Note the relationship between the graphic and the text. Usually these two parts work together. A bar graph may tell you how many test-takers earned scholarships, while the text may explain how many got Jeeps (such a great theme). Together, these statistics paint a clear picture.
Try this visual-elements question:
Cover the answers. In your own words, what do you think is up with the Fever? It seems to hit middle-aged folks the hardest. Good thing you’re young. Anyway, with this middle-aged point in mind, cross off the wrong answers:
(A) Infants are less likely to contract Dengue Fever than the elderly.
(B) In 2010, most cases of Dengue Fever occurred in people aged 40 to 60.
(C) The risk of catching Dengue Fever rises with age.
(D) Dengue Fever is especially dangerous for infants and children.
Choices (A), (C), and (D) are easy targets for crossing off, leaving Choice (B) as the only possible answer. This is because the bars for ages 40 to 49 and 50 to 59 are higher than those for other age groups.
Saving the literature for last
Literature is the first passage. Work it last. Yes this is repeated, but students always forget. When you face this literature passage, keep these tips in mind:
Look for symbolism that relates to the big picture. SAT literature passages often contain a great deal of description. Often things are symbolic or representative, or they stand out in the author’s narrative for a reason. For example, something like “Joan never forgot seeing the keys on the table.” What’s important about those keys? Pay attention for something later that relates to the keys.
Stay attuned to word choice. A literature passage is perfectly suited to questions about the author’s tone (bitter, nostalgic, fond, critical, and so forth). Pay attention to the feelings associated with certain words.
Visualize the narrative. Read the events as if they’re describing a movie and see what the movie would look like. This will help you understand the nuances and symbolism that fuel many of the literature passage questions.
Try this question, based on a literature excerpt from a story by Virginia Woolf. Visualize the narrative and look for the symbolism:
“Fifteen years ago I came here with Lily,” he thought. “We sat somewhere over there by a lake and I begged her to marry me all through the hot afternoon. How the dragonfly kept circling round us: how clearly I see the dragonfly and her shoe with the square silver buckle at the toe. All the time I spoke I saw her shoe and when it moved impatiently I knew without looking up what she was going to say: the whole of her seemed to be in her shoe. And my love, my desire, were in the dragonfly; for some reason I thought that if it settled there, on that leaf, she would say “Yes” at once. But the dragonfly went round and round: it never settled anywhere — of course not, happily not, or I shouldn’t be walking here with Eleanor and the children.”
Cover the answers. What do you think characterizes the speaker’s attitude? Maybe something like, desperate for the dragonfly to make Lily say yes, but then glad it didn’t? Now cross off the wrong answers:
(A) mocking
(B) confused
(C) nostalgic
(D) argumentative
Desperate and glad don’t connect with Choices (A), (B), or (D), so cross those right off, leaving Choice (C) as the only possible answer. And it’s right. Here’s why: In this paragraph, the speaker looks at the past, remembering an afternoon when he “begged” (Line 2) Lily to accept his marriage proposal. He’s feeling pleasure and sadness at remembering the past, which of course is nostalgic, Choice (C). The sadness shows in Lily’s refusal, which he now sees “happily” (Line 8). Choice (B), confused, doesn’t match because he wasn’t confused: He simply changed his mind, and apparently dodged a bullet.
And of course, SAT Literature loves symbolism. Try this one:
Cover the answers. What do you think her shoe represents? Maybe a counterpart to the dragonfly that will not cooperate and also Lily’s feelings. Something like that. Your answer doesn’t have to be close. It just has to be something that you think without looking at the answers. Now cross off wrong ones.
(A) Lily’s desire to protect others
(B) Lily’s reluctance to settle down
(C) Lily’s love for the narrator
(D) the narrator’s attraction to Lily
See? When you think of your own answer, even if it’s far out there, it makes the wrong answers really easy to cross off. You should have easily crossed off Choices (A), (C), and (D), leaving Choice (B), though iffy, as the only possible answer, and the right one. See dear reader, that is how you turn a challenging question into an easy one.
Now, build your skills, work this strategy, and knock out the practice Reading questions in the next chapter.
Chapter 4
Where It Counts: Practicing the SAT Reading Test
IN THIS CHAPTER
Now you’ve got the strategies from Chapter 3. No one gets a perfect Reading Test score, but as long as you get a higher score than do most other SAT-takers (which you will, because you’re learning the strategies from this book, and other test-takers are not), you’ll do well enough to reach or exceed your goals in college admissions. If social studies are your strength, start with those passages, but if science is your forte, you can work those first. Following are two Social Studies, two Science, and one Literature passage.
On the actual exam, you get four one-part and one two-part passage, but in this practice session there are two two-parters: one Social Studies and one Science,