Reading Comprehension (SAT & ACT) – Level 3

These passages are generally taken from very short stories or excerpted from novels or personal essays. These are quite different from all the other kinds of readings; rather than be informative, they tell a story, may include dialogue, might have no clear aim or message, and are fundamentally creative.

These passages may be contemporary, but are frequently from classical literature, which can be more difficult to read, especially when one is not used to the adjustments to older, perhaps more creative, flowery styles of English.

Since there is a lot of literature in the world that is potentially available to the average high schooler, it is highly unlikely that you will have seen the reading you are given, thus any use of “foreknowledge” is unlikely and probably inadvisable even if available to you, since all the questions are designed assuming that you do not know the rest of the book that was not excerpted. In fact, answering the questions based on knowledge of the whole book might lead to wrong answers.

Strategies:

• Figure Out What is Going On
  • You are often placed into a story you do not know and will leave it before it ends; this can be quite disorienting. Do not get frustrated; feeling this way is only natural and is expected. Your job, then, is merely to find your orientation: figure out what is going on in the story. For example, if the passage is dialogue dense, try to figure out what is driving the conversation rather than analyze the words being said; you have entered the middle of a conversation between friends, and you are trying to figure out what they are talking about and why they are talking about it.

• What’s the point?
  • Since this is not a transcription of a real dialogue or a news story about real people but is fundamentally a crafted story given for some creative purpose, there is some “intent” behind it all. It’s not merely informative or argumentative like the other readings. This is the author delivering a message in the word of an allegory. What is the author’s purpose in writing these words at all? What are they trying to tell us ultimately? These are often the gist of many questions on literature passages.

• What’s the organization of the story?
  • Since there is not a formulaic structure to a literature passage like there is for a short essay on a topic, the structure of the narrative is perhaps a bit more interesting to consider and is often a question being asked. Mark pivotal points in the story or except; think about the form of the story; are there meaningful contrasts, parallelisms, climaxes, revelations, etc.? Think about how this/these pivotal points in the story impact the overall course or meaning of the narrative (author’s intent).

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These passages might look familiar or be about familiar topics, since they will likely be excerpted from US founding documents or be about US historical topics. You might have even read some of these documents in your high school US history class. Some examples from previous tests include:

• Louisiana Purchase Documents, Presidential Addresses, Marshal Plan, Thomas Jefferson Letters, The Federalist Papers, Gettysburg Address, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Articles of Confederation, etc.

Other possible historical documents might include those from the “Great Global Conversation,” which are texts that are historically and culturally important globally. Examples include:

• Speeches addressed to the UN, Civil Rights speeches by Martin Luther King, anti-apartheid speeches by Nelson Mandela, Indian independence speeches by Mahatma Gandhi, Nobel Peace Prize speeches such as those by Malala Yousafzai and Wangari Maathai.

In Social Studies and Humanities one can expect various popularly targeted articles about topics ranging from economics to education and from law to linguistics. These will be fairly accessible and not too technical in their scope, rather more informative.

Strategies:

• This is the SAT/ACT, not a history test
  • A common novice mistake on taking the SAT/ACT and encountering a history reading is to read for history facts (i.e. trivia). This is NOT what to do. This SAT/ACT will not likely ask about various factoids from the history reading.

• It’s about the intent and argument, not the history
  • As a consequence of the above tip, generally expect to be asked about “big picture” questions that tie such trivia facts together. So, when coding, distilling, and reading, do not get bogged down by trying to collect trivia. Think about what idea the author is trying to convey, how they have conveyed it, the structure of the presentation, the various aspects of the argument/thesis/information.

• Use what you know to your advantage
  • The history and humanities readings are “true.” By this I mean that they are based on real things in the real world. Thus, if you already know stuff about these real things in the real world in which you live, that foreknowledge can be a useful tool to eliminate simply false or illogical answer choices. The only caution that comes with this is to not lean too much on foreknowledge, since all questions still must be answered based solely on what is in the passage. Thus, sometimes outside knowledge can lead you to a false answer to questions like “based on the information given in the passage, what would the author of this passage most likely agree with?”; while there might be an answer that seems true and agreeable given a knowledge of the topic, if the author does not mention this information, it might not be the “best answer to this question based on the information from the passage.”

• Use the intro to refocus your frame of reference
  • As a consequence of the above tip, use the introductory information to put yourself in the frame of refence of the reading, especially for historical readings. This will not only tell you the topic, but potentially the audience and time. For example, the document might not only be about the Louisiana Purchase, but might be the purchase document itself, in which case one might think about the frame of reference of the time of this documents drafting, the parties exchanging this document, these parties goals in drafting this document and making this exchange, etc.

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Generally, science-oriented reading passages (not to confused with “Science” passages on the ACT) will concern foundation concepts that most high schoolers will likely be somewhat familiar with (cells, lights, plate tectonics, layers of the earth, etc.) as well as recent (i.e. last few decades) scientific developments (LAIGO, the International Space Station, the LHC, the Higgs Boson, etc.)

Strategies:

• This is the SAT/ACT, not a science test
  • At least on the SAT and the Reading Comprehension section of the ACT, you are not required to have foreknowledge of a scientific topic or any particular adept quantitative reasoning skills (make calculations, etc.). This is still fundamentally reading comprehension; you are just reading something about a topic in the sciences.

• Use what you know to your advantage
  • Like this history/humanities reading, this is stuff based on truth in the universe, and so foreknowledge of some of these concepts could be a powerful tool to eliminating simply false or illogical answers. Of course, as said in the tips under history readings, one should always be careful to lean to heavily on foreknowledge, since technically all questions are designed to be answerable based solely on the passage and all answers should ultimately be reflective of only the content presented in the passage (all of which are true, but which are also not comprehensive to the topic). So, ultimately if you know nothing about the topic, rest soundly knowing that all the information you need is still just in the reading; no outside knowledge is required.

• Keep the big picture in mind
  • Just like with the humanities and history readings, do not get too bogged down by small details. Science oriented readings often have lots of information. Trivia is generally not important. If something seems interesting or important, mark it, but do not try to remember every factoid. Keep the big picture in mind always. Distill paragraphs and come back to find details as needed by the questions.

• Note Key Concepts
  • Often science oriented readings will have key concepts (black holes, heliocentric, mitosis, dark matter, stratification, etc.). Frequently the definitions of key concepts are important. Not just is the definition important, but usually how the definition is presented, given, couched, delivered, etc. is important. What does the definition include vs. exclude? Why was the definition given as an analogy vs a direct definition? Basically, what is the author’s aim through the presentation of or qualification of a definition.

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There will be one paired passage on the SAT and ACT; together, both passages will amount to 500-750 words, which is the same length as a single passage. There will be about 10-11 questions, with 3-4 questions each for Passage 1, Passage 2, and both passage comparatively.

Paired Passages can come in any of the genres with the exception that on the SAT you will likely not see a paired passage for S and World Literature; however, it is best to be prepared for any circumstance. All of the strategies for the various genres of reading passage given above apply for the paired passage; however, here are some basic strategies for handling the paired passage generally.

Keep in mind that a paired passage should take the same time as any other passage.

These passages are paired together for a reason, which is usually because they address a related topic or theme. It is good to think about what that theme is while you read, keeping in mind that the related topic might not be what you think it is. For example, just because both passages mention the same person, does not mean the passages are about this person; they might be about something broader that just happens to intersect this person.

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