"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."
Heed the wise words of Dr. Seuss, and get reading! The more you practice reading SAT passages, the better you'll perform on the SAT Reading and Writing section. This article goes over everything on the SAT Reading and Writing section so you know exactly what to expect.
Format of the SAT Reading and Writing Section
Reading and Writing is the first section of the digital SAT. It's 64 minutes long, and asks a total of 54 questions. The section is made up of two modules you'll take back-to-back. Each module is 32 minutes long and contains 27 questions.
All of these questions are multiple choice and have four answer choices, A, B, C, and D. The questions are all based on passages; there will be one passage per question.
This chart shows the time, questions, and time per question on the Reading and Writing section.
| Section | Time in Minutes | # of Questions | Time per question |
| Reading and Writing | 64 | 54 | 71 seconds |
You'll answer one question per each passage or set of paired passages, and several of these passages will be accompanied by a graphic, like a chart, bar graph, or scatterplot. These passages will ask data interpretation questions that relate to the graphic.
Each passage ranges from 25-150 words.
The digital SAT features a greater range of topics, tones, and styles than the analog test, with more questions stemming from the humanities and a few poetry questions added (often by authors from the early 1900s and before).
11 Types of SAT Reading and Writing Questions
There are four main topics you'll be tested on in this section, each with a subset of question types, for a total of 11 question types. We briefly go over each below and include a sample question from Khan Academy.
Information and Ideas Questions
These questions measure comprehension, analysis, and reasoning skills. They also measure your ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, and integrate information and ideas from texts and informational graphics (tables, bar graphs, and line graphs).
There are four types of Information and Ideas questions:
Command of Evidence (Textual)
These questions will introduce a claim and ask you to identify the piece of evidence from the passage that most strongly supports that claim.
(The correct answer is C.)
Command of Evidence (Quantitative)
These questions will contain a graph or table. They'll provide some context and ask you to complete a sentence by using the data from the graph/table.
(The correct answer is A.)
Central Ideas and Details
These questions will ask you to identify the main idea of a passage or answer a specific question based on the passage.
(The correct answer is D.)
Inferences
These questions will include an incomplete passage and ask you to select the answer choice that most logically completes the passage.
(The correct answer is D.)
Craft and Structure Questions
Craft and structure questions measure the comprehension, vocabulary, analysis, synthesis, and reasoning skills needed to understand and use high-utility words and phrases in context, evaluate texts rhetorically, and make connections between topically related texts.
There are three types of Craft and Structure questions on the SAT:
Words in Context
These questions ask for the most logical and precise word/phrase in a given context
(The correct answer is C.)
Text Structure and Purpose
These questions ask you to identify the main purpose or overall structure of the passage.
(The correct answer is C.)
Cross-Text Connections
These questions will contain two passages. You'll be asked to compare the points of view of the authors of the two passages.
(The correct answer is D.)
Expression of Ideas Questions
Expression of Ideas questions measure the ability to revise texts to improve the effectiveness of written expression and to meet specific rhetorical goals.
There are two types of Expression of Ideas questions on the SAT:
Transitions
These questions ask you to select the most logical transition word or phrase to connect information and ideas within a passage.
(The correct answer is C.)
Rhetorical Synthesis
These questions include a series of bulleted notes and ask you to use relevant information from the notes to answer the question.
(The correct answer is C.)
Standard English Conventions Questions
Standard English Conventions questions measure the ability to edit text to conform to core conventions of Standard English sentence structure, usage, and punctuation.
There are two types of Standard English Conventions questions on the SAT:
Boundaries
These questions contain a passage with a blank and ask you to complete the text in a way that conforms to the conventions of Standard English. They focus on how phrases, clauses, and sentences are linked together in written English.
(The correct answer is C.)
Form, Structure, and Sense
These questions contain a passage with a blank and ask you to complete the text in a way that conforms to the conventions of Standard English. They focus on the rules surrounding various parts of speech (nouns, verbs, etc.) and their usage.
(The correct answer is B.)
Alright, cadet—ready to start basic training?
How to Study for SAT Reading and Writing
First off, you don't want to have any surprises on test day. Knowing exactly what to expect, in terms of the types of passages and questions, how much time you have, and what skills you need to demonstrate, is a great way to start preparing for the Reading and Writing section. So if you've made it this far in the article, then you've already completed an important first step in your SAT Reading and Writing prep!
Read on for a few more tips for prepping for this first and longest section of the SAT.
Speed Up Your Reading
With 54 questions (and 54 passages to read!) in only 64 minutes, the Reading and Writing section of the SAT asks you to cover a lot of ground and maintain focus for over an hour. You’ll have to read deeply yet efficiently and find that balance between working fast while still catching important details.
If this feels scary to you, don’t despair! There are lots of passage reading strategies you can practice before sitting for the real test. Rather than trying to catch each and every word, for instance, you might pay most attention to the introduction, conclusion, and transitions between paragraphs, and skim the rest. Other students find it helps them to read the questions first, so they know what to look for.
There are a few different strategies for reading the passages, so you should learn about them and try out each one. Everyone’s different, so you should choose the strategies that work best for you. The more you practice with timed tests, the more efficient you’ll become. Then when you actually sit down to take the real SAT, you’ll feel confident about managing your time and getting to all 54 questions before time runs out.
Search for Evidence
The SAT is meant to test you on skills, not knowledge. You don’t have to know anything about a topic before answering questions on it on the Reading and Writing section. In fact, having pre-existing knowledge could even get in your way.
Rather than asking you to recall facts and figures, the Reading and Writing questions are entirely based on passages. As such, your answers should be based directly on the words in front of you. When you choose your answers, make sure that you can point to specific lines as evidence that your answer’s the right one.
Ask yourself, what am I basing my answer off of? If you think you’re answering based on anything other than the words in the passage in front of you, then you might want to double check your thinking.
Use Process of Elimination
While some questions will be easier than others, most have at least one answer that’s obviously wrong. Using process of elimination to zero in on the most reasonable answer can be a helpful strategy in the Reading and Writing section, especially in situations where you feel unsure.
While some questions may feel subjective because they ask you to make an inference or evaluate an opinion, they will always only ever have one 100% correct answer. All of the other answer choices, even if they seem reasonable upon first read, will be problematic in some way.
If the right answer doesn’t pop out to you right away, try to use process of elimination to look for these errors in logic. It should help you narrow down your choices by at least one or two. If you really have no idea or are spending too much time on an answer, at that point, you could at least make an educated guess. The rights-only scoring means that you won’t lose any points with a wrong answer, so you have a better choice of upping your score than you would if you left it blank.
Remember that words can be chameleons. They might look totally different in different contexts.
Study Multiple Meaning Words
You’ll find “words in context” questions very often in the Reading and Writing section. They're the most common question type and make up a full fifth of the entire section. As you saw in the example above, these questions ask you to define or give a synonym for a word from the passage. The catch? You have to understand “how the word is being used” in a specific line.
All of the answer choices might be reasonable synonyms for the word under consideration. You need to understand the connotation of the word in its particular context.
You won’t encounter particularly obscure or high level vocabulary terms. Instead, the words will be relatively common, but they’ll likely have different meanings in different contexts. You can prepare for these questions by studying relevant vocabulary lists and sharpening your ability to divine the meaning of a word based on context clues.
Brush Up on Literary Terms
While you won’t encounter a ton of high level literary terminology—again, the Reading and Writing section is meant to test skills, not knowledge or memorization—you should be familiar with the basics. Review key terms like style, tone, attitude, and theme.
Even more importantly, make sure you understand how to describe those parts of a work of prose or nonfiction. To answer these types of questions, you’ll need to be able to pick up on the theme, central argument, or overall tone of a piece of writing.
Practice Data Interpretation
As you saw above, several questions will be accompanied by a graphic. You’ll be asked to interpret data from a graph, chart, or table. You might get a bar graph, line graph, scatterplot, pie chart, or table, and you’ll need to know how to read it.
Again, you won’t need preexisting knowledge on the topic, but rather the ability to comprehend information before you. You’ll find these command of evidence (quantitative) questions on College Board’s official practice tests and Khan Academy’s online program. You’ll also find them in prep materials from books or PrepScholar’s online program.
If you feel like you’re running low on materials, you might try practicing with ACT Science questions. These will all represent scientific data, but they will give you practice interpreting data from graphics and relating it to accompanying passages.
Read Widely
Finally, as the wise Dr. Seuss encouraged us, read daily and read widely to enhance your critical reading and comprehension skills. The Reading and Writing section doesn’t just give you prose passages as you might be used to in English literature classes. It also gives you scientific and historical texts that are nonfiction or argument-based.
Practice reading from a variety of genres to get used to different styles. Taking timed SAT practice tests will also help you sharpen your reading skills and get used to switching quickly between subjects and writing styles.
While it’s more difficult to measure, your reading skills will only improve through frequent practice. And being a skilled reader is what doing well on the Reading section of the SAT is all about!
What's Next?
Are you a big reader or looking to study the humanities or social sciences in college? If you're aiming for a top score, then you should check out these strategies by a perfect scorer for how to score an 800 in Reading and Writing.
With 54 questions in only 64 minutes, how are you going to balance your time between reading and answering questions? This article breaks down the best approach for reading the passages.
Want to learn more about the digital SAT? We have a complete guide to the digital SAT that goes over exactly what changed, what stayed the same, and how it affects you.
