Ready to ace the SAT's Reading and Writing section? You're in luck! We've created the best guide to the SAT Reading and Writing section out there.
We've spent dozens of hours reading SAT prep books as well as studying the College Board’s own resources to take the most valuable parts and combine them into one magnificent Frankenstein’s monster of a guide. This guide contains every single thing you need to know to ace the SAT Reading and Writing section.
If you're looking for a complete guide to SAT Reading and Writing and how to improve your SAT Reading and Writing score, the information provided here is invaluable. You'll get the best SAT Reading and Writing tips and strategies available, as well as information about how to get the most out of your prep and increase your SAT Reading and Writing score dramatically.
High-Level Guidance for SAT Reading & Writing
Start here! These guides lay the foundation for your SAT Reading and Writing preparation. You'll learn exactly what SAT Reading and Writing tests, the types of questions you'll see, the section format, and what high level strategies to keep in mind during the exam.
What's Actually Tested On SAT Reading and Writing?
To do well on SAT Reading and Writing, you need to make sure you understand the format of this section. Get a detailed overview of what types of questions are on SAT Reading and Writing, and what people think is tested but really isn't.
Breakdown of Every Question Type in SAT Reading and Writing by % (Must Read)
There are 11 question types on SAT Reading and Writing, and each tests a different skill. Analyze the question types, review a sample question for each one, and learn how common each question is so you can create the most efficient study plan.
The #1 Fundamental Rule Of SAT Reading and Writing (Must Read)
You need many skills to excel in this section, but ultimately there's one rule that should guide all of your SAT Reading and Writing and prep. Implement this rule and you'll be able to understand the section and eliminate answer choices like never before. This should underlie all of your SAT Reading and Writing prep from this point on.
How To Get An 800 On SAT Reading and Writing: 10 Strategies From A Perfect Scorer
Our ultimate SAT Reading and Writing guide covers motivation, study strategies, and more, based on the experience of our resident perfect scorer (and PrepScholar co-founder) Allen Cheng. Absolutely use these strategies if you're aiming for a top score.
How Many Passages Are in SAT Reading and Writing?
The Reading and Writing section probably has more passages than you think: over 50! Learn the different passage types you'll see, the tricks the College Board includes in them, and strategies for tackling them.
SAT Reading and Writing Skills
Here's where we get into the nitty-gritty details. The guides in this section go into detail about common question types in both critical reading and grammar on SAT Reading and Writing. Learn the skills each question type is testing, get strategies for dealing with these questions, and try out some practice questions.
Critical Reading Skills
Inference questions are one of the most common question types you'll see on the Reading and Writing section which means that being able to draw inferences from the passages is one of the most important skills you'll need for this section. You must be able to make logical deductions based on information in the passage and separate out what “could be possible, depending on a few things” from what “is likely true, given the information stated in the passage.” We'll teach you how!
Words in Context: Key SAT Reading and Writing Strategies
The most direct way you'll be tested on vocabulary in the SAT Reading and Writing section is through questions that ask you to explain the meaning of words in context in the passage. Often, all the answer choices will be correct for a certain definition of the word—it's up to you to figure out which meaning is being used in that particular context.
How to Analyze Data Graphics on SAT Reading and Writing
On SAT Reading and Writing, you're guaranteed to see at least one data chart; thus, it's extremely important to be able to read charts and other data graphics. This guide tells you how to do just that on both the Reading and Writing sections.
Grammar Skills
The 9 SAT Grammar Rules You Must Know
One of the major skills that the Reading and Writing section tests is your understanding of English grammar. Read this guide to learn the 9 most important grammar rules likely to appear on test day.
The Complete Guide to Digital SAT Grammar Rules
Above, we gave you a link to our guide on the 9 most important grammar rules—but these aren't all the grammar rules you'll see on the test. This guide summarizes every possible grammatical structure you can get on SAT Writing.
SAT Punctuation: Tips for Commas, Colons, and Dashes
In addition to grammar, punctuation plays a major part of SAT Reading and Writing. Read this guide to learn all the most important comma, colon, and dashes rules you'll need to know, as well as how to spot them on the test.
Transition Questions on SAT Reading and Writing: Tips and Examples
Remember how your teacher used to tell you to use transitions to connect different ideas? Well, the same basic principle applies to the SAT. These questions require you to choose the correct transitional word (such as "therefore," "however," etc.). Take a look at this guide to learn what kinds of transition-related words and questions will be on the test.
Subject-Verb Agreement on SAT Reading and Writing: Strategies and Practice
The other type of verb error is subject-verb agreement issues, which occur when the subject is plural but the verb is singular, or vice versa (e.g., “he talk” or “they is yelling”). This guide walks you through the different ways this error can appear on the test, many of which you might not expect.
SAT Reading and Writing Tips
Here we've collected all our best test-day tips and general advice to help you ace SAT Reading and Writing. Read these to understand how best to approach questions on this section, and get advice on how to attack tricky questions and how to navigate the unique structure of the test.
How to Read SAT Passages: 4 Easy Steps
There is no one right way to read the passages on SAT Reading and Writing. This doesn’t mean, however, that some ways aren’t more effective than others. We show you three ways to read the passages and teach you to decide for yourself which way will work best for you.
The Hardest SAT Reading and Writing Questions Ever
This article explains how to answer some of the hardest SAT Reading and Writing questions we've seen. If you’re shooting for a score below 700 on Reading and Writing, you will likely want to skip these types of questions. But if you’re aiming for a high score, make sure you know how to attack even the most challenging questions.
The 262 SAT Vocab Words You Need To Know
If you're going to make the time to study vocab for the SAT, you should absolutely study the most frequently-seen words. Use this free resource to guide your SAT Reading and Writing practice.
How to Improve Your SAT Reading & Writing Score: 8 Strategies
If you’re struggling with a low score, this guide can help. Here, a perfect SAT scorer offers his top eight strategies for raising a low SAT Reading and Writing score closer to the 600 range.
The Best SAT Reading and Writing Practice Tests
If you're not going to use high quality materials for your SAT practice, you're basically just throwing away your time. We've gathered for you a comprehensive list of all the SAT Reading and Writing practice tests out there (including links to free resources) and advice on which are the best and which you should avoid at all costs.
The 9 Best Books To Use For Digital SAT Prep
When online resources aren’t always enough, students often turn to books to help with their SAT prep. But which books are the best? How can you be sure? Be certain you're using the best resources available with our list in hand.
Conclusion
Whew. That's a lot of information, but then again, there's a lot of information to learn about SAT Reading and Writing if you want to do well. And of course, it's not enough to just read all these articles, you also have to take the next steps:
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Go out and forage for high quality prep materials. First and foremost, this means practicing with real SATs, but it also means making sure you only use the highest quality SAT practice material.
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Diagnose your SAT Reading and Writing weaknesses and review your mistakes.
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Stay motivated. We have some great tips for this in our article on how to achieve a perfect score on the SAT.
And if all of this seems daunting, it’s worth checking out our SAT test prep platform!
