2.1 SAT Critical Reading - Reading Based Passages

Introduction: For many students, reading based passages may be the most difficult area to gain points.  There are a number of reasons why this is the case, and perhaps understanding the difficulties may lead to an individual awareness of the most troublesome characteristics of reading based passages.  First, the SAT reading based passages are selected readings from myriad topics such as history, sociology, science, and literature.  The simple distinction is that the passages break down into fiction and non-fiction, so immediately you will find yourself favoring one or the other, and more experienced readers like both.  However, the avid novel reader may develop some problems with scientific passages or any other non-fiction piece. 

Second, if the SAT test maker gives you a passage that you do not like, you may find yourself unengaged, reading the passage numerous times only to find that each time you do read it you find little gains of comprehension and more dreadfully you become more confused than before.  Lastly, the passages and answer choices contain complex vocabulary, so if the sentence completion questions were not already a thorn in your side, the reading based passages offer an even stronger challenge.  Keeping yourself as an active, critical reader is essential, regardless of how disconnected you may be from the selected passage or how senseless you find it. 

The College Board suggests that it takes a career of education to do well on this section, meaning that there is little preparation that can be done to improve your score.  I adamantly disagree since preparation for any standardized tests yields results.  So though a strong diet of reading is crucial for success, there are a number of strategies to help with pacing and process of elimination that may help a test taker avoid common traps.  We will explore some of these techniques to improve your score on these questions. 

Reading Based Passages Facts

• There are 48 reading based passage questions; 8 questions stem from short reading passages and 40 questions stem from longer passages.  These questions are divided into three sections: The first two sections range from 24-25 questions which you must finish in 25 minutes; the last and third section of critical reading contains 18-19 questions that you must complete in 20 minutes.
• Short reading passages come in two flavors: (a) a double passage combination, whereby students must compare and contrast the two passages and (b) individual passages that are not related. 
• Short reading based passage selections contain 11-14 lines each; each selection is connected to two questions, though this may vary with compare and contrast reading selections. 
• Long reading based passages come in two flavors as well: individual selection and double passage.
• Long reading based passages are typically 60-90 lines in length connected to as low as 6 questions and as high as 12 questions. 
• Long double passages are typically longer ranging from 70-90 lines connected to 9-12 questions. 
• Reading selection topics range from a large buffet of possibilities.  These include the following: history, science, economics, psychology, politics, communication, literature, etc. 
• The 48 questions are served in a variety of ways, but here is the typical layout: The short reading based passages follow sentence completion, meaning that as soon as you are done with sentence completion, you may dive into 4 questions connected to the passages.  You will find short reading based passages in two of the three critical reading sections.  
• The test maker has no one pattern for offering the longer based passages.   So you may find either flavor, single passage or double passage, in any one of the three sections.  However, one consistent pattern is that you will only receive one long double passage throughout the test. 
• Question types are plentiful.  You may receive the follow question types: summarization questions, figurative language questions, vocabulary questions, inference/extended reasoning questions, interpretation questions, and compare and contrast questions. 

On more than one dimension the SAT short reading based passages are similar to the longer reading based passages.  Given this overlap, it is not necessary to separate each passage, observing that the same techniques may be used for both passage types.  However, when notable distinctions arise such as pacing, I will make these distinctions clear. 

Practice Test Questions

SAT Practice tests for Reading Based Passages

SAT Practice quizzes for Reading Based Passages