I’m getting consistent 750-800 for math on my practice sats, but i’m getting like 650-690 on the R&W. What are some tips you guys have? I am good with the grammar and vocab, but really struggle on those reading passages and then using it to answer questions (ex. which one of these if true would support the passage’s claim). Should I start reading more often as i don’t read much tbh but i’m getting into light novels which might be childish but I am reading more than I usually do and enjoying it? This would also help me in AP Lang I hope.
Hello! 800 Reading/Writing and 690 Math on the actual SAT here - in my experience, the RW section on the real test was much easier than the practices, and the M was much harder. My strategy for the RW was to read the question and use the process of elimination bc 9 times out of 10 half of the answers didn’t even contain the information that the question was asking for (ex. answers didn’t say anything about miles when the question asked to analyze data in miles). For the ones you’re talking about (which one if true etc.), usually the answers were in the graphics (if there were any) and/or the last couple sentences of the texts. Honestly, I didn’t even read 90% of the paragraphs.
As for reading more - that would definitely help, especially if you do some analysis on your own! I would also recommend doing more practices because the questions are usually of the same variety, just with different details.
(Sidenote - if you have any tips for the math section I would really appreciate that haha)
Can you hire a furor, even for just a few sessions? My kids’ tutor helped a lot with this, would go over wrong answers, explain why they chose that answer, and showed them why the correct answer was correct. Mostly just strategies.
I’m a test prep tutor who does only R&W.
Read the question first. Focus on the key words in the question. Example question:
- Which of the following, if true, would support the hypothesis?
Find the hypothesis. It’s usually clearly stated in the paragraph. Find an answer that supports that by focusing on the key words in the paragraph.
Example from a passage, totally made up:
- The scientists theorized that alpine mountain goats get more calories from clover than from grass. This is the hypothesis.
Read the passage and summarize the main idea into one short sentence.
- Goats that had the best access to clover were larger and had more kids. This is the overall main idea, summarized from the whole passage.
Of your answer choices, which one is discussing something to do with calories and clover, and/or larger/healthier goats that had more kids? Get rid of answers that have nothing to do with that.
Students spend too much time trying to understand every word in those short paragraphs. IMO, it is more important to hone in on words that support the main idea.
Thanks for your tips, for math bro I’m not even sure I am a sophomore and its basically just common sense to me. I’m in Calculus AB though (or I just finished AB) so my math is a little ahead so that might be why.
So basically use common sense right? Like it clearly has nothing to do with it so remove it right, so process of elimination right.
Yes. But if it was as simple as that, everyone would get 800. There is a way to think it through.