SAT Reading and Writing Tips

Both the reading and writing sections of the SAT can be complicated and confusing for students. Students must learn the grammar rules well to master the writing section and identify grammatical errors. On the other hand, the reading part might be tough because of the dense passages and the tricky questions. But with a solid strategy, you can tackle these questions effectively. 

This article will elaborate on some SAT reading and writing tips for the appearing students.

SAT Reading and Writing Tips

Explore the key reading and writing tips to be implemented in SAT for successful results.

SAT Reading Tips 

Familiarize yourself with SAT reading passages.

Basically, there are four different types of reading passages in the SAT:

• Literary narrative
• Social science
• Historical document
• Natural science

The literary narrative passages include parts from stories or novels. The historical document covers passages from primary source documents, including speeches, editorials, or letters. Social science includes the scientific study of social relationships and human society, including passages related to specific subjects, such as economics, anthropology, or psychology. However, natural science includes the scientific study of the physical world, including passages related to physics, chemistry, or biology.

Hence, a total of five passages will appear in the test. Historical documents and literary fiction will appear once. In addition, there might be one social science passage and two natural science passages, and vice versa. Moreover, one passage will be paired with a graph, and the other will be a pair of two small passages. Hence, prepare using quality preparation materials for SAT reading practice.

Do not read each sentence.

SAT reading is entirely different from the usual readings. Reading every sentence of the passage will be time-consuming. A common strategy that students can use is to move directly to the questions. However, jumping to the questions directly without any context makes no sense. Hence, you must skim the passages.

Perform preliminary skim

Before you proceed to the questions, perform an initial scam of the entire passage. Skimming SAT means reading only the crucial sentences and skipping the rest. Basically, the first and the last sentences of each paragraph are important as they give us an idea of the subject of the paragraph. In addition, phrases and transition words are crucial to look for as these words and phrases are clues to whether the sentence is important or not.

Write a summary in the margins.

While reading the passage, stop after each paragraph to write a short summary in the margins. Basically, your summary must not exceed five words. However, it is not easy to contract multiple sentences into a few words, but by adopting this challenge, you will learn to retain your summaries to a point where you need not revisit the entire passage while answering your questions.

Use keyboard skimming

There might be questions that focus on specific details of the passage. This is where keyword skimming comes to the rescue. Select the most unique words of the question and scan for them through the passage.

Decide your own order.

Reading questions are not given in the order of difficulty but are presented in chronological order. Hence, do not be afraid to skip the hard questions and don’t worry if you don’t know the answer to each question. Solve the ones you find easier in the beginning and then move towards the tough ones.

SAT Writing Section Tips

Trust your knowledge of grammar rules.

Do not depend on what answer sounds right to the writing questions about idiom questions. Several SAT writing sentences are uncommon phrases or lengthy sentences. The sentences might appear odd, but that does not mean they are wrong. Similarly, some sentences include grammatical errors that are very common and might make the sentence appear grammatically correct to you.

Reject wrong choices

For each SAT question, eliminate answers and options that you are confident or wrong to pick the right one. Try identifying the errors and then eliminate the options. You will not find it grammatically correct.

Go with the most concise, grammatically correct answer.

This advice is mostly applicable to the subsection on improving sentences. If the answer options are grammatically correct, the one which is more concise will be the right one. The shortest answers are not always the correct ones, but narrowing down a question to only two options that sound grammatically correct will help you choose the right one.

Stay consistent

Many grammar rules are related to consistency in SAT writing. Generally, the subject, verb tense, and person should be consistent in a sentence. Moreover, other grammar rules, such as logical comparisons and parallelism, relate to keeping things consistent.

The word ‘Being’ often represents an error.

Even though the word ‘Being’ can be used correctly, it often represents a grammatical error. This word signals idiom, worthiness, and fragment errors. Whenever you catch the word in a sentence, you will likely find a grammatical error.

Before answering questions, skim the paragraph improvement passage.

Ensure that you quickly read the paragraph improvement passage before you answer the questions. When reading, catch the errors and identify the main idea.

Conclusion 

The SAT writing and language tips given above are the key strategies to master your SAT writing and reading sections. You need not worry if you do not know the answers to each question, but make sure to solve the ones you know confidently to avoid errors and mark deduction. 

To prepare effectively for the SAT, learn writing and reading skills from the masters at Turito and perform your best on the first attempt.

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