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…

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…

Geez! so we know that the College Board is really into the Critical Reading since it devotes an entire 800-point section to this skill on the SAT. Here’s an overview of the format of the Critical Reading Section of the SAT.

Critical Reading (Multiple-Choice Questions)

1) Sentence Completions ( 19 questions)

2) Passage Based Reading/Reading Comprehension (long and short) (48 questions)

Total 67 questions in time allotted 70 minutes (two 25-minute sections; one 20-minutes section).

The Sentence Completions are plain old Fill in the Blanks sort  where an educated logical guess is all that it takes to ace the part;  the long and short  passage test entails general subjects which ask you to answer questions regarding the author’s point of view, the gist of the passage, editing in context etc.. The critical reading sections on SAT are designed to test your ability to read and understand written English so if you are an English speaker, it works well with some practice, but if you are not a native English speaker you might first like to brush up on your vocabulary and grammar before attempting any practice questions. Read more…