TIPS FOR THE SAT 1, CRITICAL READING

SAT tutors all have their own ways of helping students prepare for this test,  and so I try to collect some tips which I feel will be useful as students already have the palms of their hands sweating just at the thought of taking the SAT, not to mention it brings back memories of my own days in taking the test.

Here are some clues that I heard the other day, and ones that I use at any new task as it helps you quickly organize your thoughts on how to approach the task at hand, this one being the SAT 1, Critical Thinking section.  I decided to break it down into a "receipe" form

METHODS:

1. SKIM over the passages as quickly and superficially as you can. 
2. READ all the questions and citations COMPLETELY.
3. READ and FOCUS the key parts of the passage.

     

Application of the METHODS:

Technique #1:   SKIMMING

One the best way to approach the SAT Critical Reading is to read each passage as little as possible the first time around, this is called SKIMMING.  It is a technique that you use in school on the first day of class when the teacher tells you what he will be teaching over the next semester.  When you do this, you should do your best to skip the reading the entire passage altogether.  

There are two main reasons for this strategy: 

1. Read the passage too closely is either going to bore you to sleep or distract you from your main focus, which should be attacking the SAT in a systematic way.  
2. Reading the passage is mostly a waste of time anyway, because many SAT questions will refer you to specific parts of the passage (often identified by line numbers) that you will have to read again later.

 

The purpose of this first technique is to get a rough idea of some of the "concepts" that appear in the passage, and that you see the entire picture, not just a small segment of it.   Once you’ve done that, you move on to the first question.

Technique # 2:  READ THE QUESTION FULLY!

Here we look at the questions asked.  Read it one FULLY, and make sure you understand EACH question asked.  

Note:   if you miss a words like words like "and", "or", "nor", "if" "before"

 "not" or "because" you won’t be able to answer the question correctly.

 

 

Technique # 3:   Read and Focus on the Key Parts of the Passage

    

Now we move on to the second technique, "read and focus on the key parts of the passage".  Even if the question doesn’t ask you to, it’s usually a good idea to read the key parts of the passage:

•     the italicized introduction to the passage
•     the opening sentence of the passage
•     the closing sentence of the passage 

These parts of the passage will often contain "key"  information that gives you an idea of the passage, and it only takes a few seconds to read them!