If you want to ace the SAT Critical Reading (CR)
section, you need to know more than just a bunch of
vocabulary words and a few test-taking tricks. You
need solid analytical and critical reading skills to help
you tackle any difficult hunk of prose the SAT can
throw at you. The most important of these skills is
“active reading,” which means reading with key ques-
tions in mind.
The Three Key Questions
To ace SAT Critical Reading questions, read
each passage with these questions at the front
of your mind:- What is the purposeof this passage?
- What is the central ideaof this passage?
- What is the general structureof this passage?
SAT CR questions focus on these questions, so you
should, too. Here’s a quick explanation of each of the
three questions you should keep in mind:
- The purposeof the passage can be either
- to examine a topic objectively,
- to prove a point, or
- to tell a story.
- The central ideaof the passage is the single idea
that provides the focus of the entire passage. - The general structureof the passage is the way the
paragraphs work together to convey the central
idea.
Later we’ll discuss and practice strategies for find-
ing all these things.
Put the Horse before the Cart—and the
Passage before the Questions
A favorite trick of “test crackers” is to read the Critical
Reading questions first, answering those that don’t
require much reading, and then to scan using the line
references to get the rest of the answers. This sounds
like a great trick because it’s so simple. In fact, this
trick usually hurts most test takers by forcing them to
focus on details rather than the all-important “big
picture.” If you want a score higher than 500 (and if
you don’t want to struggle with your reading assign-
ments when you get to college) learn how to analyze
passages for the big picture.
168 MCGRAW-HILL’S SAT
Don’t read the questions first. Read the passage
first (including the introduction), but read
activelyandbrisklyto answer the three key
questions. You often can answer the first two
questions after just reading the introduction
and the first paragraph or two! At that point,
read the remaining paragraphs just to note how
they support the central idea. The big picture is
what counts!If you practice, you will learn to
read SAT passages briskly and confidently.These Aren’t Your English Teacher’s
Questions
SAT Critical Reading questions aren’t the same ques-
tions your English teachers ask. English teachers like
to ask you to explore symbolism, read between the
lines, and interpret passages subjectively. But SAT
questions must be objective—they must have answers
that don’t depend on your point of view (otherwise,
everyone would be arguing constantly about the
answers). The SAT only asks questions about what
the passage literally meansandlogically implies,not
what the passage might suggest.
SAT Critical Reading questions can’t ask you to
draw on outside knowledge. Again, all the information
you need to answer the question is in the passage.
Therefore, you should be able to underline it. You
won’t be asked to make creative connections, read
between the lines, or explore your feelings about a
passage. All you have to do is say what the passage,
literally meansorlogically implies.Get Psyched Up, Not Psyched Out
Don’t psyche yourself out on the Critical Reading sec-
tion by thinking, “Oh, great—another boring, pointless
reading passage!” This guarantees failure by creating a
self-fulfilling prophecy. If you expectthe passage to be
boring and pointless, you won’t look for the interesting
points, and you’ll miss the key ideas!
How well you read depends enormously on your
attitude. SAT Critical Reading passages are chosen
because they discuss ideas that college professors teach
in class. Tell yourself, “I’m going to learn something in-
teresting and valuable from this passage!” This will
help you to read actively—with relevant questions in
mind—rather than passively, hoping to soak up infor-
mation just by decoding the words.Lesson 1:
What SAT Critical Reading Is All About