Mastering the SAT English Section: Strategies for a High Score

The SAT English section, encompassing both Reading and Writing, is a critical component of the overall SAT score. For students aiming for top universities, achieving a high score in this section is essential. This article provides a comprehensive guide to excelling on the SAT English section, drawing upon effective strategies and insights.

Understanding the SAT English Section

The SAT Reading Test constitutes 50% of the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section score. The Reading Test is important, but it’s not insurmountable. There are no formulas or comma rules to memorize- you just need to know how to approach each reading passage. The Digital SAT has introduced a faster-paced format with more complex English questions, and many students are finding it harder to finish on time-let alone score high.

Target Audience

This guide is particularly suited for students already scoring in the 600-750 range on SAT Reading + Writing. While the ultimate goal is an 800, a score of 1550+ on the SAT is considered equivalent to a perfect 1600 by top colleges. The strategies outlined here will help students refine their skills and approach the test with confidence.

The Mindset for Success

Recognizing the Nature of the SAT

The SAT is designed to assess a student's ability to think critically and strategically. The SAT is a weird test that is purposely designed this way to confuse you. Unlike school English classes, where multiple interpretations of a text may be valid, the SAT has only one correct answer for each question. The SAT always disguises the fact that there's always one unambiguous answer.

The Importance of a High Score

College admissions is all about comparisons between applicants. For competitive universities, such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and U Chicago, the 75th percentile SAT Reading score is a 770 or above. A high score on the SAT Reading section can compensate for weaknesses in other sections.

Read also: ACT English Strategies

Diagnosing Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Every student has different flaws in SAT Reading. To identify specific areas for improvement, take an official SAT practice test, focusing solely on the Reading section. Time yourself strictly for 65 minutes. After completing the test, calculate two scores:

Realistic Score: The score achieved under normal timing conditions.
Extra Time Score: The score achieved with extended time, allowing for thorough consideration of each question.

Analyzing the Scores

Extra Time Score < 35: Indicates weaknesses in strategy and content knowledge.
Extra Time Score > 35, Realistic Score < 35: Suggests significant problems with time management. A difference of more than 3 points between the two scores highlights the need to improve passage reading strategy and question-answering efficiency.
Both Extra Time and Realistic Scores > 35: Indicates a strong foundation for achieving an 800. If the scores differ by more than 2 points, focus on solving questions more quickly.

Effective Strategies for Answering Questions

Eliminating Wrong Answer Choices

A highly effective strategy involves shifting the focus from identifying the correct answer to eliminating incorrect ones. Instead of trying to find the right answer, find a reason to eliminate three answer choices. Each answer choice contains specific words chosen deliberately by the SAT. Even a single word can make an answer choice wrong.

Common Types of Wrong Answer Choices:

Too Specific: Focuses on a smaller detail in the passage and cannot describe the entire passage.
Too Broad: Makes a sweeping generalization that is not supported by the passage.
Flipped Relationship: Mentions the correct words but presents an incorrect relationship between them.
Trigger Answer: Preys on students' tendency to overthink the question or argue a point unrelated to the passage.

Developing Your Own Answer

Before reading the answer choices, come up with your own ideal answer to the question based on your understanding of the passage. The key here is that the passage must support your answer choice.

Passage Reading Strategies

Several strategies exist for reading passages and answering questions. Experiment with each method to determine which works best for you:

Method 1: Skim First, Then Answer

Skim the passage for a general understanding.
Go to the questions and refer back to the passage as needed.

This skimming method works because the questions will ask about far fewer lines than the passage actually contains. By taking the opposite approach of going back to the passage when you need to refer to it, you guarantee reading efficiency.

Read also: Decoding Yale Admissions

Method 2: Questions First, Then Skim

Read the questions first, marking the relevant lines in the passage.
Go back to the passage and skim those lines.

Just like Method 1 above, you save time by skipping parts of the passage that aren't asked about.

Method 3: Read Thoroughly First, Then Answer

Read the passage thoroughly before attempting the questions.

This method is what beginner students usually use by default, because it's what they've been trained to do in school.

Finding the Best Method

Try each method on two sample test passages each, and tally up your percentage score for each. If one of them is a clear winner for you, then develop that method further.

Reviewing Mistakes

Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason. Reviewing mistakes is so important that in PrepScholar, for every one of our 7,000+ practice questions, we explain in detail how to get the correct answer, and why incorrect answers are wrong.

A Structured Approach to Reviewing Mistakes

Identify the Gist of the Question: Summarize the main point of the question.
Determine Why You Missed It: Analyze the specific reasons for the error.
Develop a Strategy to Avoid the Mistake in the Future: Create a plan to prevent similar errors.

Common Reasons for Missing Questions:

Inability to eliminate an answer choice.
Misreading the question.
Lack of vocabulary knowledge.

Skill-Based Practice

Reading passage questions might look similar, but they actually test very different skills. If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in Reading than others. You might be better at getting the Big Picture of a passage, compared to the Inference.

Read also: SAT Requirements for LSU

Essential Reading Strategies

Know what to expect. You’ll have 65 minutes to read five passages (taken from literature, history, social studies, and the natural sciences) and answer a total of 52 questions.
Choose your own order. Reading questions are not presented in order of difficulty, but they are in chronological order. Don’t be afraid to skip a hard question, and don’t worry if you can’t answer every question.
Read what you need. You don’t have to waste time reading every single word of the passage and trying to become an expert on whatever the topic is. You have the passage right there in front of you.
Leave your opinions at the door. Often, in an English class, you are asked to give your own opinion, supported by the text. Not so on the SAT. Be careful when you see a question that contains the word infer , imply , or suggest .
Take dual passages one at a time. One of your science or history/social studies passages will be a set of dual passages-two shorter texts about one topic. Do questions about the first passage first, questions about the second passage second, and questions about both passages last.
Save main idea questions for last. For many of the Reading passages, the very first question will ask a general question about the main idea or purpose of the passage, the narrative point of view, or a shift that occurs through the passage. Those general questions are not good to do first because you haven’t read the entire passage yet.

Practical Tricks for the Digital SAT

Read the Last Sentence First: For questions about the main idea, tone, or purpose of a passage, skip to the last sentence before reading the rest. That final line often gives you the clearest summary of what the author is trying to say.
Select the Only One Option that Separates Two Complete Sentences: On grammar questions, glance at the answer choices before anything else. If only one choice can separate two complete sentences - that is probably the correct one!
Play Positive vs. Negative on Vocabulary: Vocabulary-in-context questions can feel overwhelming, especially when the answer choices include unfamiliar words. But here’s the trick: you don’t need to know every word. Just figure out whether the sentence needs a positive or negative word based on context.
Find Words That Signal Difference: On note-taking or summary questions, read the question closely before diving into the notes. If it asks you to highlight a difference, focus on answer choices that use contrast words like unlike or whereas.
Eliminate Transitions That Do the Same Thing: Transition questions can be sneaky. The trick is to eliminate choices that serve the same purpose. For example, if two transitions are both cause-and-effect (like “accordingly” and “consequently”), they can’t both be right-so they’re likely both wrong.

The Importance of Vocabulary

Don't buy into the myth that the SAT no longer tests vocabulary. Flip through any practice test and you'll see some really tough vocab words, not to mention Old English from the 1800s.

The UDS (Untimed Dictionary Score)

The UDS represents the score you could achieve if vocabulary and timing were not factors.

UDS is ~800: Fully capable of a perfect score with sufficient vocabulary and speed.
UDS is ~700: Critical thinking skills need improvement.
UDS is ~600: Comprehension and critical thinking skills require significant work.

Long-Term Improvement Strategies

Untimed Practice with a Dictionary: Do not do the entire test or multiple sections at once. Do not time yourself. Take as long as you need to figure out the passage. Underline and look up any new vocabulary that will help you understand the passage. Keep a dictionary app open while you're reading. Reread as many times as you need to feel you have a solid grasp of the passage.
Eliminate Answer Choices: For each question, always start by eliminating answer choices, the ones you know for sure are wrong. Even if you spot the right answer immediately, look at the other choices and verbalize why it's wrong as you cross them out. DO NOT SKIP THIS PART.
Review Correct Answers: Review each question, even those answered correctly.
Timed Practice: After completing the steps above for 4 practice exams (4 reading sections), it's time to put your skills to the test. For the remaining practice exams you have, you're still going to take the sections one at a time, but you're going to do them timed.

Simple Tips and Tricks for the Writing & Language Section

The writing section is the most “black and white” portion of your verbal score. Not only that, there are actually NOT THAT MANY grammatical and rhetorical concepts tested. If you MASTER THESE FEW RULES, your verbal score WILL GO UP without all that pesky nuance required to hack the Reading section. This is the math-iest part of the Verbal SAT, so think of these rules like math formulas. Memorization + Application = Success!

Hack #1: Keep It Short

The SAT likes SHORTER answer choices. Why? Because they hate redundancy and unnecessary wordiness!

Hack #2: Equally Right = Equally Wrong!

A multiple choice question can only have ONE CORRECT ANSWER, right? Right! They have to build the test this way, or the test utterly fails. It therefore follows that if two (or more) answers are EQUALLY RIGHT, they must be EQUALLY WRONG!

Hack #3: Grammar: Banish “Being”

If you see this word in an answer choice, the answer choice is virtually guaranteed to be WRONG.

Hack #4: Semicolon = Period. Period.

Just like the “being” hack, no nuance here, and no exceptions. At least on the SAT, the semicolon does ONE thing: punctuate two independent (as in, something that could be its own sentence) clauses. Guess what a period does? THE SAME THING!

Hack #5: Use Commas (or Dashes) to Bracket Off “Inessential Information”

By “inessential information,” we mean clauses or words that could be removed from the sentence without destroying the integrity of the sentence structure. But NO MIXIE MATCHIES! MIXIE MATCHIES (comma + dash, etc.) are easy indications of WRONG ANSWER CHOICES.

Hack #6: Grammar: Cut Out the Fat

This hack is most useful with questions where knowing the subject of the sentence is key. The hack here is to “cut out the fat” (i.e. cross out the extra crap), thereby simplifying the sentence and making it once again easy to find the subject.

Hack #7: Rhetorical: Where Do Main Ideas Go?

The secret to answering a question about a main idea sentence can be found in the other main idea sentences already in the passage!

Hack #8: Rhetorical: When Merging, Watch Your Lane!

This HACK deals with the idea that SAT questions about transition words (but, and, therefore, however, for example, etc.) can be broken down by how the two thoughts in question relate to one another, which we will be referring to here as “lanes.” There are four primary “lanes,” or ways two thoughts can relate: Agreement, Contrast, Cause/Effect, Time.

Hack #9: Rhetorical: No Means No … If It’s Redundant or Irrelevant

ALWAYS CHECK THE “NO” COLUMN FIRST. This can be especially helpful because there are two (AND ONLY TWO!) correct reasons to delete/not add a sentence: REDUNDANCY and IRRELEVANCE.

Daily SAT English Practice Tips

Build Your Vocabulary: Students: Subscribe to SAT VOCABULARY and ROOTS2WORDS; define and write each word in your own sentence in Section 1 of a three-subject notebook. Do the same for all new words encountered in school, daily reading (see below), and ACT / SAT problems. Endeavor to use the words in daily conversation as much as possible.
Bolster Your Reading Comprehension: As a minimum ACT or SAT English practice, read one article per day from the four reading lists here. Choose a different publication or section every day. This variety will bolster your confidence and skills comprehending a variety of subject matter and tones. Because the College Board added poetry to the digital SAT, students prepping for this test should also subscribe to and read the poem-of-the-day.
Master Grammar Fundamentals and Vocabulary: My first SAT English practice recommendation, therefore, is to complete Erica Meltzer’s fine SAT Grammar (or ACT English). Students who want a deeper dive into grammar can also complete the excellent workbook On Usage, written by a former teacher from Horace Mann School (where I also taught for five years).

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