How to Ace Poetry on the Digital SAT Exam

Candidates interested in pursuing quality higher education in the best colleges and universities must brace themselves for the SAT. Digital SAT is one of the methods used by students to indicate their efficiency and readiness level for college. Combined with grades, skills, and other parameters, digital SAT plays a key role in admission to the desired institute. Among different topics, the digital SAT also tests candidates’ ability to handle the poetry questions. This article throws light on how to nail the poetry on the Digital SAT exam. 

Which Section Will Cover Poetry on the Digital SAT?

Digital SAT has two sections:

• The Reading and Writing section 
• The Math section

The first one covers poetry. The Reading and Writing section is divided into two modules, each having 25 operational questions and two pretext questions. The questions cover stimulus topics such as literature, history or social studies, humanities, and science. The literature part will encompass poetry questions (which is a new addition to the SAT). The candidates will get an overall score of 54 questions in the section to be attempted within a period of 64 minutes.  

Like other questions, the Reading and Writing section has been modified in the digital SAT. The section will test the candidate’s knowledge and skills in English language arts and content area literacy. It will simultaneously judge the reading and writing skills of the candidates. Further, the previous pattern of 4 to 5 long passages with ten questions each has also been replaced.

What will Poetry Questions Look Like?

The candidates will see shorter passages of poetry with complexity and grounding being the same as the previous test. The length of shorter passages will range from 20 to 150 words. The incorporation of multiple passages covering a wide variety of topics will allow the students more flexibility. The new pattern definitely maximizes their choice in dealing with poetry questions compared to the limited available ones with ten questions for one passage.

The poetry questions, hence, will have a short excerpt from the poem along with four accompanying options. Each question will be distinct from others. The questions can be of different types, such as querying the purpose, overall structure, and idea of the text, filling in the blanks, and others. 

What Will be Evaluated in the Poetry Section?

The poetry questions belong to the Reading and Writing section. Hence, the evaluation parameters will be common for all the questions in the section. Here are the parameters as stated by The College Board. 

Craft and Structure

• The question distribution from this section will be around 28%, thus leading to around 13 to 15 questions. 
• The skills and knowledge testing points here will be words in context, cross-text connections, and text structure and purpose. 

Information and Ideas

• The question distribution from this section will be around 26%, thus leading to around 12 to 14 questions. 
• The skills and knowledge testing points here will be central ideas and details, command of textual and quantitative evidence, and inferences. 

Standard English Conventions

• The question distribution from this section will be around 26%, thus leading to around 12 to 14 questions. 
• The skills and knowledge testing points here will be boundaries, structure, forms, and sense. 

Craft and Structure

• The question distribution from this section will be around 20%, thus leading to around 8 to 12 questions. 
• The skills and knowledge testing points here will be rhetorical synthesis and transitions. 

5 Tips to Nail Poetry Questions in Digital SAT

Dealing with the new incorporation of poetry on the digital SAT requires candidates to provide some tips for assistance. So, here they are for you: 

Tip 1: Practice

Going through the poetry questions, analyzing their structure, the requirements from the students, and other aspects are critical to developing one’s strategy to tackle the question. The College Board has provided different sample papers with multiple poetry questions. Target and analyze them while identifying their category. Do refer to solved sample papers for assistance in deciding the approach. 

Tip 2: Identify Your Requirement

The question will be presented in the following sequence: the information about the excerpt, the actual excerpt, the main question, and the options. Your priority will be to read the main question to understand the keyword or idea you will be searching for in the excerpt. Now read the excerpt, which may require you to do it once or twice. Then, analyze the options. Remember that the title will give you information on an idea of the poem, and the excerpt will inform you more about its purpose. Reading each piece of information is critical. 

Tip 3: Understand the Meaning

The poems often present incomprehensible words you would have never heard of in life. The question or options directly relate to the same. Firstly, accept that understanding this question will take time and require you to consider it in depth. The time requirement will lower as you practice. To tackle these questions, use the annotation option or scribble paper to decode the meaning of words through the phrases and lines in general perspective. You can do this by reading the poem from a broad perspective more than once. If the word is used in options, you can deduce the meaning from there. 

Tip 4: Understand the Poem

The poems are a piece of art. Some of the key things you should be able to recognize in them are style, themes, mood, imagery, tones, and pattern. Develop the skills to identify these in the poem to answer the questions efficiently. Also, identify the literary devices such as personification, metaphors, similes, and symbolism.

Tip 5: Eliminate Wrong Answers

Often, the right approach is not from top to bottom but vice versa. Once you get hold of the question and the poem, finding the right answer can still be challenging. At this time, focus on the options and how they fit into the question. The lack of logic and sense in wrong options will help you pace up and eliminate the most improbable answer. 

Conclusion

Poetry on the digital SAT has been a new addition to the Reading and Writing Section. Evaluating the candidates’ abilities in four domains, the College Board has offered multiple sample papers for the practice of poetry questions. There are solved answer keys as well that clearly indicate the type of question and skills judged in it. The candidates expected to take the digital SAT are required to practice thoroughly while enhancing their grasp and understanding of the techniques to solve such question types. 

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