4 Important Techniques for SAT Reading
4 Important Techniques for SAT Reading
<Technique 1> The Standard Deviants Brain Power Method:
- Order of Difficulty - In sentence completions and analogies sections, problems start out easy and get harder. Spend time on the easy ones.
- Guessing - As long as you can eliminate one answer choice, guessing is in your favor.
- Time Management - Spend more time on the easy and medium level questions, less time on the tough questions.
<Technique 2> The PROVE Technique (for Sentence Completions)
P: Positive or negative
Decide whether the word that goes in the blank is positive or negative.
R: Reveal the compass words and the Prove-It phrase
Compass words indicate the direction the sentence is heading.
Prove-It phrases ultimately lead you to the correct answer choice.
O: Off wrong answers
Cross out answers you know are wrong.
V: View the relationship between the blanks
For two-blank sentence completion questions, understand the relationship
between them.
E: Everything works together!
Use these techniques in any order
And, an extra bonus ‘E’:
E: Easy questions have easy answers, hard questions have hard answers.
<Technique 3> The MARRIAGE Method (for Analogies)
M: Make a marriage sentence
Create a sentence that defines one word by using the other word.
A: Ax incorrect answer choices
Cross out answers that don’t make sense when you use the relationship
sentence.
R: Rewrite your relationship sentence
Be as specific as possible.
R: Remove bad marriages
Cross out answers where you can’t make a good marriage sentence.
I: Insert good relationships into question analogy
Take relationships that work from the answer choices, make a sentence
using that relationship with the question analogy words, and
choose the answer that makes the most sense.
A: Avoid traps
Don’t ax what you don’t know!
G: Guess
Easy questions have easy answers, hard questions have hard answers.
E: Exhale and relax
Don’t spend too much time on the hard questions.
<Technique 4> The CHART Method (for Critical Reading)
C: Chart the passage
Quickly skim the reading passage to find out where the information
is located.
H: Hello, line reference!
Answer the questions that use reference line numbers by reading
that section of th text closely.
A: Answer the flotsam
Then move on to the flotsam: those questions that don’t use reference
line numbers.
R: Rate the passages
For double-passage questions, rate the passages and do the easier
one first.
T: Tenacity
Remain focused and persistent. Don’t give up!
