One of the biggest mistakes that students preparing to take the SAT tend to make is to confuse quantity of studying with quality of studying. I can’t count the number of times students who repeatedly score in the same range have told me that all they need to do to improve is get comfortable with the test. It’s a reasonable assumption if you buy the idea that doing well on the SAT is just about learning the tricks of the exam. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

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Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow. Keep the comprehension reading tips and techniques in mind.

It all started twenty-five years ago. I was teaching economics at a university in Bangladesh. The country was in the middle of a famine. I felt terrible. Here I was, teaching the elegant theories of economics in the classroom with all the enthusiasm of a brand-new Ph.D. from the United States. But I would walk out of the classroom and see skeletons all around me, people waiting to die.

I felt that whatever I had learned, whatever I was teaching, was all make believe stories, with no meaning for people’s lives. So I started trying to find out how people lived in the village next door to the university campus. I wanted to find out whether there was anything I could do as a human being to delay or stop the death, even for one single person. I abandoned the bird’s-eye view that lets you see everything from above, from the sky. I assumed a worm’s-eye view, trying to find whatever comes right in front of you — smell it, touch it, see if you can do something about it. Read more…

Critical reading is an important part of SAT exam. Here we have given a few, quick passages and all that you are required to do are to read them properly and then find the inherent meaning in them.

1. Famous painter James Whistler said, “Industry in art is a necessity—not a virtue—and Read more…

There are a lot of question on Identifying Errors and SAT candidates need to be properly seasoned with all rules of English language so as to score full marks in this section.The section is an easy as it can get and one of the sure short ways to spot the right answer is to read the sentence aloud (to yourself). If your English is even 75 percent good, your tongue shall stumble just where the error lies…it is a fool proof method. Try out a few questions given below and you will know:

1. (a) The master did not know/ (b) who of the /(c) servants broke / (d) the glass / (e) no error.

2. (a) He is not / (b) one of those / (c) who will help everybody / (d) whom he meets / (e) no error.

3. (a) It is not easy for / (b) anyone to command respect / (c) from both one’s friends as well as critics / (d) as Dr. Neil did his for his integrity and honesty / (e) no error

4. (a) Was it him / (b) who got injured / (c) in an accident / (d) this morning / (e) no error.

5. (a) Ours is the only / (b) country in the world / (c) that can boast of / (d) unity in diversity/ (e) no error

6. (a) One should make / (b) his best efforts if one / (c) wishes to achieve / (d) success in this organization / (e) no error

7. (a) It is not difficult / (b) to believe that a man / (c) who has lived in this city for a long time / (d) he will never feel at home anywhere else in the world / (e) no error

8. (a) Avail every chance / (b) that comes your way lest / (c) you should repent / (d) in the long run / (e) no error Read more…

The SAT critical reading tests a student’s ability to correctly understand a given sentence, word or passage. As you are aware that the sole purpose of a language is to act as a medium of expression, the overall purpose of learning English (or for that matter any other language) fails if you are not able to grasp the intended meaning. During SAT preparation, you learn to look into a given comprehension passage or sentence as you have never done before.

Vocabulary is an important part of the reading comprehension section. Thanks to the multiple ways in which a single word can be used in the English language, it becomes often difficult for the students to grasp the intended meaning in a particular sentence or paragraph. The phrasal verbs only add on to the dilemma because with a simple addition of numerous adjectives, the entire meaning of the phrase changes. For instance, “Break up” and “Break into” mean entirely two different things. While former means ‘terminating’, the latter implies ‘entering illegally”.

Given below is a simple test to gauge your proficiency in deciphering the true meaning of an implied word. Read the passage carefully: Read more…

SAT passage reading is a part of the Critical Reading section of the SAT worth 800 points. While Critical reading is divided into two parts – Sentence Completion and Passage-Based Reading; the latter is what is more challenging, difficult of the sort. Passage-Based Reading questions need you to think and write about a single passage or a pair of related passages. Passages are between 450-600 words long. Hence, your ability to read and think carefully is judged here.

Passage Reading Flow :-

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Are you drawing up a blank while filling in the blanks? A closer look at the SAT Sentence Completion Questions and the good news is that there are pretty well-defined procedures for tackling these sentence completions. SAT sentence completion questions involve a sentence with one or two blanks where the right word/s needs to be placed most rationally. Here are the top strategies you’d like to know to follow —-

1) Read and read again, the Sentence carefully without looking at the word choices. Find the main idea of the sentence. Understand its tone. Then focus on the logical relationships, direction and its meanings.

2) Look for Clues or Hint words: You should always be able to find hints in the main sentence, encircle them for reference and understand whether these words change the direction of the sentence. For example

AMOUNT WORDS

always, all,  completely, more than, less than, fewer, best, worse, half, most, almost, completely, minimally,never, none

CAUSE-EFFECT WORDS

as a result, because, consequently, hence, if, in order to, so, then, therefore

SYNONYMs

also, and, another, besides, for example, furthermore, in addition, in other words, moreover

ANTONYMs

but, if, nor, although, nevertheless, despite, even though, in contrast, however, in spite of, instead, on the contrary, on the other hand, rather, still, yet, conversely Read more…

JM has added another test for the users. This is an SAT writing practice test .

Please take the test and give your feedback.

Sentence completion questions make up a quarter part of the SAT Critical Reading Section of the SAT. Each Sentence Completion Question provides you with a sentence missing one or two words and requires you to choose the “Best Word/s” to fill in the blanks. All require you to make a logical deduction with the help of word clues in the sentence and use of simple common sense.

Example of a Sentence Completion Question: Read more…

Cracking the vocabulary and comprehension sections is not an impossible deal, but you will need loads of practice to get through the 70 minutes Critical Reading Test.

The first thing that you need to do is take an online SAT vocabulary test to see where exactly you stand. Websites like Skill Guru and others have loads of online free tests which you can take and assess your grammatical ability. Beware! It is not as easy as you think. You will find some pretty good SAT vocabulary practice test at Skill-guru. Once you are through with that, you can start buying some of the SAT vocabulary books. Again, these are easily available.

There are two things that you have will have to concentrate on.

1. Comprehension
2. Completing the sentences. Read more…