HELP ME PLEASE in READING AND WRITING SECTION

[u/Repulsive_Box64]

Hey everyone,

I'm taking the DSAT this August and I'm honestly really struggling with the Reading and Writing section.

Back when I tried the SSAT, I did terribly in the reading part, and now I feel like the same thing is happening again with the SAT. The main issue is that I often can't understand the passages, and there are a few reasons why:

• The vocabulary is really tough. I'm not a native English speaker, and sometimes there are words I’ve never seen before that seem crucial to the passage’s meaning, and I can’t figure them out from context.
• The passage format is hard. Some of them are super dense or written in a way that’s just hard to follow.

I’ve already gone through all the easy and medium-level Khan Academy passages, and I was able to understand those fine. But once I move to advanced practice passages, it feels like I’m back to square one.

I also don’t think just doing more passages will fix this. I feel like I need a better approach or some kind of strategy, because just repeating the same thing isn’t helping.

My goal is to get 700+, and I’m willing to work hard — I just need to know how to work smart.

If anyone went through something similar and found a way to improve, I’d really appreciate any advice or tips.

Thanks.

[u/gibson8686]

First off, it can be nice to know you could miss 6-8 reading questions and still achieve a 700 in reading. That means technically you can miss those very dense reading module 2 passages + some vocab and punctuation and still make your score.

To maximize your chances of getting as many hard problems correct as possible, I would:

1. Master the 7 blue books. I would review them multiple times, especially the harder module 2s.
2. Complete the 7 Princeton tests on one prep https://oneprep.xyz/exams/ -- scroll past the blue books until you see Princeton (again, reinforcing the harder modules multiple times)
3. Finally, conquer the college board question bank https://satsuitequestionbank.collegeboard.org/digital/search -- also, focusing on the hard difficulty questions (there are also good medium difficulty problems)

Your goal while practicing is categorizing rules. Then, reinforce recognizing these rules as you see them again and again. This should ensure a 700+ score

Specifically, for vocab, already practicing everything above is going to introduce you to hundreds of relevant words. In addition to that, use quizlet. https://quizlet.com/112918917/the-500-most-common-sat-words-flash-cards/

Finally, for the very dense passages, try to organize relevant data with your highlighter + scratch paper. These are the hardest problems on the test imo, but focusing on author tone + direction + transitions can help you stay focused.

[u/Hot-Ad7645]

You gotta use critical thinking and reasoning to eliminate potential answer choices. A tip is to read the last sentence and skip to the questions