2.5 SAT Critical Reading - Pacing Reading Based Passages

Short Passages:  Fast students will finish the SAT short passages in under 3 minutes.  The short reading based passages should be completed more quickly than the longer passages.  If you spend over 5 minutes on these questions plus a slow sentence completion section, you put yourself at a huge disadvantage for the longer passage.  The idea is to work quickly on the fist two sections, namely, sentence completion and short reading based passages, to gain time on the longer passage since the longer passage will certainly have obstacles and harder questions to answer correctly; these questions, rated 4 and 5 on a 1-5 scale, need much more introspection and time to spot small differences in language.  Without a doubt, the more time you have with hard questions, the more likely you may find a small difference that a rushed student may not find. 

Longer Passages: There are three possibilities after the short reading based passages, namely, a very long individual passage, a double passage, or two shorter individual passages.  The idea is to gain as much time as you can for any possibility.  The goal is to get more than 15 minutes on any one possibility, which would require you to finish sentence completion and shorter reading based passages in under 10 minutes.  If you don't get hung on any one question, this is certainly possible.  There will be no one question on either sentence completion or short reading based passages that is important enough to risk your chances at answering questions where half the section lies.  If you risk your chances on the questions related to the longer reading based passages , it might have disastrous consequences to your score. 

SAT Question Sequencing

One trait that I have noticed over the years is how the test maker sequences the SAT questions on the longer reading based passages.  Typically, you will find the easy questions first, but this does not mean that you will find the hardest questions last.  Instead, the test maker loves to place them right around the five-minute warning marker.  Makes sense right?  You are already nervous and then you hear a five minute warning and you still have 5 maybe 6 questions to go, not to mention perhaps some of the questions you skipped, saving for later.  For students who panic, the rest of the five minutes is typically a wash.  They are so befuddled and confused, worrying about not finishing, that they are unable to concentrate. 

But, you should think about this.  Find the questions that you do well and do these first; watch out for time killer questions at question 17, 18, and 19.  They are typically the compare and contrast questions or they contain a lot of language to read through.  Sometimes, it's a question that requires you to flip-flop between the question and passage.  However, remember that all questions are worth the same amount of points, so if you get hung on one question, even if you answer it correctly, you may have risked the chance at answering even more questions correctly.  If you have a problem finishing SAT Critical Reading sections, think about answering questions that you know you do well on; this method requires you to take a few practice tests to get an idea of your pacing and which questions you do well.  Using this information to create a game plan is essential for maximizing your score.