SAT Prep Black Book by Mike Barrett - SAT Reading training

SAT Prep Black Book by Mike Barrett - SAT Reading training

How to handle passages on the SAT reading section

General ideas for SAT reading passages:

1. You can read the passage in any way you want, as long as your approach leaves you enough time

to finish the section.

a. You can even skip reading the passage if you want to refer back to portions of the text on

a question by question basis.

2. You should not take any kind of notes on the passage.

3. There is literally no test taking benefit whatsoever in trying to to get an overall impression of the

passage.

a. We can always find the answer for every question spelled out somewhere on the page.

4. All that matter is that through the leading style you will use, you can locate the relevant portion of

the text so that you can figure out which choice is restated or demonstrated as quickly as possible

without sacrificing accuracy.

5. Find a system that lets you ding the relevant portion of the text quickly enough to allow you to

complete the entire section within the time limit.

6. MAKE sure you read the introduction to each passage on the reading test.

a. It will be a bolded statement that says something like this:

i. Questions 1 -- 10 are based on the following passage.

7. Make sure you read the brief introduction to the passage because it provides valuable

relevant information.

Three main approaches to answer the reading section:

1. Reading the whole passage at one:

a. Is the old standard of simply reading the passage before attempting the questions.

b. It works as long as you don't read too slowly to finish the section before time is called.

c. If you read the passage first, do not worry about trying to understand it as an organic

whole

d. DO NOT TAKE NOTES ON IT:

e. Just thoroughly read it once - over.

f. Read it once and move on to the questions.

2. Answering citations questions first before trying to tread the passage.

a. Skip the reading and just move straight to the questions.

b. On your first pass, you start with two types of questions.

i. THe questions that have specific line citations

1. For each citation question, you go back to the relevant portion of the text,

read that portion, and then consider the answer choice.

ii. Best evidence questions.

1. For each best evidence question, you answer the previous question and

try to find the best to support the answer you previously selected.

c. After answering these questions, you will move on to the remaining question in the

section.

i. Many of those remaining questions will mention key concepts that you will recall

from the previous part.

d. When one of the remaining questions has no citation and also does not refer to something

that you have already read, you can simply skim the portions of the text that you have not

read yet to find the answer to the question.

3. Making a mental map:

a. It involves lightly skimming the passage before approaching the question. In order to

construct a rough mental map of where different terms and concepts appear in the

passage.

i. It involves the type of skimming, where you are just moving your eyes through

the text quickly, not really trying to understand the text, but trying to get a rough

idea of where various concept appear so you can create some sort of mind map. }

b. Benefit:

i. If a sentence lacks a citation, you can look at the concepts in the questions and

the answer choices and recall those concpoet from your skimming,.

1. Zero in on the relevant text, read it closely and find the answer.

Why not take notes?

1. Because taking notes involves interpreting the text.

2. When we take notes, we are straying from the literal meaning of the words on the page.

Last tips:

1. There really, truly is no single best way to read passages on the SAT:

2. It is possible to use any of the approaches we just discussed and be successful.

3. Try all out the tactics against real questions and find which one works best for you.

a. All within the time limit.

More specific approaches for different types of passages:

1. The CB likes to incorporate different types of writing in the passages.

a. The publication dates for the passages can come from any time period.

b. The passages might have different forms of narration.

c. The style of writing might be extremely different.

2. Sometimes you will struggle to read and understand some parts of the passage. In those cases

calm down and just keep on reading.

3. Read all of them carefully.

Key tactics for the reading section:

1. Always focus on the easiest questions available, but do not stereotype any particular type of

passage.

a. Invest your time properly.

b. Do not get into the habit of assuming that you should always skip certain types of

passages or certain types of questions and save them for later passes,

c. Do not leave every hard for the end, only leave those you truly do not know the answer to

for the last pass.

2. Use the bad connection approach when you encounter parts of a sentence or paragraph that

makes no sense to you.

a. Our goal is not to understand entire passages, instead it is to always, and only, to try to

understand as much of a text as we need to in order to figure out which choice is the only

one that restates or demonstrates the relevant part of the passage.

b. If possible, ignore the confusing parts of a sentence or paragraph, and focus on the parts

you do understand.

3. Recognize unknown slang expressions or cultural references, and try to understand them

from context - if you even need to understand them at all.

a. Before analysing the slang being used, you should make sure that it is related with the

prompt or the question.

4. Recognize theoretical questions, and realize the answers to these questions are almost

always obvious, broad and/or extreme.

a. It is a sentence that has the same structure as any other kind of question un English.

i. A rhetorical question is designed to make the reader believe that the answer to

the questions is so obvious, and so widely agreed up, that the writer does not rven

need to state the answer to the question.

b. It is pretty similar to an statement

i. Used to make the reader feel like the point being raised in the question id obvious

and cannot be argued.

c. Appear more often in older passages.

d. Remember that they are not intended to be sincere requests for information, they are

intended to make the reader realize that a particular point is obvu¿ioud.

5. Do not be afraid to ignore the meanings of academic or technical expression especially.

a. Some questions include academic sounding hraes you have never heard before.

6. With longer sentences, consider mentally removing phrases in comma sandwiches, and/or

ignoring punctuation altogether.

a. This can be useful on test day when you are trying to understand a sentence that spans

multiple lines of text.

b. Do not get distracted by the weird punctuation, we should have no trouble answering the

question correctly.

Things to keep in mind when reading processes.

1. Questions can include relatively long, relatively complex sentences.

2. It may involve expression and cultural references.

3. The literary passages often depict a story or episode, however it is not necessary to fully

understand the whole narrative structure and waste time on it, instead you should focus on

answering the questions asked.

4. It will only ask us questions based on individual words and phrases.

Things to keep in mind when reading passages for History and social studies:

1. The historical and sociological passages can sometimes come from older sources, and can often

describe social situations that do not exist today.

a. We do not need to waste time on sentences that we do not understand, rather skip them

and focus on the parts you do understand and that are relevant to the prompts and answer

choices that are encountered.

b. Some of these passages can include figures, especially when the passages are a bit more

academic.

Things to keep in mind when reading science passages:

1. Science passages have more modern terms and style.

2. There is no need to panic if a scientific passage is discussing something unfamiliar.

a. The answer should always be in the text.

3. Do not use outside knowledge to answer the questions.

Critical technical terms for the SAT reading section:

1. May include unfamiliar words.

2. Should not be memorized but you should be familiarized with these words. 

SAT Reading training 

Overview and important reminders for SAT reading

1. The answer to an SAT Reading question is always as clear and definite and objectively

predictable as the answer to an SAT math question.

2. It requires you to look at a passage in a away that is totally different from the approach you would

use in an English class.

3. You have to read everything as literally as you possibly can, without adding any of you own

interpretation at all.

The big secret of SAT reading:

1. Two possible ways to identify the right answer.

a. Restates the text without chaing the meaning

b. Demonstrates an idea that appears on the page.

2. Every answer will be either spelled out or demonstrated somehwere on the page.

3. You can find wrong answer by identifying these three things:

a. The answer choice fails to be restated or demonstrated by the text or because it adds ideas

that are not in the text.

Approaches towards finding the right answer:

1. Restatement:

a. Refers to the idea that two separate pieces of text express the same idea using different

words.

b. Find the answer choice that has the most direct connection to the text, in terms of that it

uses synonyms or ideas that convey the exact idea from the passage.

c. The wrong answers fail to restate the text.

2. Demonstration:

a. It involves carefully reading and focusing on evaluating the literal meaning of a text

without interpretation.

b. When a correct answer depends on demonstration, one of two things happens:

i. The correct answer provides an example or scenario that is exactly described in

the text

ii. The text provides an example or scenario that is exactly described in the correct

answer.

iii. It leads the person towards a certain answer.

Tips and things to prevent:

1. Most test takers are not even looking for an answer choice to be stated directly in the text:

a. Do not read the passage as you would in English class.

2. The college board deliberately phrases questions to make you think you should use

subjective interpretation to find the answer.

a. Learn to ignore the subjectively brought by College Board ́s use of words like primarily,

probably, suggest, likely etc.

i. Change those words for directly or completely showcases, proves, any word that

will remind you that there is only one definitive answer.

1. z.B: The author of Passage 2 would likely respond ..---.. the author of

passage 2 directly states which opinion.

3. We sometimes have to be extremely particular about the exact meanings and relationship of

words in the prompt, the text, and in the answer choices.

a. Consider exactly what each word means, instead of working from your generalized

assumptions about what it might mean, or what you think it implies.

i. Only go on from what you can read.

4. Test - takers are sometimes mistaken about what words mean:

a. You sometimes might be confronted with unknown vocabulary words at some point.

i. Don't panic, remember your training.

What do wrong answers do? - Why are they wrong?

1. Wrong answers are wrong because they fail to restate the relevant portion of the text or

demonstrate an idea from it.

Ways to identify wrong answer:

1. Wrong answer type 1: Off by one or two words.

a. One of the most dangerous and sneaky tactics.

i. The answer would mirror the text almost exactly, off by 1 or two words.

1. Analyze every word in the answer choices.

2. Wrong answer type 2: Barely relevant:

a. Is a statement that has almost nothing to do with the cited text.

i. It doesn't necessarily contradict the actual text, it just states something irrelevant.

3. Wrong answer type 3: Statements that would be valid literary interpretations in a

classroom:

a. Wrong answers that are chosen because you have literally interpreted the statement.

b. It makes speculations.

i. It is not restated or demonstrated in the passage.

4. Wrong answer type 4: Reasonable statements that are not in the text

a. Separate the knowledge you know of the subject to what the text is saying.

i. Never make assumptions based on your personal knowledge of the subject.

1. Base on your answer entirely from what is stated in the passage

b. Do not rely on outside knowledge and focus exclusively on the words on the page.

5. Wrong answer type 5: Direct contradiction:

a. The wrong answer choice directly contradicts something in the citation.

i. Do not get confused or rattled if you see this kind of answer choice, on the

contrary, you should instantly know that the answer choice is wrong.

ii. Do not doubt yourself and waste time.

6. Wrong answer type 6: Confused relationships:

a. This type of wrong answer uses a lot of the ideas mentioned in the citation, but messes up

the relationships among them.

b. You will make this mistake if you do not focus on the details.

7. Wrong answer type 7: Restatement or demonstration of the wrong part of the passage:

a. We always need to make sure that we are looking at the part of the passage that is

relevant to the prompt when we pick an answer choice.

Conclusion:

1. Basically, they all boil down to the idea that wrong answers provide information that differs from

the information found in the relevant portion of the text, while the right answer for each question

will restate concepts and relationships from the relevant part of the text or be demonstrated by the

relevant part of the text.

2. You don't have to classify the wrong answer choice that you encounter, just make sure you spot

them.

The general process for answering reading questions/How to analyze and answer every type of question

The general process for answering reading questions:

1. Most reading questions can be answered with a fairly simple process.

a. The process we will use for all reading questions is basically the same process with a few

minor, occasional modifications.

1. Always read the brief introduction to each passage:

a. Always read the brief introduction that appears below the bolded statement.

i. Something like Questions 1-10 are based on the following passage.

b. It oftens contain critical information that identifies the author of the passage and the

purpose for which the passage was written.

c. It is important to read the introduction as some prompts and answer choice will assume

that you know this basic background information.

2. Read or skim the passage if you want to.

a. Read all of it

b. Skim through all of it and then focus on the questions.

c. Look at the questions and then go on from there.

3. Read the question, noticing the citation if there is one. Then read the relevant text.

a. Read one or two sentences before and after the cited text for better context, however it is

not always necessary.

b. If the citation is a line citation and the cited line picks up in the middle of a sentence, go

back to the beginning of that sentence and start there.

4. Find Three Wrong answer:

a. It is generally easiest to find wrong answers first.

i. There are three times as many of them.

ii. Easier to identify ways that answer choices differ from the text.

1. It is important to note that three of the choices are not literally restated or

demonstrated in the text, which means they must be wrong.

2. If you end up not being able to eliminate three choices, then you are

making some kind of mistake.

a. Make sure you have not misread the text or the question

b. Make sure that your understanding of some of the words you

read is not inaccurate.

i. Be very picky

c. Make sure that you have not referred to the wrong part of the

passage.

5. Look at the remaining answer choice:

a. See if the remaining answer choice fits the right answe pattern.

i. See if it is restated or demonstrated by conceops and relationships from the

relevant portion of the text.

b. If you still can not identify one choice that is clearly restated or demonstrated by the

passage, then you will need to consider whether to hunch guess right away or skip the

question and save it for a later pass.

6. Closing thoughts on the SAT reading process:

a. It is not as difficult as it seems.

b. It works on the majority of SAT reading questions.

i. May vary depending on the question being asked. }

What about Questions without citation?

1. When a question has no citation, very little actually changes in our approach to it.

a. The answer to the question is still going to be spelled out somewhere in the passage.

i. We have to figure out where, rather than having the convenience of being told

which lines to look at.

2. The answer is still going to be restated or demonstrated somewhere on the page.

3. YOU SHould not try to answer a question with no citation by making a broad inference

from the overall passage that is not directly supported by actual phrases from the text.

4. It can be harder to locate the part of the text that contains the answer.

5. Recommendation:

a. Save these questions until after you have attempted the question that have citation for that

passage.

i. Because answering the citation questions will typically cause me to go back

through most of the text, and I will often find the answer to non citation question

right there.

6. The answer is always clearly spelled out in black and white somewhere within the passage,

even though it lacks a citation.

7. NO GUESSING OR MAKING DECISIONS BASED ON FEELINGS.

What about  ̈Best Evidence ̈ Questions?

1. The question asks you to identify the text that provides the best evidence, either for the answer to

the previous questions, or for a statement in the question itself.

a. Answering these questions will all boil down to carefully reading the passage without

literary interpretation.

2. Things to keep in mind:

a. The correct answer will be the part of the text that is directly restated or demonstrated in

the question we are being asked about.

i. No literary interpretation, judgement calls, or outside knowledge.

b. The cited text in the correct answer is sometimes sort of a summary of evidence discussed

in the paragraph where that citation appears.

i. The text immediately before or after the citation may repeat or elaborate on the

evidence in the citation itself.

c. DO NOT BE PUT OFF if some statement of relevant evidence appears just before or

after the cited text from the right answer to the best evidence question.

i. There may be some additional relevant evidence that shows up just outside of

that cited text.

d. The answer to this type of questions is typically pretty straightforward

i. Often, only one of the four choices will seem to have any real connection to the

statement in question.

3. Is there a best evidence shortcut?

a. When the best evidence question asks about the answer to the previous question, the best

evidence question can sometimes also help us find the answer to both questions more

quickly and easily.

i. The right answer to the best evidence question must support the statement in the

previous question with no literary interpretation or judgement calls involved.

b. You can just look at the answer choices for the best evidence question that comes next,

and then check those parts of the text to see which one restates or demonstrates an answer

to the question we are working on.

What about Most Nearly means questions?

1. We need to understand that the CB is not just asking us to pick an answer choice with a similar

meaning to the word in the prompt, it wants us to find a word that always restates some part of the

relevant text.

2. THE CORRECT ANSWER WILL NEARLY ALWAYS RESTATE SOME PART OF THE

RELEVANT TEXT.

3. It is a very direct and concrete answer.

4. In some scenarios, rather than restate the text, the correct answer might be the only choice

that demonstrates the relevant text,or is demonstrated by the relevant text.

a. The answer choice might be a demonstration of something clearly stated in the text.

i. For example:

1. (Answer choice): turn or two up and down the length of a platform.

a. The correct answer indicates that the word turn most nearly

means short walk.

i. We can tell this choice must be correct because it is the

only choice that has demonstrated, by the idea of a

person going up and down, the length of something,

even if the phrase short walk does not literally restate the

phrase turn up and down the length.

What about Attitude questions?

1. Asks about the author ́s attitude, or about how a passage might be characterized, and so on.

2. Do not answer these questions in the same way as you would in a literature class.

a. NO FEELINGS; NO INTERPRETATIONS:

3. Even for attitude questions, the correct answer is going to be spelled out somewhere in the text.

4. The answer will be restated in the text.

5. Do not be fooled by the word attitude, the answer will be restated in the text and you will still

just be looking carefully through the text to match phrases in the text with one of the

answer choices.

What about questions with figures?

1. It wants to test our skills related to reading and understanding figures with data.

a. NO INTERPRETATION OF DATA

2. The answer will reflect exactly what is on the page, rather than trying to interpret anything we see

and drawing our own conclusion.

3. Combine the rules we have learned about reading graphs, charts and other figures with what we

have learned regarding how to answer the SAT reading section and how to identify the choice that

is exactly restated or demonstrated by what appears on the page.

What about Purpose questions:

1. It may ask you about the purpose of a text, or about the author's reason for doing something.

2. We handle these questions exactly the same way as we handle any other SAT reading questions.

a. We look for the answer choice that is restated or demonstrated by the relevant text, rather

than trying to read the author's mind or guess her intentions.

b. Find the answer choice that most resembles something stated in the text or a dominant

idea that extends through the passage.

What about Yes - Yes - No - No questions?

1. It includes the following elements:

a. The prompt asks a question that can be answered with two opposing responses, usually

Yes or No.

b. Two of the answer choices begin with one of the two opposing responses, followed by a

sentence or two explaining why that response could be the correct answer.

c. The other two answer choices begin with the other opposing response, followed by a

sentence or two explaining why that response could be the correct answer.

2. No need to be especially worried about these questions.

a. Every part of a correct answer choice has to reflect the text, or else the choice is wrong.

3. The answer choice must follow these conditions:

a. The yes or no part of the answer choice must be a correct answer to the question in the

prompt.

b. The explanation in the choice must be accurately restated or demonstrated by the relevant

part of the passage.

4. HOW TO TACKLE THESE QUESTIONS:

a. You first focus on the explanation portion of each answer choice (it must be restated or

demonstrated by the text).

b. Then you can quickly confirm that the yes or no at the beginning of that answer choice

makes sense as an answer to the prompt, and select that choice.

c. If there are explanation portions that make sense, then you must decide whether yes or no

answer the question.

i. Refer back to the passage.

What about Central Claim questions?

1. The question may ask you to identify the central claim of a passage, or of some part of a passage,

or it may ask about the central purpose or main idea of a cited text.

2. The correct answer will be the only choice that restates an idea from the relevant part of the

text.

a. For example:

i. (AC) Some public transportation systems are superior to travel by private

automobile.

1. (Part of the passage) - Public transport can be faster, more comfortable,

and cheaper than the private automobile.

What about summary and development questions?

1. Some questions will ask us to pick the answer choice that summarizes the cited text, or that

describes the development of the text, or something along those lines.

2. The correct answer will still be restated or demonstrated by key elements of the cited text in

sequence.

3. WE WON'T BE REQUIRED TO INTERPRET THE CITED TEXT, DO NOT CONFUSE

SUMMARIZE AS AN ACT OF INTERPRETATION.

4. It will be demonstrated or restated clearly with different vocabulary in some part of the passage.

5. Pay close attention to the words being used, especially the adjectives, adverbs and subjects.

6. The idea might repeatedly appear in the passage but with other words.

7. The other answer choices that are wrong seem generally related to the topic of the passage, but

none of them simply restates or demonstrates the passage without added extra ideas that do not

appear in the passage.

What about  ̈Humor ̈

1. Sometimes an answer choice will mention the idea of humor or comedy.

a. The CB uses these terms in very particular ways that do not really reflect their use in

everyday speech.

2. When the College Board refers to a part of a passage as humorous, comical, funny or anything

else along those lines, we should understand that to mean one of two things:

a. Either the text can not be true in a literal sense.

i. It exaggerates a situation/An event that is not realistic and can not happen under

any circumstances.

b. The text involves something unexpected or unusual

3. Weird example and only example:

a. Story of the passage: Lady Carlotta sits and works on a sketch while a woman she knows

is trapped by an angry board in a tree nearby.

i. The text mentions that Lady Carlota has a history of interfering on behalf of a

distressed animal.

1. The answer is a humorous insight into her character.

a. The CB considers this story humorous because it is opposite of

what we would expect from the character, in this case the text

describes something that could not literally be true, or something

that is completely unexpected.

What about paired passages? (LOOK AT TEST 10, the question about the USA.

1. Sometimes the CB asks you questions about two passages at once.

2. These questions often ask how the author of one passage would respond to a statement from the

other passage.

3. DO NOT THINK THAT YOU HAVE TO READ THE AUTHOR's mind.

a. It is not subjective and unfair.

4. We have to remember that every answer to a reading question is spelled out somewhere in the

text.

5. Whenever the SAT asks how an author would feel about something, it must always be true

that the author ́s passage directly states how that author feels about that topic.

a. The PASSAGE 1 or 2 must have directly discussed claims about the topic the

question is asking about.

6. We can use this approach whenever an SAT Reading question asks us how someone would

respond to a claim, argument or question - it does not only apply to questions that are about

two distinct passages.

Conclusion: PAGE 77