Passage Reading Facts Flashcards
This deck introduces you to SAT Reading passages and their questions. It aims to raise awareness about the topics, styles, and purposes of the reading material on the test. On the first time through, use "browse" mode for this deck.
Where are the passage reading sections on the SAT Critical Reading test?
Passage reading follows sentence completion usually starting after question 6 or 7 on the section.
There may be three or four of these sections on the test that you take.
What are the three types of passages on SAT Critical Reading?
- short passage
- long passage
- comparative passages
Where do the SAT test makers get their passages to put on the test?
The test makers get the passages from textbooks, magazines, fiction and non-fiction books, and speeches.
What makes SAT passage reading so challenging to the average student?
The passages move average students away from their comfort zones in reading. Many passages have long complicated sentences, arguments within them can be subtle, and the topics can be boring to the average student.
How do you prepare for the content of SAT passage reading?
Practice reading from a variety of different sources. Make a list of titles and read to conquer style and identify arguments and positions.
How can you prepare for SAT passage reading without a lot of extra work?
Change the way you do your reading assignments in your high school coursework (particularly history, science and literature texts).
What are the most common areas of context for SAT passage reading?
SAT passages can be about:
- science
- art criticism
- sociology
- psychology
- history
- literature
What are the five basic kinds of questions you see in passage reading sections?
Questions about:
- Main Idea
- Details
- Vocabulary (in context)
- Inference
- Tone
Which of these questions are often ranked as the most difficult by the test makers?
Inference and tone questions most often are ranked as very difficult.
What is the best way to handle main idea questions?
Active reading with mapping and side notes works well to assess the overall main idea of a passage.
How are main idea questions phrased?
Main idea questions either ask directly about the “main idea” or about “purpose” of the passage as a whole?
The “purpose” phrasing can be used to ask about specific content of a paragraph, like how a quote is being used in an author’s argument. The key is to read the question carefully to know what kind of answer is required.
What makes detail questions the least challenging in SAT passage reading?
They are the most direct, though they often require time to search back through the passage to verify.
How are certain detail questions made more challenging?
For details, they sometimes phrase the question “which of the following does NOT answer this point?” This makes the search and verification more time consuming.
What makes vocabulary questions on passage reading different than sentence completion?
Vocabulary in passage reading have context clues that are not confined to the sentence in which the word appears.
How does the SAT trap you into selecting the wrong answer on the more challenging passage vocabulary questions?
The SAT’s vocabulary trap in passage reading comes from words with multiple meanings.
For these words, students eliminate based upon the well-known primary meaning, while the secondary meaning works beautifully in the sentence. BE CAREFUL in predicting a meaning from the overall context and eliminate deliberately. Eliminating the correct answer almost always results in a penalty.
