1.2 SAT Critical Reading - Follow the Sequence

Follow the sequence: One characteristic of the SAT sentence completion section that you may always rely on is the sequence of difficulty.  Recognizing this sequence may truly help you to refine your process of elimination skills.  Here's the scoop: The SAT test maker will always give you the easiest questions first.  The questions receive an "easy" based on the (a) difficulty of clue words left in the sentence and (b) answer choices.  What follows then is that not only will the test maker reveal solid clues for you to fill the blank, but it will provide an easy answer choice to fill that blank.  You will find that the answer choices for the first two to three questions will be relatively easy; however, the first two questions typically carry a trap word to throw students off.  I've seen it play out far too many times.  Students will find the one word that clearly fits the bill for the complete answer, but there will be one word that stresses them out and they will find themselves in a pickle.  As they consider which word to go with, they begin to second-guess themselves.  Even though they have a word that works, the mystery of the competing word, the trap, is too tempting. 

Let's consider that a student knows the word "cooperative" works for the answer but a trap word such as "esoteric" is in the list of possible answer choices.  If a student does not know what the word "esoteric" means, he might choose the word as the answer choice, thinking that the test maker only uses words unknown by the student.  In this sense, the self-doubt plays tricks on the student, taking away precious points from the untrained test taker.  Go with the word that fits the bill; do not choose unknown words.

The reason the first two to three SAT questions (in an eight question sequence) are easy is simple: they have simple answer choices.  Do not be fooled by this.  In smaller sequences, such as questions served on a plate of 5 and 6, only expect this for the first two questions, not the third.  This advice may be flipped on the opposite side of the spectrum as well.  The last questions in an 8 question sequence and the last question in a 5 or 6 question sequence are always the most difficult questions to beat. 

However, there is one trick that you may keep in mind to help with process of elimination, namely, if you find an easy word, it is often there as a trap since the word will have, at best, a small connection to the passage.  The great news about this word, i.e., the easy word in the last questions, is that it's a trap to avoid.  Just because you know the word, does not mean you ought to pick it.  Remember the whole object of truly improving your SAT score depends on small gains here and there throughout the test.  You will be surprised how a few questions lead to a big gain.  Do not worry about a perfect score; small victories can lead to winning a war! Simply put, simple question, simple answer; hard question, hard answer.