you are better at. If, on the other hand, you are aiming for an 800, then you should still skip, but you have to make sure you leave enough time to come back to them.

Personally, my two weakest passages are literature and history, so I tend to skip those and do the others first (social science, science, etc)

Read the questions before you read the text.

Of course, there are so many discussions around this, but personally I find it helpful to read the questions before reading the accompanying text. It allows you to grasp the key things you need to be watching out for and allows you to skim through the unimportant parts, saving time in the process.

Annotate, annotate, annotate!

The text booklet is yours; take advantage of it!

• Highlight any word-in-context questions
  • "In line 23 the word "happy" most nearly means..."
  • "The author states that 'I was happy' (lines 1-2) to convey that..."
• Highlight key terms, key objects, key figuresSuppose a question asks "The man is eating breakfast because..." and in the passage it says "Yes, he was hungry, but much more importantly, he needed to delay his arrival to the airport to avoid seeing her...". Clearly, the answer to the question is right here! Of course, you can't do this for all problems as it's not easy to memorise all the questions in your short term memory, but these things can really add up and save time.

Read the abstract of the passage

At the beginning of each passage, there is always a short introduction. This can give you vital information like the historical context, the author background, past scientific research, etc.

Below are some examples from the Official SAT Practice Test #1. What do you notice?

In the first one, a history passage, you can immediately know the subject of the speech - "the situation of women in English society". Similarly, in the second, you can tell the subject of the research - "money can't buy love". Last but not least, in the third, you know the setting of the story - where= Japan, when = 1920, who = Chie and her daughter Naomi, members of a noble family.

Strategy for history passages...

For history passages, there are usually 2 passages. Read the first one, then answer the questions for only the first one. Read the second one, then answer the questions for only the second one. Then there are questions about both. If you can, answer them straight away; if you can't (like me in most cases), then re-read both texts and try to compare the two.

Skip the figures!

For science/social science passages, there is usually an accompanying figure, be it a table or a graph. The questions pertaining to the figures are ALWAYS at the end of the section. SKIP the figure on your first perusal of the text, and come back to it once you get to the questions.

These are some of the most useful tips we've gathered. Comment down below your favourite tips and tricks to ace the SAT Reading test!