| SAT Reading Test Passage Distribution | |
|---|---|
| U.S. and World Literature | 1 passage; 10–11 questions |
| History/Social Studies | 2 passages OR 1 passage and 1 paired-passage set; 10–11 questions each |
| Science | 2 passages OR 1 passage and 1 paired-passage set; 10–11 questions each |
It is imperative that you use the Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension for every passage on the SAT Reading Test. Doing so ensures that you spend your time efficiently and maximize your opportunity to earn points.
The Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension consists of three steps:
Let’s take a closer look at each step.
Active reading means:
You should ask questions such as:
Make sure you remember to:
This means you should:
This means you should:
Predicting before you peek helps you:
Step 1 of the Kaplan Method for Reading Comprehension dictates that you must take notes as you read the passage. We call these notes a Passage Map because they guide you through the passage and will lead you to the correct answers.
Make sure you pay attention and take note of the following when you map the passage:
While Passage Mapping may seem time-consuming at first, with practice it will become second nature by Test Day, and your overall SAT Reading Test timing will greatly improve because you’ll spend less time searching the passage for answers to the questions.
Just as the passages span different genres, your approaches will also vary from subject to subject. The approach for each type of SATReading Test passage will be addressed in this chapter.
Now, let’s look at the specific passage types individually.
There will be a single U.S. and World Literature passage on the SAT. It is different from the other passages because:
As you read a U.S. and World Literature passage, you should:
Let’s look at the following example of an abbreviated U.S. and World Literature passage and question set. After the mapped passage, the left column contains questions similar to those you’ll see on the SATReading Test on Test Day. The column on the right features the strategic thinking a test expert employs when approaching the passage and questions presented. Note how a test expert can quickly condense the entire passage into a few words, and use his or her Passage Map to ask questions that build a prediction for the correct answer.
| Strategic Thinking |
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Step 1: Read actively Read the passage and the notes provided. Remember, a well-crafted Passage Map should summarize the central idea of each paragraph as well as important topics or themes. Your notes for U.S. and World Literature passages should focus on characters. Use your Passage Map to help you answer each question. |
Questions 1-2 are based on the following passage.
The following passage is an excerpt from English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, published in 1891.
| The women—or rather girls, for they were mostly young—wore drawn cotton bonnets with great flapping curtains to keep off the sun, and gloves to prevent their hands being wounded by the stubble. There was one wearing a pale pink jacket, another in a cream-coloured, tight-sleeved gown, another in a petticoat as red as the arms of a | |
| reaping-machine; and others, older in the brown- rough “wropper,” or over-all—the old-established and most appropriate dress of the field-woman, which the young ones were abandoning. This morning, the eye returns involuntarily to the girl in the pink cotton jacket, she being the most flexuous and finely-drawn figure of them all. But her bonnet is pulled so far over her brow that none of her face is disclosed while she binds, though her complex- ion may be guessed from a stray twine or two of dark brown hair which extends below the curtain of her bonnet. Perhaps one reason why she seduces casual attention is that she never courts it, though the other women often gaze around them. Her binding proceeds with clock-like monotony. From the sheaf last finished she draws a handful of ears, patting their tips with her left palm to bring them even. Then, stooping low, she moves forward, gathering the corn with both hands against her | ¶1: girls work in fields; one stands out |
| knees and pushing her left gloved hand under the bundle to meet the right on the other side, holding the corn in an embrace like that of a lover. She brings the ends of the bond together and kneels on the sheaf while she ties it, beating back her skirts now and then when lifted by the breeze. A bit of her naked arm is visible between the buff leather of the gauntlet and the sleeve of her gown; and as the day wears on, its feminine smoothness becomes scarified by the stubble and bleeds. At intervals she stands up to rest, and to retie her disarranged apron, or to pull her bonnet straight. Then one can see the oval face of a handsome young woman with deep, dark eyes and long, heavy, clinging tresses, which seem to clasp in a beseech- | ¶2: girl's system for work |
| ing way anything they fall against. The cheeks are paler, the teeth more regular, the red lips thinner than is usual in a country-bred girl. | ¶3: girl is pretty; not usual country girl (theme) |
| Questions | Strategic Thinking |
|---|---|
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Identify the key words and phrases in the question stem. The phrase “passage is best described as” implies that you are looking for a description of the passage as a whole. Use your Passage Map notes to find the author’s central theme. Step 3: Predict and answer Although the passage begins with a general description of many women doing agricultural labor, the majority of the passage focuses on the features and actions of one young woman. Choice (D) is correct. |
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Identify the key words and phrases in the question stem. The word “activity” and the line reference indicate you should look at your Passage Map notes surrounding those lines. Step 3: Predict and answer Lines 22-29 include the phrase “clock-like monotony” (line 22) and the Passage Map note says, "girl's system for work." In this context, “system” is synonymous with “routine.” Choice (A) is correct. |
The History/Social Studies portion of the SAT Reading Test will consist of either two single History/Social Studies passages or one single History/Social Studies passage and one History/Social Studies paired-passage set. History/Social Studies passages are different from other passage types because:
Because History/Social Studies passages can be densely written, you should:
Let’s look at the following example of an abbreviated History/Social Studies passage and question set. After the mapped passage, the left column contains questions similar to those you’ll see on the SAT Reading Test on Test Day. The column on the right features the strategic thinking a test expert employs when approaching the passage and questions presented. Note how a test expert can quickly condense the entire passage into a few words and use his or her Passage Map to ask questions that build a prediction for the correct answer.
| Strategic Thinking |
|---|
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Step 1: Read actively Read the passage and the notes provided. Remember, a well-crafted Passage Map should summarize the central idea of each paragraph as well as important topics or themes. Use your Passage Map to help you answer each question. |
Questions 3-4 are based on the following passage.
The following passage is an excerpt from a speech by Canassatego, an Iroquois, as printed by Benjamin Franklin in the 1740s.
| We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced, therefore, that you mean to do us good by your pro- posal, and we thank you heartily. But you who are | |
| wise must know that different nations have different conceptions of things; and you will therefore not take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of education | ¶1: Iro. thank BF for ed offer |
| happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some experience of it: several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern prov- inces; they were instructed in all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad runners; ignorant of every means of living in the woods; unable to bear either cold or hunger; knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy; spoke our language imperfectly; were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, or counselors; they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we | ¶1, cont.: diff groups = diff ed |
| decline accepting it: and to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take great care of their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them. | ¶1, cont.: decline BF's offer (purpose) |
| Questions | Strategic Thinking |
|---|---|
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The key phrases in this question stem are the line reference, “general idea,” and “most likely conveying.” Step 3: Predict and answer The Passage Map notes that different people have different ideas about what constitutes an appropriate and complete education. Choice (B) is correct. |
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Step 2: Examine the question stem There are no key words or phrases in this question stem; the fact that there are no specific keywords indicates this is a general question about the passage as a whole. Use the entire Passage Map to answer this question and particularly focus on the author's purpose for writing. Step 3: Predict and answer The purpose of the passage is to decline Benjamin Franklin's education proposal by providing information about how the Iroquois' own system of education is better for their nation than Benjamin Franklin's offered system. Choice (D) is correct. |
The SAT Reading Test will contain either two single Science passages or one single Science passage and one set of paired Science passages. Science passages differ from other passage types because:
While Science passages can be tricky due to unfamiliar language, you will never need to employ knowledge outside of the passage when answering questions. Use the following strategy when approaching Science passages on the SAT:
Let’s look at the following example of an abbreviated Science passage and question set. After the mapped passage, the left column contains questions similar to those you’ll see on the SAT Reading Test on Test Day. The column on the right features the strategic thinking a test expert employs when approaching the passage and questions presented. Note how a test expert can quickly condense the entire passage into a few words and use his or her Passage Map to ask questions that build a prediction for the correct answer.
| Strategic Thinking |
|---|
|
Step 1: Read actively Read the passage and the notes provided. Remember, a well-crafted Passage Map should summarize the central idea of each paragraph as well as important topics or themes. Your notes for Science passages should focus on the passage's central idea and how each paragraph relates to that idea. Use your Passage Map to help you answer each question. |
Questions 5-6 are based on the following passage.
This passage details the regular journey of a group of green sea turtles from their feeding to breeding grounds.
| Green sea turtles, shelled reptiles that traversed the oceans eons before mammals evolved, are known for their prodigious migrations. One group of green sea turtles makes a regular journey from feeding grounds near the Brazilian Coast to breed- ing beaches on Ascension Island, a barren, rela- tively predator-free island in the central equatorial Atlantic. Proverbially slow on land, these turtles | |
| cover the distance of more than 2,000 kilometers in as little as two weeks. But how is this navigation of deep, featureless ocean accomplished? The sun’s movements seem to provide the turtles with a navi- gational aid, but this is only part of the answer. In addition to possessing good eyesight, green | ¶1: long-dist. turtle migration: how? (central idea) |
| turtles appear to have an excellent sense of smell. In fact, the turtles may orient themselves by detecting traces of substances released from Ascension Island itself. Because Ascension Island lies in the midst of a major west-flowing ocean current, scientists believe that chemical substances picked up from the islands would tend to flow westward toward the feeding grounds of the turtle. As a result, these substances may provide a scented chemical trail that the turtles are able to follow. A mathematical model has been used to show that a concentration of substances delivered from Ascension Island to the turtles’ feeding grounds, though diluted, would probably be sufficient to be sensed by the turtles. The turtles’ eyesight, meanwhile, may help direct the turtles from their feeding grounds into the path of this chemical trail. It is an established fact that turtles are capable of distinguishing between different light densities. Turtles recognize at least four colors and are especially attuned to the color red, because it often appears in their shell color- ation. Researchers believe that these turtles swim | ¶2: use smell to navigate |
| east toward the rising sun at the beginning of their migration, changing course toward Ascension Island’s beaches as soon as their route intersects the scented path. | ¶3: use sight (swim east) & then smell (to beach) |
| Questions | Strategic Thinking |
|---|---|
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The key words and phrases in the question stem are “main purpose” and the paragraph/line reference. The Passage Map notes from the last paragraph will help you answer this question. Step 3: Predict and answer The Passage Map notes for the last paragraph state that the turtles’ eyesight helps them find the scented path discussed in paragraph 2. Choice (A) is correct. |
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Step 2: Examine the question stem The key words and phrases of this question stem are “according to the passage” and “turtles’ eyesight.” Your Passage Map notes will help you identify which paragraph contains the information to answer this question. Step 3: Predict and answer The turtles’ eyesight is discussed in the third paragraph. The author says that turtles are sensitive to the color red: “Turtles recognize at least four colors and are especially attuned to the color red” (lines 33-35). Choice (C) is correct. |