hi muska,

if you struggle with these passages, you may have to improve your general reading comprehension skills. it might also help to concentrate on building your general english skills. the best way to do this is to read as much as possible. we have some suggested reading sources that you can use, and keep in mind that this strategy takes time! you should read every day to prepare.

on yeah the parts i get most confused on are the syntaxes and play on words. like when the passages use words that don’t fit the context. for example

“who dared to call only last week for an investigation of the buildings and grounds department and begged the dietitian to unscramble”

idk how unscramble works in this sentence and ones similar to this. 

and thanks for the response it helped a lot

hi jake, that’s a really good question without a simple answer. are you having trouble understanding the passage because of the vocabulary? or is it because of the syntax (using long and complex sentences to explain a point, as you say)? or are you having trouble determining what to focus on? if you let me know, maybe i can give you a more specific answer, but in general, i would say to not get caught up in the details, unless a question asks you to. if a question is asking about a really specific point, you are likely going to have to go back to that portion of the passage anyway and reread. like lucas says above, the most important part is understanding the overall main idea (i like to concentrate particularly on the first and last sentence of each paragraph–the main idea might not be there, but it often is.) even on sentences that ask about a detail, you will often find that knowing the big picture main idea will help you. for example, on a question like “why does the author most likely include the argument between sarah and john at the beginning of the passage?” the answer is almost always in some way going to be “to support the main idea (of the paragraph or passage)”. of course, the actual answer choice will be something more specific, but if you focus on finding answer choices that connect to the main idea, you will more easily be able to eliminate wrong answer choices. so again, concentrate the most on the beginnings and ends (the first paragraph and last paragraph and the first and last sentence of each paragraph). slow down as you read these parts and stop after you do to paraphrase them in your head; this will help you keep track of the main idea and structure of the passage as you read. then you can pick up your reading speed to normal on the rest of the passage. if vocabulary is an issue, i have to say that more reading and direct vocab study with flashcards are going to be your best friends. practice reading passages that are on the same level as the sat. there are some good sources under #2 on this post: //www.catharsisit.com/hs/sat/2014/how-to-study-sat-critical-reading/. hope that helps!

hi lamara,

i’m afraid of repeating what’s above, but i think i can summarize the main takeaway, and that might help 🙂

1. pay special attention to the first paragraph. read slowly and carefully. there is usually one sentence that really shows the main idea. there’s no single way to identify it, but if it seems to introduce a bigger topic or present a specific opinion, that’s a good sign!
2. as you read the rest of the passage, try to tie the themes and ideas of each paragraph back to that first paragraph or to each other.
3. take short notes about the general topics of each paragraph. revise your idea of the main point of the passage to include those topics. the final paragraph of the passage is especially noteworthy, here.

i hope that helps to clarify!