{"id":1026,"date":"2013-04-11t09:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-04-11t09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/?p=1026"},"modified":"2016-02-04t13:41:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04t21:41:02","slug":"reading-sat-passages-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/","title":{"rendered":"reading sat passages faster"},"content":{"rendered":"

note: this post has been updated to reflect changes in the sat beginning march 2016 (aka the “new” sat). <\/em><\/p>\n

okay, so picture this: it\u2019s saturday morning and you\u2019re taking the sat. you\u2019re working on the reading<\/a> test, and you\u2019ve got about 5 minutes left in the section. you think you\u2019re golden; you\u2019re just about to answer the last question on your last reading passage.<\/p>\n

then, after you bubble in your answer, you realize you\u2019re screwed. on the next page, there\u2019s another passage. you\u2019re not sure how you didn\u2019t realize that before<\/a>, but it\u2019s going to be impossible to read it and get any of the answers before time\u2019s up, right?<\/p>\n

maybe this isn\u2019t such a hypothetical situation for you\u2026 we\u2019ve all faced moments of panic on a test when we realize the hourglass is quickly emptying out. but don\u2019t let this paralyze you; instead you can switch gears to a special strategy that can greatly improve your chances of picking up some more points on sat reading: speed reading. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

speed reading for the sat<\/h2>\n

alright, so i\u2019m not going to tell you you\u2019re going to read this post and come out a speed reading master. and i\u2019m not going to recommend any courses, videos, or software that does promise you that, because i have a hard time believing that anybody\u2019s going to go from reading 200 words per minute to reading 500 words per minute and keep their level of comprehension. and i think this guy<\/a> is a charlatan.<\/p>\n

that being said, there\u2019s something to be learned from the common speed reading wisdom. first off, don\u2019t reread. minimize it, at least. your goal is to get the structure and key information from the passage, not to understand every detail perfectly.<\/p>\n

secondly, try to see larger chunks of text at once. you should be looking at sentences\u2014<\/i>or at least significant chunks of sentences\u2014not at individual words.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

focus on the right parts of the passage<\/h2>\n

sat readings tend to have the main point in the first paragraph, so read that paragraph more carefully. each paragraph is also going to have one more important idea, and that\u2019s more often than not brought up in either the first or last sentence of the paragraph.<\/p>\n

so then, read the first paragraph (or two if they\u2019re really short) at your normal, comfortable pace. make sure you really absorb that one.<\/p>\n

keep that pace for the first sentence of the next paragraph, but then speed up. <\/i>if your comprehension goes down a bit, that\u2019s alright. you\u2019re on the lookout for the main ideas of each paragraph\u2014not the details.<\/p>\n

once you get to the end of the paragraph, slow down again. read that last sentence or so more carefully, looking for hints about the main point of that paragraph.<\/p>\n

after you finish the paragraph (having only skimmed the middle of it), ask yourself questions.<\/a> \u201cwhat did the author want to communicate? how did it relate to other paragraphs?\u201d and note it down.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

use the questions as a guide<\/h2>\n

once you have that overview understanding, move right on to the questions. you\u2019re going to do a lot of rereading as you answer them, and that\u2019s the time to pay attention to detail<\/a>\u2014especially if the question is asking you about specific lines of text.<\/p>\n

that\u2019s why you don\u2019t want to reread while you\u2019re going through the passage the first time. you\u2019re going to see the important parts again anyway.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

read a lot of sat passages before the day of your test<\/h2>\n

because the sat is standardized, there are a lot of similarities between passages. they\u2019re on similar topics, are from similar eras, and use pretty common vocabulary and typical grammar. the best way you can get comfortable with that language and those topics is to get exposed.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

note: this post has been updated to reflect changes in the sat beginning march 2016 (aka the “new” sat). okay, so picture this: it\u2019s saturday morning and you\u2019re taking the sat. you\u2019re working on the reading test, and you\u2019ve got about 5 minutes left in the section. you think you\u2019re golden; you\u2019re just about to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[43,46,85,44],"ppma_author":[24883],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nreading sat passages faster - magoosh blog | high school<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"reading sat passages faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"note: this post has been updated to reflect changes in the sat beginning march 2016 (aka the “new” sat). okay, so picture this: it\u2019s saturday morning and you\u2019re taking the sat. you\u2019re working on the reading test, and you\u2019ve got about 5 minutes left in the section. you think you\u2019re golden; you\u2019re just about to […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"magoosh blog | high school\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshsat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-11t09:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-02-04t21:41:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"lucas fink\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@magooshsat_act\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"lucas fink\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"article\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"lucas fink\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#\/schema\/person\/c06e6a007d0b81117c00610ed88b6c7d\"},\"headline\":\"reading sat passages faster\",\"datepublished\":\"2013-04-11t09:00:04+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2016-02-04t21:41:02+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/\"},\"wordcount\":668,\"commentcount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"sat critical reading\",\"sat reading comprehension\",\"sat reading section\",\"sat strategies\"],\"articlesection\":[\"sat\"],\"inlanguage\":\"en-us\",\"potentialaction\":[{\"@type\":\"commentaction\",\"name\":\"comment\",\"target\":[\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"webpage\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/reading-sat-passages-faster\/\",\"name\":\"reading sat passages faster - 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