Tips for Analyzing the SAT

One very important tip to keep in mind for SAT Reading/Writing is that all words and punctuation marks are in a passage for a reason. To score as high as you can, it is not enough to understand the passage, though that's obviously important. Instead, it is necessary to actually see punctuation, tone words, and grammar as you read, cataloguing it all in your mind.

If that sounds challenging, consider this: cataloguing is more about remembering that you saw something and less about analyzing it in the moment.

Take a passage like this that I will just make up for the sake of example:

When Joe got up that morning, the sounds of trucks and the hum of voices already filled his bedroom. His sister - who was already up despite having worked late the night before at the hospital, where she was employed as a nurse, a job she took for the sake of the salary, which was excellent ________.

a. - was angry that he had slept late.

b. , was angry that he had slept late.

b. ; was angry that he had slept late.

d. was angry that he had slept late.

That's a long, convoluted sentence that you would never write in reality, but you often see something like it on the SAT. It's designed to confuse students, capitalizing on the weird clauses that make it harder to choose the right answer.

The clue to the answer is in the stray punctuation that you see as you read: the em-dash after "sister." It is the start of a non-essential information clause, one of many. Since this one comes in the middle of the sentence, there has to be another em-dash to show where the non-essential information clause finishes. That makes "a" the right answer.

This is what I mean by cataloguing what you see as you go. It's not about overanalyzing the passage, which would send you down unnecessary rabbit holes and eat up your time. Instead, it's about seeing potential clues and saying to yourself, "Okay, I will remember that I saw that. It could be useful."

Then, when you get down to the answers, you already have an idea of what the answer will be. You can, and should, check yourself to be sure, but you shouldn't have to reread the text entirely.

So, remember: if you are going for the big score on SAT Reading/Writing, focus not only on understanding what you read but also on noticing what you see as well.

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