Time Strategy and How to Attack Every Question

American Diploma › Digital SAT Reading and Writing — Complete Course

Knowing English well is not enough on the Digital SAT. You also need a plan for the clock and a fixed way of attacking every question, so that you never panic, never waste three minutes on one item, and never fall for the same trap twice. This page gives you that plan.

What this page trains

Every Reading and Writing module gives you 27 questions in 32 minutes — about 1 minute 11 seconds per question. Two of the 27 are unscored pretest questions, but you cannot tell which, so all 27 deserve an answer. There is no penalty for wrong answers, and inside a module you can move back and forth and mark questions for review. You cannot go back to Module 1 once Module 2 starts. These four facts are the base of the whole strategy.

1. Your time budget

Not every question needs 71 seconds. Grammar questions are often answered in 30–45 seconds once you know the rules; inference, evidence and two-passage questions may need 90 seconds or more. The idea is to save time on the fast questions so you can spend it on the slow ones.

2. The two-pass method

1. First pass: go through the module in order. Answer every question you can answer with confidence.
2. If a question is taking more than about 90 seconds and you are still unsure, eliminate what you can, choose your best answer anyway, mark it for review, and move on.
3. Never leave a question blank on the first pass. If time runs out before you return, you still have an answer there.
4. Second pass: use the remaining minutes to return to the marked questions. Often the answer becomes clear when you see the passage again with a fresh mind.
5. Change an answer on the second pass only if you find a clear reason in the text. Do not change answers because of a vague feeling.

Why does this work? A hard question and an easy question are worth the same scored point. If you spend three minutes on one hard question near the start, you may later rush through three easy grammar questions at the end and lose them. The two-pass method protects the easy points first.

3. The attack method for every question

Use the same five steps every time. After two or three weeks they become automatic.

1. Read the question stem first. It tells you the job: a word, the main idea, a logical completion, a grammar rule, a goal from notes. Knowing the job before reading makes your reading focused.
2. Read the whole passage. It is only 25–150 words. Skimming causes most reading mistakes, because the key word (however, only, not, some) is often in the middle.
3. Predict the answer in your own words before looking at the choices. For a blank, think of your own word. For a main idea, say the idea in five to ten words. For a transition, name the relationship (contrast, example, result, addition).
4. Eliminate. Compare each choice with your prediction and the text. Cross out every choice that has even one wrong part.
5. Choose the choice that is fully supported by the text — not the one that sounds most impressive, and not the one that uses the most words from the passage.

Why predict first? The wrong choices are written to sound reasonable. If you read them before you have your own idea, each one pulls you a little. If you already have a prediction, the wrong choices lose most of their power.

How to eliminate well. A correct answer must be right in every part. So look for the one word that kills a choice: an extreme word (always, never, only, completely), a detail that the passage does not mention, a relationship that is reversed. One wrong part means the whole choice is wrong.

4. The trap-answer families

The wrong answers on the SAT are not random. They usually belong to a small number of families. Learn their names: when you can name the trap, you stop falling into it.

5. Guessing — always answer

There is no penalty for wrong answers, so a blank answer is always a lost chance. If you must guess:

• Eliminate any choice with an extreme word, an off-topic idea or a grammar rule you know is broken.
• Between the remaining choices, prefer the one that is closest to the passage's actual wording and meaning.
• In the last minute of the module, make sure every question has an answer, even if you have not read it.

6. What to do in Module 2

• Do not judge your performance from how Module 2 feels. If it feels hard, that usually means Module 1 went well.
• Stay with the two-pass method. Harder modules have more questions that need 90+ seconds, so marking and moving on matters even more.
• Expect better traps. In a harder module, wrong choices are closer to the right answer. Your prediction and careful elimination are your protection.
• Remember that Module 1 is closed. Do not think about questions you may have missed there; focus only on the screen in front of you.
• Leave the last 3–4 minutes for the marked questions and to check that nothing is blank.

Worked examples

Watch the method work. Each example shows the prediction, then the trap name for every wrong choice.

Example 1 — Main idea. "For years, city planners in many countries believed that adding more lanes to a crowded road would reduce traffic jams. Studies of road expansions, however, have repeatedly found that within a few years the wider roads become just as crowded as before, because the extra space encourages more people to drive. Some planners now argue that improving buses and trains is a more effective way to reduce traffic."

Which choice best states the main idea of the text? A) Wider roads always lead to more traffic accidents. B) Adding lanes may not reduce traffic for long, because it can attract more drivers. C) Many people prefer driving to taking buses and trains. D) Some studies of road expansions lasted a few years.

Prediction before the choices: "More lanes don't fix traffic for long — they bring more drivers." Answer: B, which matches the prediction and keeps the careful word "may." A is off-topic and extreme (accidents are never mentioned; "always"). C is true but irrelevant: the passage does not discuss people's preferences. D is too narrow: a small detail about the studies, not the main idea.

Example 2 — Inference with an extreme trap. "In a laboratory test, tomato plants that were exposed to recordings of buzzing bees released more pollen than plants kept in silence. The researchers caution that the test used only one tomato variety and that real bees produce vibrations as well as sound."

Which choice is best supported by the text? A) Recordings of bees can fully replace real bees on tomato farms. B) The sound of buzzing may affect pollen release in at least one tomato variety, but more testing is needed. C) Tomato plants are unable to release pollen in silence. D) Real bees produce more pollen than tomato plants.

Prediction: "Buzzing sound seems to increase pollen release, but the result is limited." Answer: B. A is extreme ("fully replace") and ignores the researchers' caution. C is extreme and opposite: plants in silence released less pollen, not none. D is a word-match trap: it reuses "real bees" and "pollen" in a statement that makes no sense from the passage.

Example 3 — Using the two-pass method. You are on question 15 at minute 15. It is a two-passage question and after 90 seconds you are torn between B and D. Correct move: choose the one with better support (say, D), mark it for review, and go on. At minute 29 you finish question 27 and return. Reading the passages again, you notice that Text 2 says "some" while choice D says "most" — so you switch to B for a clear textual reason. That is exactly how the second pass should work.

Practice

Ten mixed questions in real test format. Use the full method on each one: predict first, then eliminate. The explanations at the end name the trap in every main wrong choice.

All pages in this course

Start here

• The Digital SAT: Complete Overview
• Time Strategy and How to Attack Every Question

Craft and Structure

• Words in Context
• High-Value Vocabulary for SAT Reading and Writing
• Text Structure and Purpose
• Cross-Text Connections

Information and Ideas

• Central Ideas and Details
• Command of Evidence: Textual
• Command of Evidence: Quantitative
• Inferences

Standard English Conventions

• Sentence Boundaries
• Commas and Extra Information
• Colons, Dashes and Semicolons
• Subject–Verb Agreement
• Pronouns
• Verb Tense, Aspect and Finiteness
• Modifiers, Parallel Structure and Comparisons
• Plurals and Possessives

Expression of Ideas

• Transitions
• Rhetorical Synthesis (Student Notes)

Full practice tests

• Digital SAT Reading and Writing — Practice Test 1
• Digital SAT Reading and Writing — Practice Test 2
• Digital SAT Reading and Writing — Practice Test 3