SAT Reading and Writing Prep Notes
Unit 1: Information and Ideas
Textual evidence
- In the SAT there will be times where you will receive textual evidence questions.
- They will be split into scientific evidence and literary evidence questions.
- Each of these types will give you a small piece of text and have you answer
based on a hypothesis on an experiment or argument about a literary work.
- How do you solve them effectively?
- 1, Identify the argument or hypothesis within the text. It is usually clearly stated.
- 2, Take that claim/hypothesis and put it into the simplest terms possible. The best
choice will align with the argument.
- 3, examine all the choices carefully, whilst maintaining pace. Use the process of
elimination and select the choice with confidence.
- Remember to eliminate the choices that are too broad and don't focus on the
given piece of text.
- The answer is direct and leaves you with no doubt that it IS the answer.
- Don't pick the answer that you need to really jump through hoops to relate it to
the hypothesis/claim within the passage.
- The answer is always the STRONGEST source of evidence.
- Essentially, be specific and be strict.
Command of Quantitative Evidence
- At times, the SAT will give you questions that show quantitative graphs and ask
you about the data presented in relation to a small piece of text.
- These graphs that they give tend to give you a lot of information. In fact, they
give you a lot of information that you DON'T need to complete the prompt.
,- When skimming the graph, look at the information that you need and don't allow
yourself to drift off from the prompt. The prompt already tells us clearly what to
look for!
- These questions have 2 types of wrong answers: false statements and true
statements.
- False statements are just plain wrong and dont support the information given by
the graph.
- True statements are correct when you look at the graph but may not give us a
direct answer that effectively completes the prompt below the graph.
- Make sure to eliminate these responses!
- Well, how do you approach these problems?
- First, skim the graph for vital information which shouldnt take too much time to
do. For example, go straight into looking at the title, labels, units, and the key.
- Then, read the paragraph/prompt which will give you what information to look for.
- At times the paragraph will explicitly tell you what to look for where you can just
eliminate the incorrect data.
- Other times, the paragraph will present a general argument and ask when a
statement from the data proves it the best. In these scenarios, you can put the
argument into your own words and compare it to all the options to see which
works best.
- Afterwards, you then validate the choice and get rid of those false statements
that are flat out wrong when compared to the data!
- Finally, all you have is the true statement(s) and your correct answer!
- You then take your summarized arguments and compare it to each option. Only
one will completely and directly support the argument. Select that option with
confidence.
, - The graph contains a bunch of information. To keep track of the data you need,
use your cursor to color the graph and highlight important parts within the
prompt.
Central Ideas and Details
- Central ideas and detailed questions focus on your reading comprehension and
synthesis abilities.
- You don't need any outside information and only need to focus on the piece of
text that they give you.
- The questions are pretty surface level and don't require heavy analysis.
- However, you must read the passage carefully.
- A central or main ideas should,
- Cover most of the details in the text
- Mention any really important details in the passage
- A central or main ideas should NOT,
- Focus too much on one (perhaps minor) detail
- Introduce new information
- Contradict any information given by the passage
- At times, you will get a question that asks about a specific detail presented within
the text.
- You can solve detailed questions by referring to a specific sentence within the
text which is indicated by the details in the question itself.
- Then, just validate the details.
- Here's the main things you need to know when approached by one of these
questions:
- First, summarize the passas in your own words
- Determine the task in the question
Unit 1: Information and Ideas
Textual evidence
- In the SAT there will be times where you will receive textual evidence questions.
- They will be split into scientific evidence and literary evidence questions.
- Each of these types will give you a small piece of text and have you answer
based on a hypothesis on an experiment or argument about a literary work.
- How do you solve them effectively?
- 1, Identify the argument or hypothesis within the text. It is usually clearly stated.
- 2, Take that claim/hypothesis and put it into the simplest terms possible. The best
choice will align with the argument.
- 3, examine all the choices carefully, whilst maintaining pace. Use the process of
elimination and select the choice with confidence.
- Remember to eliminate the choices that are too broad and don't focus on the
given piece of text.
- The answer is direct and leaves you with no doubt that it IS the answer.
- Don't pick the answer that you need to really jump through hoops to relate it to
the hypothesis/claim within the passage.
- The answer is always the STRONGEST source of evidence.
- Essentially, be specific and be strict.
Command of Quantitative Evidence
- At times, the SAT will give you questions that show quantitative graphs and ask
you about the data presented in relation to a small piece of text.
- These graphs that they give tend to give you a lot of information. In fact, they
give you a lot of information that you DON'T need to complete the prompt.
,- When skimming the graph, look at the information that you need and don't allow
yourself to drift off from the prompt. The prompt already tells us clearly what to
look for!
- These questions have 2 types of wrong answers: false statements and true
statements.
- False statements are just plain wrong and dont support the information given by
the graph.
- True statements are correct when you look at the graph but may not give us a
direct answer that effectively completes the prompt below the graph.
- Make sure to eliminate these responses!
- Well, how do you approach these problems?
- First, skim the graph for vital information which shouldnt take too much time to
do. For example, go straight into looking at the title, labels, units, and the key.
- Then, read the paragraph/prompt which will give you what information to look for.
- At times the paragraph will explicitly tell you what to look for where you can just
eliminate the incorrect data.
- Other times, the paragraph will present a general argument and ask when a
statement from the data proves it the best. In these scenarios, you can put the
argument into your own words and compare it to all the options to see which
works best.
- Afterwards, you then validate the choice and get rid of those false statements
that are flat out wrong when compared to the data!
- Finally, all you have is the true statement(s) and your correct answer!
- You then take your summarized arguments and compare it to each option. Only
one will completely and directly support the argument. Select that option with
confidence.
, - The graph contains a bunch of information. To keep track of the data you need,
use your cursor to color the graph and highlight important parts within the
prompt.
Central Ideas and Details
- Central ideas and detailed questions focus on your reading comprehension and
synthesis abilities.
- You don't need any outside information and only need to focus on the piece of
text that they give you.
- The questions are pretty surface level and don't require heavy analysis.
- However, you must read the passage carefully.
- A central or main ideas should,
- Cover most of the details in the text
- Mention any really important details in the passage
- A central or main ideas should NOT,
- Focus too much on one (perhaps minor) detail
- Introduce new information
- Contradict any information given by the passage
- At times, you will get a question that asks about a specific detail presented within
the text.
- You can solve detailed questions by referring to a specific sentence within the
text which is indicated by the details in the question itself.
- Then, just validate the details.
- Here's the main things you need to know when approached by one of these
questions:
- First, summarize the passas in your own words
- Determine the task in the question
