SAT Reading and Writing Tips That Work

The 27 questions in a module are ordered by domain: Craft and Structure first, then Information and Ideas, then Expression of Ideas, then Standard English Conventions. Inside each group, questions run roughly from easier to harder.

This ordering is useful. It means you know roughly what kind of thinking each part of the module demands, and it means the hardest question in a group is usually right before the domain switches. If you are behind on time, the smart place to spend a guess is at the end of a group rather than at the start of the next one.

At about 71 seconds per question, there is time to read carefully. These passages are 25 to 150 words. The pressure is not reading speed, it is not overthinking.

This group includes words in context, text structure and purpose, and cross text connections. Words in context questions are the most common single type on the section, so they deserve the most drilling.

For a words in context question, cover the answer choices and predict the word yourself from the sentence before reading the options. Then pick the choice closest to your prediction. Going straight to the choices lets a familiar but wrong word feel right.

For cross text connections, read both passages and write one short phrase for each author's position before looking at the answers. The wrong choices usually describe one author accurately and the other one wrongly, and that is easy to catch when you have both positions written down.

This group is central ideas and details, command of evidence, and inferences. The rule that governs all of them: the answer is in the text. If you have to reason two steps beyond what is written, you have picked the wrong choice.

Command of evidence questions come in two flavors. Textual evidence questions ask which quotation supports a claim, and quantitative evidence questions give you a graph or table and ask which statement it supports. For the quantitative ones, read the axis labels and units before you read the answer choices, because most wrong answers fail on units or direction.

Inference questions end with a blank you have to complete. Read the whole passage, work out what it is building toward, and predict the ending before looking at the choices. The correct answer is the logical conclusion of the passage, not new information.

Two types here: transitions and rhetorical synthesis. Transitions ask you to pick the connector between two sentences. Ignore the choices at first and decide the relationship yourself: does the second sentence agree, contrast, give an example, or state a result. Then pick the transition that does that job.

Rhetorical synthesis gives you a bulleted list of notes and a stated goal, like emphasizing a difference or introducing a study. The goal in the question stem is the whole question. Answer choices that are accurate but do not do the stated job are the standard trap, and there are usually two of them.

This is grammar and it is the most learnable part of the entire SAT, because the rules are finite. Sentence boundaries, subject verb agreement, verb tense, pronouns, commas, apostrophes, modifier placement, and parallel structure cover nearly all of it.

Sentence boundaries alone are worth studying first. A large share of conventions questions come down to whether the punctuation between two clauses is legal. Learn the difference between a comma splice, a semicolon, a period, and a comma with a coordinating conjunction and you will recognize the pattern instantly.

For subject verb agreement, find the subject and cross out everything between it and the verb. Prepositional phrases and clauses are put there specifically to make a singular subject look plural.

Reading the answer choices first. On this section that causes you to evaluate four plausible sounding statements instead of doing the work yourself. Predict, then match.

Picking the choice that sounds smartest. Longer and more sophisticated is not more correct, and on Expression of Ideas questions it is usually the trap.