SAT Reading Tips
General Tips for the SAT
General tips for the SAT are broad SAT Reading Tips. When you’re taking the SAT, your proctor will tell you to do a Section 5. Section 5 is an experimental section that College Board uses to collect data about test questions. It has no impact on your score and you don’t have to do it. For both math and reading, the SAT likes to trick you so they tend to put the wrong answers higher on the A, B, C, D multiple choice scale, like wrong answers tend to be A. To combat this, look at the answers from bottom to up, from D to A. This also means that if you need to guess an answer, your answer will most likely be D or something lower at the bottom. For the math section, underlining parts of the question will help you combat making silly mistakes. Also, read the whole question and look at all of the answer choices. This applies for every section of the SAT. You’re also allowed to use a calculator for the math section so don’t forget yours.
The best way for how to score well on the SAT is to practice taking and study from real past SAT tests that you find on Reddit here. You’re better off studying from real past SAT tests than using Khanacademy because even though Khan has some real practice problems and real tests, they also give you practice questions that weren’t actually real test questions. You also see some concepts on Khan that aren’t tested on the real SAT.
The best SAT reading tips (for the evidence-based reading and writing section)
Pick the most unbiased answer choice. Do not choose an answer that sounds too opinionated. Also, the correct answer choice in the reading multiple choice tends to be pretty mild and not really use strong adjectives. In general, reading a lot leading up to the test will help you a lot. I was able to jump 50 points from 700 to 750 on my SAT just from reading whole SAT sections (from real SAT practice tests I got off Reddit) almost every day over the summer. I didn’t even really check my wrong answers too thoroughly, which just goes to show how much passively reading can help.
How to score well on the SAT Writing and Language | SAT Reading Tips
Reading the whole sentence that the SAT writing and language passage question is asking you to refer to is very important. If you don’t read the whole sentence you might miss that there is a dash or a word in a certain place, and knowing that this dash or word is there can mean the difference in you getting the question right or wrong. Also, if the question asks you for the main idea of the passage, think about the passage as a whole. If the question asks you for like a conclusion for this paragraph, do not think about the passage as a whole. Just focus on the paragraph and the answer choice should include things and words relevant to that paragraph.
Big tip: Shorter answers tend to be the correct ones for the writing and language section
A semicolon is basically a period. It separates two complete sentences.
Colon comes after a complete sentence. What follows can be incomplete. Colons are used for things like lists and to elaborate on the first chunk of that sentence.
Example: The article “How to score well on the SAT” began with the following sentence: “How to get SAT Reading Tips”
Must use a dash after a complete sentence. The thing that follows a dash can be an incomplete sentence. A dash is basically a comma. If there can be a comma there can be a dash there.
Examples:
I turned in my homework – early
I will watch the woman’s world cup – even if the US doesn’t know SAT Reading Tips.
A customized arm can be made by a 3-D printer for $200–tens of thousands of dollars less.
Usually, if there is a dash in a sentence and the question asks you about including another punctuation in that sentence, the answer is usually another dash. For when people are saying things, a comma only comes before the talking quotation marks if it is a verb that signals someone is saying something. For example words like “said, says, exclaimed.”
Examples:
Bob said, “I’ll go to Horizon’s blog and check out their article “SAT Reading Tips” (Comma)
Do not put a comma if it’s something like:
When I asked him when he was coming, Bob told me he would “be late because he was on Horizon’s blog post titled “How to score well on the SAT”
Don’t put a comma after the word “that” for a quote
These are two examples of sentences that needed commas. They were tricky to get right, so I included these correct answers here.
1) To perform their jobs in this dynamic environment, writers in many fields, from social services to…
2) Some exodusters returned to the familiar expanse of their home states, but others, including Hickman and her husband told their son to look up “How to score well on the SAT?”
For questions that ask for comma placement with a person’s name and their profession, you put a comma if their name comes first, but if their profession comes first, don’t include any comma.
Examples:
1) As Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, asks, “How to score well on the SAT? ”
2) Local artist and ranger Tony Richards used to love reading Horizon’s blog post titled “How to score well on the SAT?”
Other things to know for the Writing and Language section:
effect = noun affect = verb
Adjectives go after the verb. Example: moving slowly
Knowing what to eat before your SAT test can help you greatly on the reading sections
Dark chocolate has been shown to improve learning, memory, focus, and reduce stress levels. Eating сhосоlаtе boosts уоur blood flоw tо thе brаіn and researchers showed that dark chocolate was superior to milk chocolate based on several cognitive tests. In addition, caffeine boosts concentration and focus. On the SAT reading having this energy drink can increase your focus on the passages in the SAT reading. SATs are usually at 8am in the morning, so drinking some coffee wouldn’t hurt. I have found that for me, drinking an energy drink (I used Reign) while taking a SAT practice reading section made me focus more when reading the passage and do better on the reading questions. Nitrous Oxide in energy drinks can also help you feel more energized. Monster energy nitro is your friend here!
However, you should drink an energy drink while taking a practice test and see how it affects you and if you do better because you don’t want to drink an energy drink for the first time before your actual test and find that it does more harm than good for you. If you’re someone who tends to crash when drinking energy drinks, a suggestion is to bring an energy drink into your SAT. You should also bring dark chocolate to your SAT because they allow you to eat and drink during breaks in your SAT. There are three breaks throughout the test. There is a 10-minute break after the Reading section and a five-minute break after the Math No Calculator section. For these two breaks, you can leave the room, use the restroom, eat a snack, etc.
Cheat
While I don’t condone cheating, it is a method for how to score well on the SAT. On the SAT, you have a time limit for each section. When the time limit is up for that section, you’re not supposed to go back to that section to work on it, even if you did not finish that section. However, I have seen plenty of people flip back to previous sections and work on them in my own SATs tests, and it is very easy to get away with as long as you’re not being too obvious about it. Like I said earlier, when you’re taking the SAT, your proctor will tell you to do a Section 5. Section 5 is an experimental section that College Board uses to collect data about test questions. It has no impact on your score and you don’t have to do it. You’re not allowed to do this, but if you want you can use this Section 5 time to work on previous sections that you haven’t finished or to check your work.
Other resources:
You can check out my post on SAT reading tips.
You can read my post on how to get a perfect score on the SAT.
You can read my post about a great SAT study plan.
You can learn about what year you take the SAT.
