SAT Topics: Reading & Writing

If you've ever taken an SAT or PSAT before, you've probably noticed that the Reading and Writing half of the test always gives you the same problem types in the same order. This is helpful, because it makes it easier to plan out your time, both during the test and prior to it. During the test, you can do all of the comparatively easy problems first, and then if you end up having to guess on any of them, you'll only have to guess on the problems you're less likely to have gotten correct anyway. Prior to the test, you can learn to recognize all of the problems types and learn strategies for dealing with them.

Major Categories or Domains

Craft and Structure — Most of the questions at the beginning of the test, including the vocabulary and some of the reading questions, fall into this category.

Information and Ideas — These are the long, obnoxious problems in the middle of the test. They include the rest of the reading questions, plus all of the evidence and inference questions.

Standard English Conventions — These are the grammar and punctuation questions that you find about two-thirds of the way through the test. They give many people problems, but there aren't that many rules to learn, and once you learn them, these are among the easiest on the test. If you are going to devote study time to practicing for the SAT, this is a good place to start.

Expression of Ideas — These are the questions at the end of the test, including the bullet-point questions at the very end, and the transition questions that precede the bullet-point questions. These might look long and difficult, but once you are familiar with them, they are also among the easiest on the test.

General Strategies

Do the short problems first. — The bullet-point questions and the transition questions near the end are low-hanging fruit. They don't take a lot of time, and once you grasp the patterns, you can gather all of these points relatively quickly and confidently. The grammar and punctuation questions are similar. There are some rules to learn, but not that many, and once you've mastered them, you can gather all of these points fairly easily as well. Depending on how well-read you are, the vocabulary questions at the beginning of the test may or may not be low-hanging fruit as well. (And if you don't know the meanings of the words, spending more time thinking about the question probably won't help you much anyway.) So roughly half of the test consists of brief and comparatively easy points that you should try to gather first. You don't want to waste all of your time on the obnoxious questions in the middle, and end up having to guess on the questions at the end of the test. Make sure you answer the short questions in the last half of the test first, or at least before you run out of time. If you have to guess, you want to guess on the long, hair-pulling, ornery questions in the middle.

Learn the Art of Trimming Sentences — The SAT loves to try to confuse you with long, bloated sentences that have piles and piles of extra words. These are the sorts of sentences where, by the time you get to the end of the sentence, you've forgotten how it began. If you can learn the art of trimming down sentences to the bare minimum, eliminating the distractions, throwing away unnecessary modifiers, subordinate clauses, and parenthetical information, and finding the central idea or the spine of the sentence, then the correct answers often become much more obvious.