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SAT
Course: SAT > Unit 11
Lesson 1: Reading- Active Reading Step | Science passage | Reading test | SAT
- SAT Reading: How to approach a Science passage
- Survey step | Literature passage | Reading Test | SAT
- SAT Reading: How to approach a Literature passage
- Active reading step | History passage | Reading test | SAT
- SAT Reading: How to approach a History passage
- Survey step | Social Science passage | Reading Test | SAT
- SAT Reading: How to approach a Social Science passage
- Worked example: Science passage, part 1
- Worked example: Science passage, part 2
- Worked example: Literature passage, part 1
- Worked example: Literature passage, part 2
- Worked example: History passage, part 1
- Worked example: History passage, part 2
- Worked example: Social science passage, part 1
- Worked example: Social science passage, part 2
- Explicit information | Quick guide
- Implicit information | Quick guide
- Point of view | Quick guide
- Analyzing relationships | Quick guide
- Citing evidence | Quick guide
- Main idea | Quick guide
- Analogical reasoning | Quick guide
- Overall structure | Quick guide
- Purpose | Quick guide
- Part-whole relationships | Quick guide
- Words in context | Quick guide
- Word choice | Quick guide
- Evaluating evidence | Quick guide
- Graphs and data | Quick guide
- Paired passages | Quick guide
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SAT Reading: How to approach a History passage
How to approach a History passage
What's in this article?
This is a full SAT Reading Lesson with videos about a single passage, but it's also packed full of tips and strategies designed to help you with every Reading passage you might encounter on Test Day.
- One full History passage with questions
- 10 videos, including "How to read the passage actively", AND "How to do each question"
- Written explanations for every question
- Tips and strategies that will help on other passages as well!
Let's get started!
The passage
First off, here's the passage we're working with, for easy reference.
(You don't have to read it right now!)
Survey and Active Reading Step
In this video, we'll show you how to quickly skim the passage and the questions so we know what to expect. Then, we'll dig into the passage more carefully, reading actively and asking ourselves questions. We'll sum up in our own words what each paragraph is about as we go along, and we'll mark up the passage to keep track of the most important ideas.
The questions
Okay! Now it's time for the questions. You can use this article in three ways:
1) Questions first, one at a time: Try the questions on your own, one by one, and watch each video after you attempt each question. We recommend watching the video even if you got the question right!
2) One big push First, try all of the questions on your own, then, watch the videos to see how we did them.
3) Videos first, one at a time: Watch the videos first, then try the techniques in the videos by attempting the questions and reading our explanations. If you choose this route, you'll already know the answers to the questions, but it's still good to do them and read our explanations to learn the strategies!
Questions 1 and 2: Implicit Meaning and Citing Textual Evidence
Top tip: For paired questions like these, we encourage you to
- Simplify the first question using your own words
- Try to find the answer to your simplified version of the question by reading the quotations provided in the second question
Video for questions 1 and 2: Implicit Meaning and Citing Textual Evidence
Question 3: Words and phrases in context
Top tips:
- Cover up the choices
- Go back to the passage to find the word/phrase
- Make up your own version of the word/phrase using context clues in the surrounding sentences
- Uncover the choices, and find a match to your prediction in the choices
Video for question 3: Words and phrases in context
Question 4: Understanding relationships
Top tips:
- RIP-RAP: Rephrase if possible, then read around and predict
- Translating the text into your own words and coming up with a prediction will help you eliminate choices
Video for question 4: Understanding relationships
Question 5: Words and Phrases in Context
Video for question 5: Words and phrases in context
Question 6: Claims and counterclaims
Top tips:
- Rephrase and predict the beginning of the question, and then answer it without looking at the choices
- Cross out the choices that don't match
Video for question 6: Claims and counterclaims
Question 7: Part-whole relationships
Top tips:
- Evaluate the structure of the passage or the purpose of the reference
- Ask yourself, "how does this relate to the passage overall?"
- Check that prediction against the choices
Video for question 7: Part-whole relationships
Questions 8 and 9: Relationships and citing textual evidence
Video for questions 8 and 9: Relationships and citing textual evidence
Question 10: Analyzing point of view
Top tips:
- Review the first and last paragraphs to refresh your memory of the passage
- Rephrase and predict to narrow down the choices
Video for question 10: Analyzing point of view
You made it!
Nice work!
The strategies in this article and its videos have the potential to truly transform your score!
They might feel strange at first, and it takes time and repetition to get used to using them consistently—make sure to try them out when you're practicing on your own!
Want to join the conversation?
As we have to give the test on paper during the test day and these strategies are also designed for on-paper test, it would be best if a pen feature is added to the Khan Academy's practice questions, or a highlight feature for the questions too, which is not provided for the passage but not questions in the practice passages.(243 votes)- I agree, that would be very useful(44 votes)
So, history passages; they are my worst enemy. Almost every time I do a history passage practice using Khan Academy I get AT MOST 6/11 questions correct. Even after watching these videos and taking the time to slow down and read the passage, I still don't do as well as I want to. It's just something about how the answers are structured. It is nearly impossible for me to understand the language of the passages no matter how hard I read or dig deep into it. The complexity is so much for my brain, and I feel like no matter how much I do history passage practices I still feel stuck in this level of pure confusion.
At this point, I feel like I am getting nowhere, and with my SAT in the first week of May, I am beginning to feel very anxious.
Does anyone have any strategies other than the ones in the video that might help me, at least by a little? Thank you in advance.(39 votes)
i have that sat date too! the most helpful thing thats worked for me is as soon as i read a sentence i dont understand i replace the words i kind of understand with plain language (basically rephrasing like the article talks about) and writing in the plain easy to understand translations on the paper as i go. by the end of it you should have the "bare bones" of what you're reading.
if you find yourself re-reading the same sentences and not processing any of it break it down word by word and try to figure out if the speaker is saying something positive, negative or neutral (what are they talking about? do they support it? are they against it?)
pretty much all the historical text on sat is the speaker having an opinion on something that was happening
Good luck!(33 votes)
- i have issues with doing history passages. the language is so foreign and outdated that by the end of the passage, i literally do not understand anything. even rereading the passage does not help. is there anything i could do to improve?(14 votes)
History passages are tough for sure, with their confusing wording and phrasing. When you're reading one, if you ever get confused, it's important to ground yourself. Too many people would just read and reread the same sentence or so over and over because they don't understand it. As long as the phrase you're struggling with isn't central to the passage, it's okay to skip it on the first read. Even if a question asks about it, you can just go back to that tiny detail. Second, make sure you're paying attention to the central ideas (you'll find sentences that talk about these most at the beginning and ends of paragraphs, and in the intro and conclusion). Even if big huge sentences and fancy words make them up, break them apart into phrases and clauses, find the meanings of those, and put them together. If it helps, you can jot down the main idea of each paragraph after you've read it. Just make sure that you're able to keep moving forwards and making progress through the passage, instead of getting stuck somewhere.(23 votes)
- how should i tackle a passage that i dont understand?(9 votes)
Hello! If you come across a passage you don't understand, try to reword sentences with simpler words and understand big ideas. To help with this, you can try saying a short 10 word summary after each paragraph to remind you of that paragraph's purpose in the passage as a whole. This will help you realize what the passage is about and answer the questions without as much confusion. Hope this helps!(26 votes)
I read the whole passage and try my best to understand what it is saying. But I don't get a single thing at the end, I feel like I just read it, and that's it. Any tips what is the solution for that?(7 votes)- Reading for the SAT is a lot different than reading for pleasure. You have to read very actively and comprehend both big ideas and small details, all in a very short time. If you're not already, marking up and underlining important bits in the passage helps you remember them better. Make sure to read slowly on the parts of the passage that are more likely to contribute more to the overall idea, such as the first sentence of each paragraph. You might also want to change how you read your passages. You might find better success skimming the passage, then looking at the questions for more direction, or looking at the questions first or whatever. And lastly, try as hard as you can to get yourself interested in the subject matter of the passage. It helps with your focus a ton.(12 votes)
- NGL I read the passage but didn't understand A THING! My mind was all over the place... any tips here guys?(5 votes)
- At least you noticed that you didn't understand a thing. That's good. Too often, people will keep barrelling right on in their reading, not noticing that they aren't actually comprehending what they look at.
It helps to identify which sentences are important in the passage. Usually, the first and last sentences of the introduction, and the first sentence of every paragraph will be pretty important to the plot/structure as a whole. If you take anything from the passage, take the details in these topic sentences.
Another thing you can do is at the end of each paragraph, try and write down a 5-ish word summary of what it was about in the margins right next to the paragraph. This breaks up your reading so your head isn't swimming as much, and also will give you a quick summary of what each paragraph contained to jog your memory if you forget while doing the questions.(8 votes)
Is there an option to do these Tests and be graded on them?(3 votes)
how can I improve my reading skills in history and literature passage(1 vote)
Practice. Read a lot. But also highlight words and sentences you don't understand and look up the dictionaries etc. to learn them so you can understand them when they come up in the future.(5 votes)
- How do you know which questions refer to the paragraph? is there an actual trick or is it just by gut feeling that you could tell the 1st paragraph could answer questions 33-37?(2 votes)
- question 37 asks about a word in line 30 which is at the end of the first paragraph, with the next question asking for the central claim of the second paragraph(3 votes)
- I had little understanding of the passage but the questions made me end up doubting the answer I wanted to go for originally(2 votes)
- Hello! Doubting yourself and your original answers are definitely problems everyone faces on the SAT, but there are some things you can do to make yourself more confident in your answers. Try rephrasing the question and answer choices so they are in simpler terms and easier for you to understand. This way, you will not be intimidated by the wording of the question and will choose your original answer choice. Even if you do not understand the passage fully (which is okay!), try using the process of elimination to pick your answer. Do not panic if you don't have a thorough understanding of the passage, and go with what you know to answer the questions.(2 votes)
