SAT CRITICAL READING JONATHAN EISEN

What do you know about the SATS? CR Section?

INTRODUCTION

3 Sections:

2 25 minute sections (24-25 questions each)

1 20 minute section (19 questions)

3 Subsections

Sentence Completion

Short Passage (Dual Unrelated or Comparing Passages)

Long Passage (Dual Unrelated or Comparing Passages)

Topics Included

Literary Fiction

Social Science (sociology, psychology)

Natural Science (biology, chemistry)

Humanities (history, literature)

Entertainment (art, music, dance, etc.)

KEYS TO SUCCESS IN CR

Know what you know and know what you don’t know It’s OK to Skip

Develop a skipping strategy

Don’t be intimidated

Reading is NOT FUN

Put it in your own words because they do too

Draw inferences, not assumptions

Time Management

It’s OK to not finish

Sentence Completion

Understand the sentence

Agree or Contrast?

They start easy and get harder

Recognize which words you know and which you don’t know

Take and educated guess/ break down the words left

Long Passage

TYPES OF QUESTIONS:

1. Main Point

2. Specific Detail

3. Inference

4. Attitude & Tone

5. Technique & Organization

6. Word Usage

Long Passage (cont)

Common Greek/Latin Roots

Ben/bon- Good

Mal- bad

Anim- life or spirit

Quo, loc, loq- speech

Voc-call or word

Spec- sight, view

Luc, lum, lun – light

Micro- small

Pedo- child

Lau, lav, lot –wash

Liber, liver- free

Gen- birth, race, produce

Duc, duct- lead

Vac- empty Phil- love

What does it mean?

Bonafide (adj)

Malodorous (adj)

Dismal (adj)

Advocate (n) or (v)

Perspicacious (adj)

Elucubrate (v)

Grandiloquence (n)

Circumlocution (n)

Indigenous (adj)

Philoprogenitive (adj)

Philander (v)

Vacuous (adj)

Libertine (n)