Strategies for Analyzing Passages

Laura Whitmore shares strategies for tackling the SAT reading section, focusing on main idea, primary purpose, and central claim questions. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the passage structure and practicing regularly to improve scores.

What was the speaker's initial SAT reading score compared to math?

• 800 in reading, 800 in math

• 700 in reading, 700 in math

• 640 in reading, 780 in math

• 780 in reading, 640 in math

What is the main focus of the tutorial?

• Understanding science passages

• Writing better essays

• Strategies for SAT reading section

• Improving math scores

What is the main focus of the tutorial?

• Improving math scores

• Strategies for SAT reading section

• Understanding science passages

• Writing better essays

What is the recommended strategy for 'What best summarizes the passage?' questions?

• Read the first and last sentences only

• Guess the answer without reading

• Skip it and answer it last

• Answer it first before reading the passage

What should you do after answering all detailed questions in a passage?

• Re-read the entire passage

• Answer the summary question

• Skip to the next section

• Guess the answers

Where is the thesis statement usually found in a passage?

• Last sentence of the conclusion

• Middle of the passage

• Last sentence of the introduction paragraph

• First sentence of the first paragraph

What should you do if a passage is from before 1900?

• Read only the middle section

• Find the primary purpose at the beginning

• Look for the primary purpose at the end

• Ignore the passage

What is the exception for finding the primary purpose in older passages?

• It's not present

• It's at the end

• It's at the beginning

• It's in the middle

What is the exception for finding the primary purpose in older passages?

• It's not present

• It's at the beginning

• It's at the end

• It's in the middle

How can you identify the main idea of a paragraph?

• By reading the middle sentence

• By reading the entire paragraph

• By reading the first sentence

• By reading the last sentence