SAT Reading Rules

Question 1

How long should it take you to read any SAT Reading Passage?

Answer 1

Roughly 60 seconds, because you are skimming (skipping details, dates, names) the text, not actually reading word for word (which takes too long).

Question 2

What are the 2 Major Rules for SAT Reading?

Answer 2

1. Always answer questions based off of specific evidence from the text.
2. Attempt to answer questions in your own words FIRST, as often as possible.

Question 3

What order should you answer the questions in ?

Answer 3

Answer Easy (tell you where to look i.e. what lines) and Medium (tell you what to look for, i.e. What did the author think about his blue hat?) questions first, and leave the Hard questions (general, broad i.e. What is the central purpose of the passage?) for last.

Question 4

How should you answer Best-Evidence Pair questions?

Answer 4

By reading the range provided by the 2nd question in the pair (e.g. lines 66-82) and trying to look for the answer to the 1st question therein.

*YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ THE INDIVIDUAL QUOTES HERE BECAUSE WITHOUT CONTEXT THEY ARE USELESS

Question 5

How should you answer Passage-Based Vocab questions?

Answer 5

By figuring out the momentary main idea and inventing your own word to replace the given one.

Question 6

How should you answer Decoy Best-Evidence questions?

Answer 6

By reading each quote and judging how good of a job each one does at supporting the claim made in the question.