Critical Reading has three components: Sentence Completion, Short Passages, and Long Passages For each component, using different strategy. SAT Critical Reading Strategies: Sentence Completion
Proposed Steps: 1. Cover the answers (so you don't get misled by wrong ones). 2. Underline the clues (context clues) and circle the key words (similarity, contrast, cause and effect, such asalthough, however, like etc.) Ex: Although he studied very hard for his test, Joe got a _________ score. 3. Make up your own answer for the blank(s). · This should be a word or phrase; simple is fine,· If you can't think of a word or phrase, at least get an idea of whether it should be positive, negative, or neutral.· For double-blank questions, tackle them separately. If you can't think of words, at least determine the relationship between the blanks. For the example above: bad 4. Uncover the answers and eliminate any wrong answers. Do not eliminate vocabulary words that you do not know. 5. Choose an answer from the answers remaining. Short Passage Questions 1. Tackle the passage's opening sentences, try to anticipate what the passage will be about 2. Quickly skim passage to get a general idea of the topic, argument, and structure 3. Go to the questions and read them one by one, identify which ones you can complete first 4. Go back to the passage and read the related section CAREFULLY a. If there are line references, read about 2-3 lines before and after the line references 5. Try to think of your own answer (without looking at answer choices) 6. Pick the answer closest to your own 7. ONLY use the information from the passage to determine your answer 8. Try to avoid these answers: a. Choices with extreme or absolute words (including the words ALWAYS, NEVER, EVERY, or BEST). They are rarely correct. b. Politically Incorrect Choices: The SAT does not want to offend groups of people; if there's an answer criticizing/insulting a specific person or group of people in a factual passage (vs. fictional), avoid it. c. Choices that defy common sense: In each set of answer choices, there will almost always be at least one answer choice that you know is so ridiculous that it cannot be the answer. Your intuition is correct. You should certainly avoid these choices. d. Choices that require you to infer beyond the limits of the passage: Inference questions on the SAT are usually phrased in such a way as, “Based on line 8-12, you can infer that the author…” These questions are NOT asking you to guess or jump to some conclusion; DO NOT read into things. These questions simply require you to look into specific parts of the passage and find the answers. Again, ONLY use information from the passage to determine your answer. 9. Tackle paired passages one passage at a time 10. Make flashcards for every word you do not know in the book (a MUST) Long Passage Questions 1. Read the italics at the beginning of the passage first (a MUST).It gives you a sense not only of what the passage is going to be about, but also of the position and possible tone of the author. 2. After reading the italics, do not start reading the passage yet. a. Go to the questions and look for line number references. b. Don't read the answer choices or the full question yet. c. Once you see a line reference, go to the passage and bracket the sentence contained within the lines. This will allow you to focus on that sentence once you begin to read the passage. 3. Based on the question: a. Make a small annotation such as MEANING, SAYS THIS BECAUSE, REFERS TO, HOW SIMILAR TO PASSAGE 1, BACKS UP WHAT BEFORE next to the bracketed sentence. b. If you see a question referring to the passage as a whole, circle the number of the question with a large circle and make an annotation at the end of passage. This means it's a general question and must be answered AFTER all the specific questions. (quickly through steps 2 -3) 4. Once you have marked up all the line references, read the passage. a. First tackle the passage's opening sentences and try to anticipate what the passage will be about. b. Then read the unmarked sections quickly yet efficiently, absorbing them briefly but not truly pausing to analyze. c. ONCE you hit a marked section, slow down, underline the key words and absorb it. Then go to the corresponding question and answer it. 5. After reading the question again a. tryto think of your own answer based on what you have read (without looking at the answer choices) and then pick the answer closest to your own. In a few instances, it may help to read a few lines past the point of reference to choose an answer. b. When you answer a question, just circle in the answer in the test booklet. After you finish answering all the questions, bubble in the answers on the answer sheet. If you're very low on time, however, you should bubble as you go. 6. Once you have tackled all the line and paragraph references, finish reading the entire passage if you haven't already, then tackle the circled general questions. Remember to never choose an answer unless you can support it with evidence from the passage. ONLY use information from the passage to determine your answer. 7. After narrowing the question answers down to 2, look directly into the passage and if there is no support at all for the answer choice, eliminate it (do not do it by your feeling). 8. Tackle paired passages one passage at a time 9. Try to avoid these answers: a. Choices with extreme or absolute words (including the words ALWAYS, NEVER, or BEST). They are rarely correct. b. Politically Incorrect Choices: The SAT does not want to offend groups of people; if there's an answer criticizing/insulting a specific person or group of people in a factual passage (vs. fictional), avoid it. c. Choices that defy common sense: In each set of answer choices, there will almost always be at least one answer choice that you know is so ridiculous that it cannot be the answer. Your intuition is correct. You should certainly avoid these choices. d. Choices that require you to infer beyond the limits of the passage: Inference questions on the SAT are usually phrased in such a way as, “Based on line 8-12, you can infer that the author…” These questions are NOT asking you to guess or jump to some conclusion; DO NOT read into things. These questions simply require you to look into specific parts of the passage and find the answers. Again,ONLY use information from the passage to determine your answer. 10. Mark all guessed answers 11. Make flashcards for every word you do not know in the book (a MUST) |
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