SAT Reading and Writing

The questions fall into four domains, and they appear in a fixed order within each module, easiest first inside each group.

Craft and Structure comes first. It covers vocabulary in context, the purpose or structure of a passage, the function of a particular sentence, and questions that compare two short texts on the same subject.

Information and Ideas follows. It covers the central idea of a passage, which piece of evidence would support or weaken a claim, what a chart or table shows, and what conclusion a text most logically leads to.

Standard English Conventions comes third. This is grammar: punctuation between clauses, subject–verb agreement, verb tense and form, pronouns, and modifiers that must attach to the right noun.

Expression of Ideas closes the module, with transitions between sentences and with questions that give you a set of bulleted notes and ask which sentence best achieves a stated goal.

Because the domains appear in the same sequence every time, you know what is coming. If you are running short of time, the questions you have not reached are grammar and rhetorical synthesis rather than reading comprehension, and those are generally faster to answer.

Some candidates use this deliberately, working the grammar questions first and returning to the reading. Within a module you may move freely, so nothing prevents it.

These open each module and look simple. The passage gives a blank and four words, and the task is to choose the one the evidence supports.

The trap is that more than one option usually fits the sentence grammatically and reads naturally. What separates them is whether the passage gives evidence for that particular meaning. A word can be entirely plausible in the sentence and still be wrong, because the passage supports a different one.

The reliable method is to decide what the blank must mean before reading the options, then find the one that matches.

These ask which finding would most strongly support or undermine a claim, and they are the questions where careful reading pays most.

A claim usually has more than one part. A hypothesis that traffic returns to its former level after a road is widened claims both that more vehicles use the road and that congestion comes back. Evidence for only the first half is consistent with the claim without supporting it, and that is what the most attractive wrong option typically offers.

Some questions carry a figure. These are not calculation questions: the task is to choose which reading of the data supports a stated conclusion.

The common error is picking an option that reports the figures accurately but does not bear on the conclusion. A team concluding that small colonies benefited most is not supported by a statement about which colony was largest, however correctly that statement reads the table.

Choosing an option because it is true. Several options usually state something the passage supports. The question asks which one does a particular job, and truth alone does not do it.

Missing the reversal. Words such as far from, rather than and unlike invert the sentence that follows them, and the blank then needs the outcome that did not occur.

Agreement with the nearest noun. A subject such as the collection of letters, diaries and manifests is singular, and the plural nouns beside the verb are inside a prepositional phrase.

Dangling modifiers. A sentence opening with a participial phrase must follow it with the party that performed the action, not with the thing that was acted upon.