{"id":1024,"date":"2013-04-17t09:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-04-17t09:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/?p=1024"},"modified":"2015-04-15t22:46:45","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15t22:46:45","slug":"reading-sat-fiction-passages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/","title":{"rendered":"reading sat fiction passages"},"content":{"rendered":"

on every sat, there\u2019s one long fiction passage. it\u2019s usually the longest individual reading passage on the test (which means about 75-100 lines). you might get a shorter fiction passage at only 50 or 60 lines long, but that\u2019s less common.<\/p>\n

the sat likes relatively recent fiction, but it\u2019s not unheard of to see something older. there\u2019s a really a wide range of time periods and writing traditions that the story might come from. there are two things you can be sure it won\u2019t be, though: written in totally antiquated english (like paradise lost<\/i><\/a>) or taken from a young adult series (like twilight<\/i>).<\/p>\n

sometimes you\u2019ll think the story is engaging, which is great. but it\u2019s good to remember that this is the sat, and that means you\u2019re going to have to answer questions.<\/p>\n

so we need to be ready to do that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

read the italics in the passages<\/h2>\n

before every reading comprehension<\/a> passage on the sat, there are a couple of sentences that tell you where the text is taken from and give you a little bit of background info if necessary. you should always<\/i> read this, especially when it\u2019s a fiction passage. for one, it tells you it\u2019s fiction in the first place, and that affects what your note-taking strategy will be (more on that in a moment). besides that, it may give you some important info on the setting and characters.<\/p>\n

even if none of the test questions will actually be about the info in italics, they can be really<\/i> helpful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

gradually describe characters<\/h2>\n

as you read, keep track of which characters you meet. there\u2019ll only be a few\u2014maybe two or three\u2014so this shouldn\u2019t be too tough. but as you read, build up a list of descriptions of those characters. focus on their personalities and motivations especially; how does the author paint them? any adjectives you see to describe their personas are worth underlining or circling. it\u2019s good to be thinking about the author\u2019s intentions when you\u2019re doing this. is the attitude toward a character positive, negative, or neutral?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

distinguish the author\u2019s opinion from characters\u2019 opinions<\/h2>\n

every story has a narrator. that story-telling voice might be from a character within the story (the \u201ci\u201d), or it might be that of the author. think twice about where descriptions of characters are coming from. do other characters say them, or does the author give you them? how do the characters think of each other?<\/p>\n

you want to build up not just an image of each personality but a description of the relationships between them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

write those character traits in your notes<\/h2>\n

those kinds of questions about personalities and relationships are a lot like questions that you\u2019d ask yourself in any other sat reading passage<\/a>. the point is to get a solid understanding of the relationships between the things on the paper. when you understand that, you\u2019re in a good position to make inferences<\/a>, see the big picture<\/a>, and score points on those trickier questions.<\/p>\n

and of course, one of the most useful critical reading tips<\/a> to follow is making sure you read with a pencil in hand.<\/a><\/p>\n

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

on every sat, there\u2019s one long fiction passage. it\u2019s usually the longest individual reading passage on the test (which means about 75-100 lines). you might get a shorter fiction passage at only 50 or 60 lines long, but that\u2019s less common. the sat likes relatively recent fiction, but it\u2019s not unheard of to see something […]<\/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],"class_list":["post-1024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","tag-sat-critical-reading","tag-sat-reading-comprehension","tag-sat-reading-section","tag-sat-strategies"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nreading sat fiction passages - magoosh blog | sat<\/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\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_us\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"reading sat fiction passages\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"on every sat, there\u2019s one long fiction passage. it\u2019s usually the longest individual reading passage on the test (which means about 75-100 lines). you might get a shorter fiction passage at only 50 or 60 lines long, but that\u2019s less common. the sat likes relatively recent fiction, but it\u2019s not unheard of to see something […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"magoosh blog | sat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/magooshsat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-17t09:00:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-15t22:46:45+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\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/#article\",\"ispartof\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"lucas fink\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/#\/schema\/person\/c06e6a007d0b81117c00610ed88b6c7d\"},\"headline\":\"reading sat fiction passages\",\"datepublished\":\"2013-04-17t09:00:05+00:00\",\"datemodified\":\"2015-04-15t22:46:45+00:00\",\"mainentityofpage\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/\"},\"wordcount\":545,\"commentcount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/#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\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"webpage\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/reading-sat-fiction-passages\/\",\"name\":\"reading sat fiction passages - 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