for history passages, the sat tends to use authentic social and political essays from an important historical time and place, such as a civil rights treatise from late enlightenment-period england, or a political opinion piece written in depression-era america. these texts are full of writing conventions, phrases, and cultural references that are different from the ones you’d see in modern writing. i always encourage students to try to read more old-time texts from different eras. reading these older texts will help you adjust to different writing styles form different points in the past.

most older political and social commentary has fallen into the public domain, so you can find a lot of “period piece” essays about historically important issues by looking on the internet. i also recommend reading history books that have a lot of “primary sources” (source material written by people who actually lived in the time period that’s being studied). a people’s history of the united states by howard zinn is one good example of this, and you can check with your local librarian for recommendations on other similar books.