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Introduction to the SAT Reading Test

Page 1

Introduction to the SAT Reading TestWhat Does the SAT Reading Test Measure?
The SAT Reading Test consists of three sections—two 25-minute sections and one 20-minute section—containing 19 sentence completion questions and 48 reading comprehension questions for a total of 67 questions. In no particular order, you'll encounter the following:

• 25-minute section: 8 sentence completions and 16 reading questions
• 25-minute section: 5 sentence completions and 19 reading questions
• 20-minute section: 6 sentence completions and 13 reading questions

There may be some slight variation from test to test, but you can expect this general layout.

Although this is officially called the SAT Critical Reading Test, over one-third of the questions measure your vocabulary. Other than vocabulary, no other specific knowledge is required. Everything you need to answer the reading questions is contained in the passages.

The SAT Reading Test is difficult for two reasons: time pressure and vocabulary. Let's consider time pressure first. You have an average of one minute per question. That's more than enough time for the sentence completions but you'll find yourself pressed for time on the reading passages. We'll talk about how to manage your time later, but for now I'll just leave you with the thought that you'll probably need to leave some reading questions blank.

If you must, sacrifice reading questions, not sentence completions. Sentence completions can be solved more quickly than reading questions, so you buy yourself more time leaving a reading question blank than a sentence completion blank. What's more, as you'll learn, on sentence completions you can always make a good guess if you find yourself in trouble (because these questions are in order of difficulty and the answers are short). It's more difficult to make a good guess on the reading questions (because they're not in order of difficulty, and the answers are relatively long).

In short, the SAT Reading Test measures your vocabulary, and how well you read under pressure.

The More Words You Know, the Better
I'm giving you fair warning: it's highly unlikely to near impossible that you're going to know every vocabulary word that appears on the SAT Reading Test. In fact, many college graduates would have trouble defining every word on a typical SAT. If you know a lot of words, you'll do very well. If you don't know a lot of words, you're facing a struggle.

The sentence completions directly test your vocabulary, and at least three of the reading questions will also ask you to determine the meaning of a word in context. But that's not to mention the difficult words that can appear in other reading questions. Here are some tough words I selected from reading questions and their choices:

• allude
• benevolence
• configuration
• dissipation
• exalted
• incongruous
• juxtapose

• laudatory
• premonition
• rapacious
• refute
• scorn
• subordinate
• urbanity

The more words you know, the higher your SAT reading score. If you're serious about doing well on the SAT Reading Test, you'll make a point of learning as many words as you reasonably can.

Page 2 Help Is on the Way
Fortunately, you don't have to know the definition of every word in a question to answer the question correctly. As you'll learn shortly, using process of elimination means that you'll have to know at most four of the five choices on any question in order to determine the answer. If the answer isn't one of the four choices you know, its in the fifth choice that you don't know. And sometimes you can answer a question knowing even fewer than four of the five choices.

I don't mean to suggest that you'll need an incredible vocabulary to answer the sentence completions and many of the reading questions, but that the more words you learn, the easier the entire SAT Reading Test will be. In addition to the tangible benefit of knowing words, there's also the psychological edge—the kick of seeing a word that you know, especially one that you recently learned.

Here are some of the ways you'll be learning to improve your reading score:

• how to use your time more efficiently by learning which questions you should spend the most amount of time on, which you should spend the least amount of time on, and which you should consider skipping entirely
• how to avoid the dangers of process of elimination, and how to use it properly to answer questions even when you don't understand the answer
• how to improve your comprehension of the passages by reading less
• how to use order of difficulty on the sentence completions to catch potential errors and to improve your odds when you re forced to guess

These techniques are designed to help you get the most mileage from the words you already know, but at the same time you should be working assiduously on your vocabulary.

Before we get to specific techniques for answering sentence completions and reading questions, the rest of this articlewill introduce you to some general skills that you'll be applying later.

Process of Elimination on Sentence Completions and Reading Questions
The great thing about a multiple-choice test is that the answers are always right in front of you. You don't have to come up with the answer to a question out of the blue, you just have to recognize the answer among the choices. It's better than that: you don't even have to recognize the answer if you are able determine that all the other choices are wrong.

Everyone has heard of process of elimination but most students do not apply it correctly. For example, many students decide on the answer to a question first, and then eliminate all the other choices. The key to process of elimination is not looking for the answer, but remaining open-minded until you discover the answer by eliminating all the other choices.

There's a more serious mistake that even you are likely to make from time to time, so pay close attention. There's an enormous but subtle difference between the following two situations:

• eliminating a choice that you know is wrong,

versus

• eliminating a choice that merely seems wrong.

Consider an easy question. The question and answer choices look something like this:

Easy Question:

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

1. Wrong.


2. Bingo, the answer!


3. Wrong.


4. Wrong.


5. Wrong.

No prob, right? It's an easy question and the answer practically pops out at you.

Now consider a hard question. The answer doesn't pop out at all. Now the question and choices look something like this:

Hard Question:

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah

1. Wrong.


2. Could be right, I suppose; I'm not sure.


3. Hunh? Nah, I don't think this is right.


4. What? Hunh? No, this doesn't seem right either.


5. No way, wrong.

The hunh? choices are the ones you have to be careful about. Most students are too quick to eliminate odd choices that seem wrong. I'm not saying that seemingly strange choices are always right. Don't be too quick, however, to eliminate a choice you're not sure about, whether it's a tough vocabulary word on a sentence completion or a choice on a reading question that you don't quite understand.

Page 3 If You Can't Define a Word, You Can't Eliminate It
It's very tempting to eliminate difficult words that you don't know. They aren't nice, they're scary. You don't like really hard words. That's natural.

An easy sentence completion will have an easy answer, so on those questions you don't have to worry about words you can't define. But on medium or difficult sentence completion, never eliminate a word you can't define—at least not initially. Sometimes you'll have to choose between two or more words you can't define. In that situation of course you'll have to eliminate a word you can't define, but initially any difficult word should be treated as a "maybe."

An exception to this rule is that you can eliminate a word you can't define if you know that it's a positive word, say, but the question calls for a negative answer. We'll consider this exception shortly but our general principle stands: on medium and difficult questions, don't eliminate a word you can't define.

In your head, the rhythm of process of elimination should sound something like the following: Could be (A). Definitely not (B). I don't think it's (C), but maybe. Not (D). Not (E). It's either (A) or (C), I'll focus on (A). Oh, it can't be (A) either. I guess the answer is (C) after all.

That's the rhythm you want to establish on all the sentence completion and reading questions, even the easy ones: not-this-not-this-maybe-that-not-that-not-that-I-guess-the-answerr-is-that.

Overconfidence Causes Many Mistakes on the SAT Reading Test
Most students get scared on the SAT, but ironically they don't get scared enough about the right thing. Students should be scared about being overconfident. Overconfidence is thinking you know what a word means when you don't. Overconfidence may even happen to you from time to time.

Being overconfident won't happen to you on an easy word like apparent or controversy. You know what these words mean, no problem.

And you won't get overconfident on difficult words, either. On hard words like anarchy, reticent, and parsimony, at least you know where you stand. Either you looked up a hard word in a dictionary—in which case you know what it means—or you haven't looked it up—in which case you at least realize that you don't know what it means.

If it's not easy words that you have to be on guard against, and it's not hard words, then which type of word should you be most careful about?

Medium Words Are the Trickiest
You're most likely to be overconfident about words of medium difficulty. Medium words are sneaky because nobody ever looks them up. We hear them and read them all the time. Sometimes we even use medium words correctly, even though we don't know precisely what they mean. And because most students do not know what medium words mean, they often either choose them incorrectly or eliminate them incorrectly.

The following drill will give you some experience trying to define some medium difficult words.

Defining Medium Words Drill
Write a brief definition of the words below. Write a definition rather than supplying synonyms or words associated with the medium word. No credit for merely using the word in a sentence.

• plastic
• discriminating
• parochial
• formidable

Compare your definitions with the ones at the end of this article.

Page 4 Either You Know What a Word Means—or You Don't
The most common and dangerous mistake on the SAT Reading Test is not being aware of the difference between knowing what a word means, and thinking you know what a word means.

Knowing a word means that you can define it. There's no in-between, like sort of knowing what the word means, or kind of knowing what it means, or being able to use it in a sentence.

If you can't define a word in a few seconds—if you aren't "dictionary-sure"—you don't know what it means!

Trying to Figure Out What a Word Means Is Usually a Huge Waste of Time
Many students try to figure out the meaning of words they don't know or can't remember on the SAT. They may have been told, for example, to use Latin or Greek "roots" to "decipher" a strange word.

This sometimes works on easier questions, but more often it's a big waste of time. Some students will puzzle over a particular word for as much as 15 seconds or more. What's worse, after spending time wrestling with a difficult word, you can't be sure whether you've correctly deciphered what the word means.

If you can't define a word in a few seconds—leave the choice as a "maybe" and move on! On sentence completions you can sometimes deduce what a word within the sentence means. And, as you'll learn shortly, once you know the meaning of a word you're looking for, you can work backward from the choices to the definition.

Otherwise, don't labor over difficult words. You'll need the time for the words you do know, and for the reading passages.

Beware of Easy Words with Hard Second Definitions
Sometimes, usually on the hard sentence completions, you'll see a simple word that seems out of place. Be very, very careful: it's possible that the word is being used in a different sense from the one you usually associate it with.

For example, the word distant means far away. If we say a person is distant, however, we don't mean that he or she is literally far away; we mean he is reserved, or lost in thought. The word qualify means to meet some standard, but it can also mean to make an exception to a general statement. Or take the word guarded. It can mean closely watched, but it can also mean cautious.

Sometimes parts of speech will be a clue. All the choices on a question—whether sentence completions, or vocabulary-based reading questions—will be the same part of speech.

For example, consider the word pedestrian. You know what it means as a noun, but do you know what it means when used as an adjective? (It means ordinary, common, uninspired.) Or take the word champion. Again, as a noun the meaning is easy, but do you know what it means when used as a verb? (It means to stand up for something, as in fighting for a noble cause.)

The following drill will hone your skill at spotting easy words with hard second definitions.

Don't start second-guessing whether every easy word on the SAT Reading Test has a hard second definition. On the sentence completions, easy words with hard second definitions will show up—if they show up at all—once, at most twice, on the hard questions. These words can show up several times, however, on the vocabulary-in-context reading questions.

Second Definition Drill
The following words have all appeared on SATs in the context of their second definitions rather than their more common first definitions. See if you can match the easy word with its hard second definition. Use process of elimination; some of these are very hard words. You'll find the answers at the end of the article.

Easy Word Hard Second Definition (scrambled)

---

1. conviction A. calm 2. buoyant B. endanger 3. slight C. seriousness 4. complex D. certainty 5. composed E. insult 6. eclipse F. equivalent 7. parallel G. seize 8. diversion H. cheerful 9. detached I. entertainment 10. gravity J. network 11. appropriate K. uninvolved 12. compromise L. surpass

Page 5 Beware of Easy Looking Words That You Don't Know
Sometimes you'll encounter a word on a difficult sentence completion that looks a lot like an easy word you know, but whose meaning is completely unrelated to the word it reminds you of. Again: be very careful about trying to figure out what a new word means on the SAT.

For example, the word impassive does not mean "not passive" (it means dispassionate, without feeling, coldly objective). The word fatalism has nothing to do with death or dying (it means being resigned to defeat). Or take the word decorum, which has nothing to do with decoration (it means socially accepted behavior). Disinterested does not mean not interested (it means neutral or impartial).

The stronger your vocabulary, the more you can rely on your ability to deduce a word's meaning. Still, trying to figure out the precise definition of a new word is dangerous. It's much safer to determine whether the unknown word is a "good" word or a "bad" word.

If You Can't Define a Word, Immediately Establish Whether It's Positive or Negative
You either know what a word means or you don't. But even when you can't define a word you will usually have enough of a sense of the word to decide whether it's positive or negative. You may have heard your English teacher referring to this concept as the connotations of a word.

Why is knowing a word's connotations so important? Often all you need to know about a word to eliminate it is whether it's positive or negative. If you know the connotations of a word, you'll often be able to eliminate it regardless of whether you can define the word or not.

When we speak of positive words on the SAT, we mean it in the most general sense. Warmth, for example, is a positive word; argument is a negative word.

Some words, like table or water, are neither positive nor negative. On the SAT, however, most words will at least lean one way or the other. Whenever possible, even with neutral words, try to decide whether a word is positive or negative.

Don't flip a coin to decide whether a word is positive or negative. It's worth spending a few seconds to try to get a "sense" of the word. Compare the spelling of the word with words you already know. You're trying to "get a feel" for the word by comparing it with words you know with similar spellings. If you know a foreign language like French or Spanish or Italian, you can use your knowledge of these words, too.

Beware of relying solely on the prefix of a word. Many students, for example, assume that any word beginning with "dis" is negative, until I point out words like discover or display. Negative prefixes—like un, dis, a, and sometimes in—reverse the root following it, and so "flip" an otherwise positive or negative word. Take the word discover. Cover is a negative word, so the negative prefix dis flips the entire word to positive.

When comparing the unknown word to words you know, try to find overlaps that are at least three or four letters; the more the better. If the comparison words are positive, then the odds are overwhelming that the mystery word is positive, too.

You won't always be able to tell whether a word is positive or negative, but most of the time you will. The following drill will give you practice.

Positive or Negative Drill
The following words are very difficult; if you know more than a few I'm super impressed. Spend a moment or two—no more than five seconds each—and decide whether a word is positive or negative. Indicate your choice with a plus ( + ) or a minus ( — ). You'll find the answers at the end of this article.

1. amity (   ) 2. vogue (   ) 3. foible (   ) 4. placate (   ) 5. virulent (   ) 6. revere (   ) 7. plaintive (   ) 8. equanimity (   ) 9. disparage (   ) 10. virtuoso (   ) 11. acerbic (   ) 12. salutary (   )

Page 6 Keep the Difficulty of a Word in Mind
Knowing the difficulty of a word is important on the sentence completion questions because these questions—unlike the reading questions—are arranged in order of difficulty. As you'll learn in The SAT Sentence Completions: Basic Principles, the answer to an easy sentence completion will be an easy word; the answer to a hard sentence completion is almost always a hard word. Being able to judge a word's difficulty quickly is an enormously powerful tool when it comes to selecting the answer to sentence completions when you're undecided or even completely stuck.

We determine the difficulty of a word not by whether we know it, but by estimating how many people in general know it. An easy word is one everyone knows; a hard word is one very few people know. Medium words fall somewhere in between.

It's important to remember that the difficulty of a word is not your opinion of the difficulty, but rather an objective standard. You and I should be in close agreement on the difficulty of any given word. Just because you happen to know the definition of a difficult word does not make the word easy. Easy words are easy for everyone; difficult words are difficult for everyone.

So you and I both mean the same thing when we refer to easy, medium, or difficult words, I've prepared the following quick drill. With practice you should be able to recognize the difficulty of a word at a glance.

If you have trouble judging the difficulty of a word, rely on the general rule that longer words tend to be harder than shorter words. If English is not your first language, judging the difficulty of words may not be easy. If your first language is a Romance language such as French, Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese, you may have an easier time recognizing longer, harder words (which are more likely to be related to your original language) than you will recognizing shorter, easier words (which are more likely to be related to Old English or Germanic roots).

Judging Word Difficulty Drill
The following table of words are representative of the full range of difficulty you will encounter on the choices to sentence completion questions. They are in random order. Your job is to assess the difficulty of each word.

Start by deciding first whether a word is easy, medium, or hard. Once you've got a general bearing, refine your estimate up or down to easy-medium or medium-hard if necessary.

Before you rate any words, read through the whole list first so you have a sense of the words as a whole. Use a scale of 1 (easy) to 5 (hard), with 3 as average (medium). Here's a rough translation of the various difficulty levels to help guide you:

1. easy (most students probably knew this word in sixth grade) 2. easy-to-medium (most students could give an accurate definition of this word) 3. medium (most students could offer at least a rough definition of this word) 4. medium-to-hard (some students would recognize this word, but many would not be able to define it) 5. hard (most students would not have a sense of this word, and many might not even recognize it.)

Remember to read through the entire list once before rating any words. Work carefully but quickly; try to spend no more than a second or two on each word. Once you've finished rating all the words, feel free to go back and reassess any words you were unsure about. As a first step, consider finding the two or three very easiest words and the two or three hardest words and rating those with 1s and 5s respectively. See the last page for the answers.

1. voluntary (   ) 10. subtle (   ) 2. expenditures (   ) 11. fertile (   ) 3. munificent (   ) 12. formal (   ) 4. confide (   ) 13. validity (   ) 5. adequate (   ) 14. serene (   ) 6. innate (   ) 15. capricious (   ) 7. repel (   ) 16. articulate (   ) 8. somber (   ) 17. viable (   ) 9. proclivity (   ) 18. apathy (   )

Page 7 Answers to the Defining Medium Words Drill
I chose the medium words of this drill as examples of ones that students typically get overconfident about being able to define. Don't get discouraged if you tripped up on some of these, the point of the drill was to make you more cautious.

1. plastic Capable of being shaped or formed; easily molded or influenced; malleable 2. discriminating Showing careful judgment; perceptive; astute 3. parochial Having a limited outlook; narrow-minded; provincial 4. formidable Arousing fear, dread, awe, or wonder; threatening; intimidating

Answers to the Second Definition Drill

Easy Word Hard Second Definition

---

1. conviction D. certainty 2. buoyant H. cheerful 3. slight E. insult 4. complex J. network 5. composed A. calm 6. eclipse L. surpass 7. parallel G. equivalent 8. diversion I. entertainment 9. detached K. uninvolved 10. gravity C. seriousness 11. appropriate F. seize 12. compromise B. endanger

Answers to the Positive or Negative Drill
As I mentioned, the words in this drill are all very difficult. Even without knowing the precise definition of these words, however, you probably got most of these right.

1. amity (+) 2. vogue (+) 3. foible (—) 4. placate (+) 5. virulent (—) 6. revere (+) 7. plaintive (—) 8. equanimity (+) 9. disparage (—) 10. virtuoso (+) 11. acerbic (—) 12. salutary (+) If you missed more than two or three of these, you should work on developing your sense of words more before you look them up. Whenever you encounter a new word, try to decide whether it's positive or negative without relying on the context; you won't have context to help you on the answer choices.

Answers to the Judging Difficulty Drill
The following assessment of difficulty is based on the percentage of high school students who know the words in the list, ranked from 1 (easy) to 3 (medium) to 5 (difficult).

Sometimes it's a judgement call whether a word is an easy or an easy-medium, say, or a medium versus a medium-hard. So long as you're within plus or minus 1 of the rankings below, you're fine. If you're off consistently, determine whether you tended to overestimate or underestimate the rankings. If your vocabulary is strong, for example, you may tend to underestimate the difficulty of words; if your vocabulary is on the weak side, you may tend to overestimate the difficulty of words.

1. voluntary (2) 10. subtle (4) 2. expenditures (3) 11. fertile (2) 3. munificent (5) 12. formal (1) 4. confide (3) 13. validity (2) 5. adequate (1) 14. serene (3) 6. innate (4) 15. capricious (5) 7. repel (2) 16. articulate (3) 8. somber (3) 17. viable (5) 9. proclivity (5) 18. apathy (3)