First of all, and possibly most difficult, is the idea of rereading. This does not necessarily mean reading through the entire work from start to finish. In fact, doing this may make comprehension more difficult if done the wrong way. Instead, it is helpful to stop at long, dense, or wordy sentences and really try to understand them before moving on. Usually, the best way to understand these key statements is to reread them, slowly and carefully. What’s a key statement? Writers have several favorite places to put their most important ideas, such as at the beginning and end of paragraphs. Personally, I have sometimes found it helpful to highlight these topic sentences and clincher statements since they not only convey the ideas most central to the work, but also provide an easy way to skim through on the second read. Once you’ve reread the key statements, write a short note in the margin, rephrasing the author’s words into your own, so that you know you’ve really understood him. It may make take more time to go through this process, but it will save you time in the long run. 

 What if you really don’t have time though? As in, what if you’re in a room full of other students, quietly taking the SAT? Rereading whole passages in this scenario would hardly be practical! Most of the time, the SAT requires students to be able to read and think quickly in order to do well on the critical reading section. In order to do this, it is necessary to get a big-picture view of the passage. Details are also important, of course, since they will come up in the questions, but the fastest way to understand all the details is to understand the passage as a whole. This is where the introductory notes at the top of each passage become particularly important. For example, a passage may present several issues regarding gender equality or capitalistic economics. Knowing in advance that you will be reading about these topics will help you interpret the main ideas in context as you read, and the questions following the passage will draw on that knowledge. 

 Finally, reading comprehension has a lot to do with an understanding of the author. Of course, you may not always be given many details about the authors of reading passages on the SAT, but the information you are given can be very helpful. Going back to our examples, how much easier would it be to interpret a passage about gender equality if you knew that it was written by a female activist? How much more could you infer from the capitalistic economics paper of a left-wing political analyst? Small pieces of information such as these can go a long way on the SAT, and they will often be provided through annotations. Also, it is much easier to understand a passage when you are trying to think like the author. Temporarily adopting the mental stance of the author can help you to read between the lines, a skill that the questions attempt to bring out. You may not always be able to verbalize what you discover by adopting the author’s perspective, but this will usually not be necessary, since the test writers have already done this in the choices listed for each question. 

In other words, once you have understood the passage from the author’s point of view, deciding on the right answer will become much easier.  Understanding high-level writing can be a daunting task, both in regular schoolwork and on the SAT. But by breaking it up into key ideas and rereading these highlights, you can accomplish more in less time overall. Zooming out and getting a big-picture overview can also be helpful in understanding the purpose and main message of the author. And temporarily stepping into the author’s shoes will allow you to get to the heart of the passage. Using these tips, you should be able to turn even the most daunting reading assignment into a simple task.