Hey, everyone—welcome to another English lesson.
Today we’re going to be talking about how exactly I was able to get a perfect score
on the SAT Reading section and how—if you follow these 4 simple steps—you can too.
So let’s get the obvious question out of the way first: Why, of all people, should
you listen to me when it comes to doing well on the SAT Reading section?
Well, not only have I taught SAT Prep as an actual high school class, but I’ve also
tutored dozens of students over the years to perfect and near-perfect SAT Reading scores.
And prior to doing all that teaching and tutoring, I actually retook the SAT myself—the “new
SAT” as it was called at the time—and I did receive a perfect score on the test—so,
a 1600.
And obviously that includes the Reading section.
So, if you trust me, let’s do it.
So the first thing you want to do with every single SAT Reading passage is to take a look
at what I call the “blurb.”
This is a small little chunk of text that appears right above every individual passage.
Let’s take a look at this one real quick…
“This passage is adapted from John Bohannon, ‘Why You Shouldn’t Trust Internet Comments.’
©2013 by American Association for the Advancement of Science.”
Okay, so why are we reading this?
Is this little “blurb,” as I like to call it, going to answer any of the questions for
us later?
Are we going to be asked about the title of the passage or when it was written or who
published it?
No, we’re not.
Okay, so what’s the point?
Why spend 10, maybe 15 seconds of our precious, limited time, on this very time-constrained
section, reading this little “introduction”-type thing?
Well, one word: comfort.
One of the biggest tools for success on the SAT Reading section is comfort.
You want to feel comfortable; you want to feel settled; you want to know what exactly
you’re getting yourself into.
And this blurb—these three or four little lines—can help you do that.
Just from this small little section, we’ve learned the title of the piece, which hints
at its main argument.
We’ve learned the publication date, which tells us that we’re probably going to be
dealing with more modern words and phrases.
And we’ve learned what group or organization it was published by, which clues us into the
fact that this article is probably going to have a more scientific lense.
And all of these details help give us a frame of reference for what exactly we’re going
to be dealing with.
It’s like you’ve got to go through an obstacle course, but you’re allowed to see
it first, right?
Now, is that going to make jumping over that sand pit or climbing that rock wall any easier?
Eh, probably not, but it lets you know exactly what you’re getting yourself into; it helps
you feel comfortable—and that is a very useful thing.
The second thing you should do for every SAT Reading passage, after you’ve read the blurb,
is to take a quick look and just see how long the text is.
Is it about a page, over a page, under a page?
Is there a graph with it or a chart or something?
Again, this is just to make you feel more comfortable—to let you know exactly what
you’re getting yourself into.
As opposed to being a runner who goes into a race blind, now you know the specific number
of miles you’re expected to cover; you know how long you have to run.
So, again, it’s all about comfort.
It’s about getting settled, dialing in, and gaining some quick perspective of the
task at hand.
And that leads us to our third step, which is, surprise, surprise, yet another “comfort”
strategy.
And that is to just read the first two or three lines of the text.
Read those first few lines, and just see what you’re up against—see how it feels.
Does it seem pretty accessible—pretty easy to read?
Or are you already getting bogged down in the very first paragraph with a bunch of ten-dollar
words and phrases and concepts you don’t understand?
And again, sounding like a broken record here—this is all just to make you feel more comfortable,
to let you know what you’re up against and how to approach it.
To dip your toes in—you know, see how the water feels—that kind of thing.
Now, very important, so listen carefully: All of these three steps—reading the blurb,
checking to see how long the text is, reading the first few lines—should take you no more
than, like, 30 or 45 seconds, max.
This is something you shouldn’t even be spending a single minute on, let alone 2,
3, 4, or anything crazy like that.
You do these things quick.
You get yourself settled, you get yourself oriented, and you get ready to attack.
And now for our fourth and final step, ordering the questions.
So for almost every single SAT Reading passage, the first question you see will ask you about
the passage as a whole.
And this is done on purpose.
By making the very first question ask you about the entire passage, the test makers
are basically requiring you to have read the entire passage before you can start answering
the questions.
But that’s the thing: you don’t have to answer the questions in order.
And I would argue that you shouldn’t.
Here’s what you should do.
Quickly read each question, one by one, and for every question that asks you about a specific
line or paragraph of the text, go write down the number of that question down next to that
part of the text—like, on the text itself, in the margins.
So, like, question 37 here asks about line number 85, so we go to line number 85 on the
text itself, and we write down—write next to it—“#37.”
That way, as soon as we get to line 85 when we’re reading, we can answer that question
right then and there.
We won’t have to go back and track it down later.
And by the way, this is the single best way to save yourself time on the SAT Reading section.
If there is one thing you can do to save yourself time, this is it.
It’s not skimming; it’s not speed reading; it’s this.
Because if you do this, if you write down the question numbers next to the specific
lines or paragraphs they refer to—by the time you’re done reading, you might have
already answered like half of the questions—and that’s really, really good.
Okay, so that’s it; those are the steps.
Read the blurb.
Check to see how long the text is.
Read the first few lines of the text.
And then go through the questions, and make notes in the margins for every question that
can be answered at a specific line or paragraph.
And remember, all four of these steps should not really take you that long.
Take, like, a minute, give or take a few seconds maybe, and then get to reading.
And at that point, all of the usual strategies come into play: Don’t skim; don’t speed
read.
Take your time; understand the text.
Make any notes or annotations you want to make.
And then, of course, move onto the questions.
Narrow down your answer options.
Don’t spend too long on a single question—all that fun stuff.
But more important than anything, get comfortable, be confident, and take care of business.
Good luck, let me know how you do, and we’ll see you in the comments.
Thank you.
One more thing, actually, before you go…
If you’re looking for SAT Writing & Language tips, we have individual lessons covering
basically much every topic covered on that section of the SAT.
So maybe go click through those, review what you need to review, and, of course, good luck
on that section of the test as well.
Thanks again.
We’ll see you later!