<p>Hi! I’m a private tutor. I can usually improve my students’ CR scores by 100 points in a few weeks, provided they have a good foundation in English. </p>
<p>Why is Reading Comprehension Hard?
This is a typical case for me: A student has good grades in English and History, but is stuck at around 600-650 in Critical Reading. Why? </p>
<p>This student is DOING IT WRONG
The student reads the passage, then picks the best sounding answer. He’s answering questions based only on his UNDERSTANDING of the passage. </p>
<p>Instead, it’s necessary to go back and actively MATCH 2 SETS OF THINGS: </p>
<p>KEY IDEA:
- Correct answer must match SPECIFIC SUPPORTING EVIDENCE from the passage
- Correct answer must match the passage’s MAIN IDEA. </p>
<p>Unless the student MATCHES BOTH, he is vulnerable to traps, such as:
-answers that are true in general, but not supported directly by the passage
-answers with support, but less support than another answer choice
-vague sounding answers that are hard to disprove </p>
<p>All of these will match the student’s general understanding of the passage. </p>
<p>Let me show you what I mean:
Get your Blue Book( the Official SAT Study Guide, 2nd edition ).</p>
<p>Look at the passage about art forgery, on page 57. Do the problems if you haven’t.</p>
<p>Look at Problem 1.<br>
Look at answer choice C. “discuss the challenges facing art forgers” DIRECTLY MATCHES 3 sentences from the passage:
Sentence 1. “it must resemble one or more works …. undoctored originals”
Sentence 2. “without something to mimic, the fake could not exist”
Sentence 3. “the forger … must be skilled enough to fool eyes … practiced at uncovering deceit”</p>
<p>The main idea also matches. This is why C is the correct answer. </p>
<p>Look at the traps:
Answer Choice B. “artistic merit of particular forgeries” almost matches sentence 2, but this sentence doesn’t talk about particular forgeries. Sentence 3 does talk about particular forgeries, but does not talk about artistic merit. </p>
<p>Answer Choice D: “catalogue the skills of a successful art forger” almost matches Sentence 3. However, the word “catalogue”, which means “to list”, doesn’t quite fit. “Discuss” works much better. </p>
<p>This problem illustrates how dangerous SAT reading questions are. 3 out of 5 answer choices have supporting evidence, but the real answer has better evidence, more evidence, and matches the main idea. </p>
<p>Look at Problem 2.
Look at answer choice B. “work in the style of another artist” matches Sentence 1, “it must resemble … undoctored originals”
It also matches Sentence 2, “Without something to mimic, the fake could not exist” </p>
<p>The other choices don’t match anything. </p>
<p>HOW TO PRACTICE
- Skip the vocabulary section and give yourself unlimited time.
- Read the passage and write down the main idea in 1 sentence.
- For each question, CIRCLE SEPIFIC WORDS IN THE ANSWER CHOICE AND MATCH THEM TO SPECIFIC WORDS IN THE PASSAGE. DRAW A LINE BETWEEN THEM.
- After each passage, immediately correct your answers. For any question you missed, LOOK UP THE REAL EVIDENCE IN A SOLUTION GUIDE. Make sure you understand where the real evidence is before you move on. </p>
<p>-Make sure you review your mistakes. This is the only way to improve.
-Practice every day, even for 15 minutes. You lose skill for every day you skip.<br>
-Focus on 1 subject at a time. Do either Reading, or Writing, or Math. </p>
<p>What is a match
-The correct answer choice usually matches 2 or more pieces of evidence
-A match is usually a restatement of the same idea using different words.
-If your answer choice is made of 2 ideas, you need to match BOTH.
-“Always” or “Never” answers are harder to prove, since they require much more evidence. The same goes for the author showing extreme emotions or having extreme views. They require more evidence. </p>
<p>Modify your search depending on the question
Imagine you are looking for evidence with binoculars. </p>
<p>If the question asks about the PURPOSE or INTENT, you should zoom out, and look at entire sentences at a time, and try to figure out the purpose behind each sentence. </p>
<p>If the question asks about details in the passage, you should zoom in and look for specific words. </p>
<p>If the question point to a line number, 80% of the time the evidence will be within 5 lines above or below the reference. 20% of the time it will be further away. </p>
<p>Tasting Answer Choices
When you look for evidence for an bad answer choice, you should get a feeling of emptiness or disorientation, a sense that the passage is talking about something unrelated to the thing you are looking for. </p>
<p>You’ll experience this whenever you when you choose bad evidence and miss questions. Hold on to this feeling. </p>
<p>A good answer choice should produce an “aha!” feeling, a “click!” as you find exact and direct evidence. </p>
<p>Where to find solution guides that point to the real evidence.
You have a few choices.
- The best is the SAT Online Course, which has 9 tests and the solutions. Search for a coupon code and you can get it for around $50. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you are using the Blue Book, you can type in “Tutor Ted Solution Guide” into Amazon, and find a solution guide. You can also type in the first 5 words of any question into Google to find discussions for that question. </p></li>
<li><p>Feel free to reply here if you have any questions. . </p></li>
</ol>
<p>When should you give up?
If you read SAT passages and have no idea what they are talking about, you should consider moving to the ACT, which has an easier Reading section than the SAT. </p>