Preparing for the SAT: Critical Reading

If you are like most high school students, it is likely the mathematics section of the SAT that causes you concern.  Many find the writing and critical reading sections to be the easiest.  With that said, it does not mean you should not review and study for these portions of the test.  For this article, we will focus on the SAT critical reading.  What does this portion of the timed test involve and how can you prepare?

The SAT critical reading section is home to two types of questions.  Both of these are multiple-choice questions.  They involve sentence completion and passage-based reading.  There are only 19 questions for sentence completion and they test your understanding of sentence structure and vocabulary.  There are 48 questions for passage-based reading.  These test your understanding of what you read.

When taking the critical reading portion of the test, start with the first question and work your way down.  In the mathematics section, some people recommended answering the easiest questions first.  On the Official SAT website, the College Board states that the questions get harder as the test progresses with sentence completions.  For that reason, do not jump around.

When on the critical reading section of the SAT, you will get multiple-choice questions.  These questions are usually one sentence.  In that sentence, you will find two blank spots.  You need to fill in each blank spot with the best words.  The multiple-choice answer with those right words is the correct answer.  When taking this portion of the test, review each of your options.  Start with A, B, C, and so forth.  Try each word in the sentence.  You can automatically eliminate those that are wrong, leaving the correct answer.

As for the reading passages, many students mistakenly believe they must have knowledge on the subject.  This is not the case.  You are not tested on your knowledge, but rather the understanding of what you read.  The answers to each passage-based reading question are in the passage.  Some passages have line numbers, meaning sentence five is labeled with a (5).  The questions may direct you to a specific portion of the passage, but read the entire passage first.  It can influence your answers.

As with sentence completions, the Official SAT website, does not recommended jumping around in the passage-based reading section.  You will get different passages to read, but each passage has multiple questions pertaining to it.  Jumping around can slow you down and cause confusion.  Work on one passage and its questions at a time.

With passage-based reading, you are tested on three different areas.  They are understanding what you read, extended reasoning of what you read, and vocabulary understanding.  The SAT wants to make sure you understand what you read, that you can further elaborate if needed, and that you know your vocabulary words.

The easiest way to prepare for the SAT is to study relevant vocabulary words.  You learned these words in your freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school.  If you saved your old vocabulary books, review them.  Vocabulary lists are also found in many printed study guides, such as the Barron’s SAT book.  Review this list and make flash cards.

Since you are still in high school English and doing writing assignments, you should already know the importance of sentence structure.  What you should focus on instead is your reading comprehension.  If you are known for quickly skimming a paragraph and not remembering what you read, work on improving this.  Take it slow and steady.  Focus more on comprehension than quick reading.  The more you practice, the easier it will get overtime.