This Reading Guide is Almost Done
I released this site a week ago in late July. I'm currently no-lifing trying to write this shit and the reading section is the first on my list. It's almost out, so just be patient. And if you are taking the SAT before it comes out, too bad. My SAT 101 guide is out, though, and I guarantee reading it will increase your score and will only take 15 minutes. So check it out.
Go read a book or something. Just practicing reading in general is one of the best things you can do to improve your reading section, no cap.
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Example Question
Here's an example question I pulled straight out of my anal canal. It's silly, but it's a good illustration of how you should be approaching questions.
So put all these rules together, and you get a very good set of guidelines on how to answer questions and avoid bad answers. Let's try.
The Question
Imagine a reading passage says this at some point in the passage, and you're asked a question about it:
"Occasionally, when you smell feces it means you shat your pants. Other times it means you just unleashed a titanic fart. Still, it is always possible that you are only hallucinating the smell of poop!"
Which of the following statements is the author most likely to agree with?
- Smelling poop is usually because you shat your pants.
- Most of the time, smelling poop is not the result of hallucination.
- The concept of poop is more profound than many people realize.
- Sometimes, people may experience sensations of things that are not truly present.
Click to see answer
The answer is D.
Explanations
Get tricked? Don't worry if you did, I made it purposely confusing. But so does the SAT! So listen up.
A. Smelling poop is usually because you shat your pants.
This is a classic trap answer for the reading section. The key here is the word "usually." In the passage, because shitting your pants is given as the first reason, and "occasionally" is pretty close to "usually" (it really isn't though), a lot of people will choose that as the answer.
B. Most of the time, smelling poop is not the result of hallucination.
Many people, feeling smart after sensing the trap in answer A, will circle answer B immediately after. Be honest, I know like 50% of you chose this answer. But this is a great example of just how annoying and technical you have to be on the SAT. In most cases IRL, people who add "still, it's always possible that blah blah blah" at the end of a rant would be implying that whatever is "always possible" is the least likely explanation. But this is not real life. It's also "always possible" that we are always just hallucinating. It makes no sense, but it's possible.
If the passage does not explicity indicate how often something occurs, then an answer cannot either.
C. The concept of poop is more profound than many people realize.
Well the guy is writing so extensively about literal shit and it's smell, surely he thinks is profound, right? Wrong. This is a classic trap answer, where the SAT expects you to fall back on English class habits. You're used to doing literary analysis, where you try and get into the author's head and make some grand statement about the meaning behind text. But if the text doesn't explicitly say that he thinks it's profound, then you can't assume that. Maybe he's just writing for fun. And who is "many people" anyways? Maybe the author does think it's profound, but also most people do realize it. Every word matters.
If you chose this answer, you are failing Rule 5. You expected a hard question, forgetting that every question is still straightforward and easy. If you ever read an answer choice like this and think "this sounds like something my english teacher would say" you can usually just cross it out immediately.
D. Sometimes, people may experience sensations of things that are not truly present.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner. This one is a little nasty because it seems to be saying something completely unrelated to what we read. But remember: only one question is right and all others are wrong. So the main reason this one is right is because the others are all 100% wrong for the reasons specified above. It's also correct because hallucating means experiencing things that aren't truly present. So the author would totally agree.
Hopefully that all makes sense. I know it's a reading section question, but the concepts are fairly universal. Don't worry - we'll get to math and writing soon enough.