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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 Science passage
How to approach a Science 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 Science passage with questions
- 11 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: Explicit 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: Explicit meaning and citing textual evidence
Question 3: Explicit meaning
Top tip: For questions like these, we encourage you to
- Pick out key words and ideas in the question
- Scan the passage to find where those keywords appear
- Read around the keywords in the passage to find the answer
- Express the answer in your own words
- Find a match for your prediction in the choices!
Video for question 3: Explicit meaning
Question 4: 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 4: Words and phrases in context
Question 5: Implicit meaning
Top tip
- Simplify the question using your own words
Video for question 5: Implicit meaning
Question 6: Explicit meaning
Top tip: For questions like these, we encourage you to
- Pick out key words and ideas in the question
- Scan the passage to find where those keywords appear
- Read around the keywords in the passage to find the answer
- Express the answer in your own words
- Find a match for your prediction in the choices!
Video for question 6: Explicit meaning
Question 7: Analyzing word choice
Video for question 7: Analyzing word choice
Question 8: Multiple texts/analyzing purpose
Top tips
- If possible, rephrase the question using your own words.
- Go back to the passage and read around the reference—before looking at the choices!
- Predict the answer, expressing it in your own words
- Find a match to your prediction in the choices using process of elimination
Video for question 8: Multiple texts/analyzing purpose
Question 9: Multiple texts/understanding relationships
Top tips:
- RIP-RAP: Rephrase if possible, then read around and predict
- Summarizing the text in your own words and coming up with a prediction will help you eliminate choices
Video for question 9: Multiple texts/understanding relationships
Question 10: Multiple texts/analyzing point of view
Top tips
- Rephrase the question to take control of it. If possible, use How, What, or Why
- Consider positive vs negative. Is the character's perspective strongly positive (++), mildly positive (+), neutral (0), mildly negative (-), or strongly negative (--)?
- Use process of elimination
Video for question 10: Multiple texts/analyzing point of view
Question 11: Multiple texts/citing textual evidence
Video for question 11: Multiple texts/citing textual evidence
Welcome to the end of the article!
Great job!
The strategies in this article 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?
it's tough for someone whose English is 3rd language.
Any Tips for non-native?(47 votes)
Read, read, read, and read. That is the best way to get better.(40 votes)
- I have issues reading large comprehensions I tend to zone out. Do you have tips to help me focus? I feel like I have to read again to comprehend which is time-consuming to me.(37 votes)
I've had this issue a lot too! Here are some things that might help.
I found it helpful to slow down just a bit while reading. This may seem counterproductive for managing time, but when I read a bit slower, I understood the passage better. This meant I zoned out less and was able to answer the questions quicker.
I had a friend tell me it helped them to try and be interested in the content of the passage. Instead of saying to themself "I'm reading this so I can answer the questions and get a good score", they'd try and be engaged about learning something new. Think about it, have you ever had to study to learn the lyrics to your favorite song? Probably not. Since you were interested in it already, the learning came naturally. If you get mentally engaged in what you're reading, you'll be less likely to zone out and more likely to comprehend what you're reading. Of course, it's easier said than done. It can be pretty difficult to be interested in some of the reading passages. Don't feel like you need to convince yourself that the passage content is your new favorite topic.
My third idea may sound a bit weird, but it's to try meditation. Meditation helps people stay focused on one thing for longer and stay calm under pressure. Both of which are helpful on the SAT. I meditated for about 10 minutes every day for the week or so leading up to my AP exams and some of my SAT exams. I feel like it made some difference. Sal Khan has actually made a few meditation videos for complete beginners on YouTube. You can find them by searching for "Khan Academy meditations". If trying to relax while listening to your math teacher isn't your thing, you can find tons of other meditations on YouTube. Just try searching for "meditations for beginners" or "meditations for students" or "meditations for focus". There are also dozens of meditation apps you can download. Depending on how soon your test is, you may not have enough time to see a difference, but nonetheless, it's a good idea. Also, meditation won't instantly help you have incredible focus, but it hopefully will help a bit.
And of course, simply practicing will help you zone out less. It's kind of a boring tip, but I promise practice does help. I know this was long, but hopefully, I said something that will help you. Good luck with your test! (:(124 votes)
- Hey, practicing for the SAT I'm taking next month... I'm having trouble reading and comprehending science passages because they bore me, how can that change?(20 votes)
really try to get into it! It's hard to do when the subject is boring but try to trick your brain into engaging with the article.(29 votes)
- So the articles say the internet can be good and bad for your brain?(10 votes)
Yes, basically. Passage 1 argues that online media, while it may have some benefits, is harming our brain on the whole. Passage 2 disagrees with this, saying that online media won't necessarily affect our thoughts and ability.(26 votes)
- Teacher, my vocab resource is not so wide, so how can I understand passages or how can I improve the ability of understanding without learning extra vocabs?(6 votes)
On practice tests, if there is a vocab word you don't know, learn it. However, on test day, if you don't know a specific word, don't sweat it. Read the entire sentence and you should be able to get a feel of what the word means.(15 votes)
Hi! i will be taking the SAT exam, and English is actually my fourth language,(Arabic,Turkish & Persian being my other languages) so as you may understand it is very hard for me to keep all the words and all the new things that I've learned in my mind. Any tips for that.(9 votes)- Hey, same concern here. I was thinking the same thing earlier. Personally, I would research word/vocab that is commonly used in SATs and study them.(1 vote)
What does happen if you skip a question or two? Will it affect your score a lot?(3 votes)- Skipping a question and leaving it unanswered is something you never really want to do on the SAT. Always make a guess, at least, because getting a question wrong and leaving it blank affect your score the same.
Guessing on a question or two will affect your score, and if you weren't able to eliminate many options you have a high chance of getting those questions wrong, but if it helps you get more easier questions right, guessing on a select few very hard questions might be worth it instead of spending tons of time on them. Ideally, you would want to graduate out of this to where you can comfortably answer every question though.(12 votes)
- I don't have my surname on my official documents, but the college board says it is a mandatory field. what should I do?(8 votes)
- What if we find ourselves in a scenario where all options look confusing even after eliminating, or all seem correct?(2 votes)
This will most likely never happen. Unless you aren't good at all with the concept or know nothing about it. But usually, someone can eliminate at least one of the possible answers. Then, if you can't do anything else, just guess. (Not something I'd recommend usually, but you're on the clock. No need to waste time overthinking something you don't know)
By eliminating just one or two answers, your likelihood of getting the right answer has increased 25-50%!
But don't get in the habit of guessing. This is the point of practice anyway. To not need to guess.
Hope this helps.(11 votes)
- so i have a general problem with reading passages, my avg score is 40 ish out of 52 and i feel like if i have a specific approach to each passage i can do a lot better, can i know exactly how you approach each type of passage or the best way to do it?(6 votes)
