Prep expert new SAT reading

The Prep Expert New SAT Reading Guide by Shaan Patel teaches students how to ace the Reading Section of the Redesigned 2016 SAT. Shaan Patel is the founder of 2400 Expert Test Prep, a 1 bestselling SAT ACT book author, and MDMBA student at Yale and USC. He raised his own SAT score from average to perfect and teaches students his methods via online classes at prepexpertdotcom The Prep Expert New SAT Reading Guide includes 20 reading testtaking strategies with hundreds of examples that will teach you: •The key to unlocking the SAT Reading section •How to save a tremendous amount of time during the SAT Reading section •300 vocabulary words you must know for the SAT Reading section •The best reading approach to SAT Reading passages •How to avoid getting distracted by wrong answer choices •Which questions you should answer first on the SAT Reading section •How to quickly understand the most complex SAT Reading passages •The correct mindset to have when approaching answer choices •How to use the passage type to your advantage •Which words are almost always incorrect on SAT Reading answer choices •How to approach graphs and tables that the New SAT Reading now includes •Why answer choices that use words similar to the passage are almost always wrong •The 1 question you should always ask yourself during the SAT Reading section

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About The Author

Shaan PatelPerfect Score SAT Student, Valedictorian, & Homecoming KingWinner of $250,000 in Scholarships

#1 Bestselling Published Author

40 Under 40 Las Vegas 2015

MD/MBA Student at Yale & USC

Shaan Patel is the founder of Prep Expert Test Preparation, a #1bestselling SAT & ACT book author, and MD/MBA student at Yaleand USC He raised his own SAT score from average to perfect andteaches students his methods via online classes at PrepExpert.com

INTRODUCTION

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1 What Is The Format?

2 What’s Different?

3 How Is SAT Reading Scored?

4 Is SAT Reading Harder?

5 How Is SAT Reading Different Than High School English?EXPERT STRATEGIES

1 Build Own Simple Solution (BOSS)

2 Find PKP (Passage’s Key Point)

3 Tackle Line-Cited Questions First)

4 Use the Chunk Approach

5 Tackle Broad Questions Last

6 Annotate Paragraphs

7 Fake Interest

8 Personify The Author

9 Challenge Answer Choices

10 Avoid Justification

11 Capitalize on Passage Type

12 Take Everything at Face Value

13 Don’t Say The Text Could Be

14 Ask Does The Text Mention?

15 Interpret Data

16 Avoid Over-Qualified Answers

17 Use a Word Microscope

18 Watch Out For Verbatim Answers

19 Watch Out For Extreme Language

20 Save Time

READING EXPERT PRACTICE

U.S & World Literature PassageHistory Passage

Social Studies Passage

PREP EXPERT READING INTRODUCTION

Welcome

Welcome to the SAT Reading portion of the Prep Expert Course!When I was in high school, SAT Reading was always the section inwhich I scored lowest I thought the test was unfair I believed thatthe SAT Reading section was subjective and that there could bemore than one correct answer for each question

In addition, I was not an avid reader I would never read for

pleasure, and I didn’t always have time to read all of the assignedreading in my high school English classes (SparkNotes was my bestfriend)

SAT Reading was the section of the test in which I felt most

hopeless If you can relate, I have good news for you! You can andwill be able to raise your SAT Reading score using the Prep Expertstrategies that you learn in the section It will not happen overnight,but with enough practice, preparation, and dedication, your SATReading score will skyrocket

Black & White

The SAT Reading section is 100% objective This means that everyanswer has direct evidence from the passage that supports why it

is correct In addition, every incorrect answer does not have directevidence from the passage to support it as correct

SAT Reading is just as black and white as SAT Math There is oneand only correct answer to every question And each answer can

be systematically arrived at similar to how you would systematicallysolve an SAT Math question We will teach you the systematic

approach to arrive at correct SAT Reading answers in this section

High School English

In order to increase your SAT Reading score, you must change theway you currently think during this section of the exam (unless youare already getting a perfect score) Because of high school Englishclasses, we have been indoctrinated to think about reading

comprehension passages in the wrong way

In high school, English tests often ask questions that require you toassume information that is not necessarily in the text On the SAT,the exam only asks questions that require you to infer from directevidence from the text

When high school students get the two types of exams confused(high school English exams vs the SAT Reading section), they getinto trouble We will help you change the way you think about SATReading

Changing your approach to SAT Reading will be uncomfortable atfirst because changing habits is never easy But if you want to

change your score, you must change the way you take the test

2400 SAT Reading

The two biggest differences between the 2400-version of SAT

Reading and the 1600-verison of SAT Reading are the elimination

of sentence completions and the elimination of answer choices.Both of these major changes are great news for students

Because sentence completions are no longer a part of the SATReading section, you will no longer be required to know obscurevocabulary words for the SAT Difficult sentence completions withabsurdly hard vocabulary words were often what held back manystudents from getting a perfect score on the SAT Reading section

on the 2400-version of the exam Luckily, you do not have this

barrier

In addition, the reduction of the number of answer choices fromfive down to four is more important on the SAT Reading sectionthan on any other section of the SAT On SAT Reading, you should

be focused on eliminating incorrect answer choices more than onfinding correct answer choices Because you have one less answerchoice to read than did previous generation of SAT students, yourjob is significantly easier Not only will you save time because there

is one less answer choice to read, but your chances of selecting thecorrect answer also increase

3 How Is SAT Reading Scored?

4 Is SAT Reading Harder?

5 How Is SAT Reading Different Than High School English?

PREP EXPERT READING FAQ

What Is The Format?

SAT Reading Format

* Note that the number

of questions above adds

up to 62 rather than 52 This is due to some of the Command of Evidence and Words in Context questions also being analysis in history/social studies/science questions.

Paired Set of Passages(500-750 Words PerPassage)

1 U.S & WorldLiterature Passage

2 History/SocialStudies Passages

2 Science Passages

The first section of every New SAT will be a 65-minute Readingsection with 52 questions.

Time

There is about the same amount of total time dedicated to SATReading on the New SAT as there was on the old 2400-version ofthe SAT Previously, the 70 minutes were broken up into threesections: 25 minutes, 25 minutes, and 20 minutes On the NewSAT, there is only one 65-minute section dedicated to SAT Reading.This means you must stay focused for a longer period of time all atonce This is not easy given that SAT Reading passages are oftenboring But our Prep Expert strategies will give you some

techniques on how to stay focused during such a long section.Questions

Luckily, there are fewer SAT Reading multiple-choice questionsthan ever: 52 There are also fewer question types

Words in Context

These questions test vocabulary I know you might be

thinking…“didn’t you say that vocabulary is no longer tested on theSAT?” Not exactly Obscure vocabulary is no longer tested on theSAT Obscure vocabulary words are ones that hardly anyone uses

in everyday language Vocabulary is still tested on the SAT

Instead of testing it through vocab-specific sentence completions,

vocabulary is tested using Words in Context questions These

questions ask whether a particular word in the passage should bereplaced with a more fitting word You can often use the contextclues of the passage to help you “figure out” the appropriate word.This is in contrast to Sentence Completions on the previous-

version of the exam in which students were oftentimes out-of-luck

if they didn’t know the exact definitions of all of the obscure

vocabulary words

Command of Evidence

This is a new question type on the SAT Reading section These

questions assure that students use direct evidence from the

passage to support their answer selections This is great news forPrep Expert students since our strategies are built around

selecting answer choices only when we can identify evidence fromthe passage to backup our answers

The Command of Evidence question will ask you to identify the lines

that support your answer to the previous question With thesequestions, the SAT no longer allows students to just choose

answers on a whim If you select an answer to an SAT Reading

question without knowing exactly where the evidence from thepassage is to support your answer, you better hope that there is

not a Command of Evidence question following the question you just answered The Command of Evidence question will ask you

which lines support your previous answer – if you don’t know – youmight just get both questions incorrect!

Analysis in History/Social Studies

These questions are related to the history and social studies

passages on your SAT Reading section How well you perform onthese questions will affect your Cross-Test Analysis in History/SocialStudies Subscore This score is also affected by how well you do onhistory/social studies questions on the SAT Reading and SAT Mathsections

Analysis in Science

These questions are related to the science passages on your SAT

Reading section How well you perform on these questions willaffect your Cross-Test Analysis in Science Subscore This score isalso affected by how well you do on science questions on the SATReading and SAT Math sections.

PREP EXPERT READING FAQ

What’s Different?

2400 SAT Reading New SAT Reading

Lots of Vocabulary Less Vocabulary

No Graphics Informational Graphics

No Citation Expectation Command of Evidence

The biggest change to the SAT Reading section is the reduction invocabulary With less obscure vocabulary to memorize for the SATReading section, students’ scores for this section should rise! I

used to say that there was only item that required rote

memorization related to SAT prep: vocabulary However, with theelimination of obscure vocabulary from the SAT Reading section,the SAT has become easier than ever to study for Everything youneed to know for the SAT does not need to be memorized Instead,you will learn it through practice If you practice enough, all of the

Prep Expert Strategies will become second-nature to you.

More great news for students who struggle with SAT Reading isthat it makes up fewer points than ever On all previous versions ofthe SAT, the SAT Reading section has always been worth 800

points But for the first time ever, SAT Reading is only worth 400points on this new version of the exam This is because the SATReading and SAT Writing sections are now grouped into one 800-point score If you don’t do so hot on the SAT Reading section, itwon’t be reflected as harshly in your overall SAT score

The SAT Reading section now includes informational graphics You

may encounter a graph, chart, or table on this section of the exam.Nevertheless, this is still good news for Prep Expert students Inthis course, you will learn a standardized way to approach any

figure you come across on the SAT Reading section This approachcan also be used on graphs, charts, and tables you encounter onthe SAT Writing and SAT Math sections

Finally, the previous version of the SAT never expected students to

cite lines to support their answers But with the Command of

Evidence questions on the New SAT, students will no longer be able

to slide by without having direct evidence from the passage to back

up their answer choices As stated previously, this is great news forPrep Expert students, since finding evidence from the passage to

support our answer selections is already baked into the Reading Expert Strategies.

Command of Evidence questions are similar citing sources in a

research paper In a formal research paper, you can’t make claimswithout citing where you got those claims from in the footer of the

paper Similarly, on Command of Evidence questions, you can’t

select answer choices on questions without citing exactly whereyou got that answer from in the passage

If you are using the passage to find answers, then these questionswill be really easy for you You’ll get two points almost as “freebies”–one for the question that asks you to make an inference and one

for the Command of Evidence question that asks you to cite the

lines from which you got the evidence to make that inference Ifyou are not using the passage to find answers, then you are in

trouble You could potentially get two “freebie” questions wrong

Multiply that by 10 Command of Evidence questions and that could

be detrimental to your SAT Reading score

PREP EXPERT READING FAQ

How Is SAT Reading Scored?

You will receive many different scores on your score report related

to SAT Reading However, I would not pay attention to most of

them, except your Evidence Based Reading & Writing Section Scoreout of 800 and your Total SAT Score out of 1600 But for the sake

of completeness, I will review what each of the scores means here.Subscores (1-15)

Test Score (10-40)

Reading This test score indicates how well you

performed on all SAT Reading questions

Cross-Test Score (10-40)

Analysis in Science This cross-test score indicates how well you

performed on science passages and questionsacross the SAT Writing, SAT Reading, and SATMath sections

Section Score (200-800)

Evidenced-Based

Reading & Writing

This section score indicates how well youperformed on both the SAT Writing and SATReading sections together

PREP EXPERT READING FAQ

Is SAT Reading Harder?

The new SAT Reading section is without a doubt the easiest version

of SAT Reading to have ever existed The primary reason SAT

Reading is now easier than ever is the elimination of obscure

vocabulary words The SAT has always been famous for requiringstudents to know “$10” vocabulary words

Vocabulary often held back students from getting perfect scores

on the SAT Reading section because they simply didn’t know thedefinition of a couple of the hard vocabulary words they were

faced with on test day The most difficult part of studying for theSAT used to be memorizing these obscure vocabulary words that

no one would ever use in everyday language

Memorizing vocabulary used to be painful because it was the onlypart of the SAT that required rote memorization – the most boringtype of studying of all The rest of what you need to know for theSAT can be learned through practice and review, not necessarilymemorization With the elimination of large vocabulary words fromthe SAT, studying for this exam just became a lot easier

Not only are there no longer vocabulary-specific questions

(formerly called Sentence Completions), but passages are no

longer filled with obscure vocabulary words, which makes themeasier to understand! In fact, the passage complexity in general onthe new SAT has also become easier than on previous versions ofthe test

For example, there is now only one literature passage Previously,you could have had multiple literature passages on one SAT I

believe literature passages are the most difficult ones to

understand because they often throw you into a setting with plotsand characters that you are not familiar with History, social

studies, and science passages can often be better understood due

to the context of the passage

Finally, the last big advantage that students taking the new SAThave over previous generations is the time There is more time perquestion on this new SAT Reading section than before

There is also one less answer choice to read on each question This

is a huge advantage on the SAT Reading section that is often filledwith wrong, but enticing answer choices Your focus on the SATReading section should be to eliminate incorrect answer choicesmore than it should be to select correct answer choices With only

4 answer choices to read (rather than 5 on previous SAT exams),your job just became a lot easier on this section of the SAT

PREP EXPERT READING FAQ

How Is SAT Reading Different Than High School English?

SAT Reading is different than high school English Many studentswho do well in high school English often do poorly on SAT Reading.This makes perfect sense to me

In high school English, students are rewarded for making

assumptions about the text Assumptions are not based on

evidence from the text An assumption requires you to make a leap

of faith about what might be true given some limited information

On SAT Reading, students are penalized for making assumptionsabout the text Instead, students need to make inferences aboutthe text Inferences are based on evidence from the text To

illustrate the difference between assumptions, let’s examine thefollowing examples

Mark is tall and athletic

The computer science student spends hours a day coding.

The student is intelligent The student is dedicated

SAT READING

EXPERT STRATEGIES

1 Build Own Simple Solution (BOSS)

2 Find PKP (Passage’s Key Point)

3 Tackle Line-Cited Questions First

4 Use The Chunk Approach

5 Tackle Road Questions Last

6 Annotate Paragraphs

7 Fake Interest

8 Personify The Author

9 Challenge Answer Choices

10 Avoid Justification

11 Capitalize On Passage Type

12 Take Everything At Face Value

13 Don't Say The Text Could Be

14 Ask Does The Text Mention?

15 Interpret Data

16 Avoid Over-Qualified Answers

17 Use a Word Microscope

18 Watch Out For Verbatim Answers

19 Watch Out For Extreme Language

20 Save Time

READING EXPERT STRATEGIES

Expert Example Passage

This passage is adapted from O Henry, Gift of the Magi, originally

published in 1906.

One dollar and eighty-seven cents That

was all And sixty cents of it was in pennies.

Pennies saved one and two at a time by

bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man

5 and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned

with the silent imputation of parsimony that

such close dealing implied Three times Della

counted it One dollar and eighty-seven cents.

And the next day would be Christmas.

10 There was clearly nothing left to do

but flop down on the shabby little couch

and howl So Della did it Which instigates

the moral reflection that life is made up

of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles

15 predominating.

While the mistress of the home is

gradually subsiding from the first stage to the

second, take a look at the home A furnished

flat at $8 per week It did not exactly beggar

20 description, but it certainly had that word on

the look-out for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box

into which no letter would go, and an electric

button from which no mortal finger could

25 coax a ring Also appertaining thereunto

was a card bearing the name “Mr James

Dillingham Young.”

The “Dillingham” had been flung

to the breeze during a former period of

30 prosperity when its possessor was being paid

$30 per week Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of “Dillingham” looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and

35 unassuming D But whenever Mr James

Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called “Jim” and greatly hugged by Mrs James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della Which is

40 all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag She stood

by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard.

45 Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and

she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far Expenses had

50 been greater than she had calculated They always are Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim Her Jim Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him Something fine and rare and sterling -

55 something just a little bit near to being

worthy of the honor of being owned by

Jim.

READING EXPERT STRATEGIES

Build Own Simple Solution (BOSS)

Expert Strategy

The most important strategy for the SAT Reading section is to Build(Your) Own Simple Solution or BOSS Create your own answer toeach SAT Reading question prior to looking at the answer choices.When I was in high school, SAT Reading was always the section ofthe exam in which I would score the lowest The key to unlockingthe SAT Reading was BOSS

Although this seems like a simple strategy, it is often difficult forstudents to actually implement Many students are too quick tobrowse through answer choices before synthesizing their ownanswer In order to avoid peeking at answer choices, I physicallycover the answer choices with my hand This prevents me frombecoming distracted by incorrect answer choices

Many students believe that it takes too much time to actually writedown their own answer However, BOSS actually saves time Whenyou create your own answer to compare against the answer

choices, then you don’t waste time debating between the answerchoices You simply choose the answer choice that is most similar

to your BOSS solution and move on Even though BOSS requiressome extra time on the front end, you end up saving time (andavoiding frustration) on the back end

You should not be spending more than a few seconds writing

down a BOSS solution You do not need to create a BOSS solutionthat is written like an SAT Reading answer choice Instead, use

simple words and keep it very short You only need to have an idea

of what you are looking for in order to for BOSS to work, not

necessarily a perfectly written answer

BOSS does not work unless you fully understand the passage and

the question Many of the other Expert Strategies will cover how to

increase comprehension of SAT Reading passages

You must write down your BOSS solution It is not enough to

simply think of an answer prior to looking at the answer choices.There is something special about physically writing down an

answer Not only does it free up our thinking power when we writedown our BOSS solutions, but it also clarifies the BOSS solution inour own minds Often times, if we only think of a BOSS solution inour head, then we actually don’t have a fully synthesized the

solution at all Instead, we have something that is half-baked in ourminds But if we force ourselves to go through the act of putting it

to paper, then we force ourselves to actually verbalize our BOSSsolution into something with substance rather than just a vagueidea in our mind

Many students worry that the BOSS solution that they come upwith is not good enough But it is okay if your BOSS solution doesnot match up perfectly with one of the answer choices Often

times, you will end up selecting an answer choice that has littleresemblance to your original BOSS solution However, it is still

important to come up with a BOSS solution Going through the act

of writing out an answer prior to looking at the answer choicesrequires you to do a lot of critical thinking, which is what the SATReading section is testing Even if your BOSS solution may not lookidentical to the correct answer, I am certain that your BOSS

solution will help you get rid of many incorrect answer choices

BOSS is a very powerful strategy because it solves the biggest

problem most students have with SAT Reading: becoming

distracted by incorrect answer choices Most students approach an

SAT Reading question in the following way: read the question, readthe answer choices, and then select the answer choice that soundsthe best However, this is not the most accurate way to solve SATReading questions.

Most of the time, more than one answer choice will be appealing toyou Therefore, trying to find a “good” answer in a sea that is filledwith bad ones can be difficult This will cause a lot frustration asyou try to justify which one of the answer choices is the correctone BOSS can help you bypass some of this grief by having a

premade answer ready for you to compare the answer choices to

BOSS will help you avoid selecting enticing, but incorrect, answerchoices Here is the thought process that would often go through

my mind in high school as I was reading answer choices:

(A) Sounds good.

(B) No.

(C) Oh, I didn’t think of this before Maybe this is the answer?

(D) Oh wow, I really didn’t see this before in the passage

→ Choice D could definitely be the answer to this question

Let me go ahead and select D since it actually sounds better than what I had originally thought (answer choice A).

However, the answer was my initial gut feeling – A If the abovesounds like your thought process, then you know the struggle

What happened as I was reading answer choices C and D is theSAT began to trick me

Every time your mind uses phrases such as “maybe” and “could be,”you are in big trouble The enticing, but incorrect answer choices

on the SAT are tricking you into thinking that they are correct

In reality, you know the correct answer However, because you

don’t have a BOSS solution written down to compare to, then youfall for just about anything As the old adage goes, “stand for

something, or you’ll fall for anything.” With respect to BOSS, thesaying should be changed to, “have a BOSS solution, or you’ll fall foranything.”

Imagine going on a treasure hunt, without knowing what the

treasure looks like The treasure could be a gold coin, a silver coin,

or a bronze coin Maybe you stop looking for the treasure after youfind the silver coin, but the treasure you were supposed to findwas the gold coin If you don’t know what you’re looking for, thenit’s hard to find the right item

Similarly, reading through answer choices without knowing whatyou’re looking for can make it hard to find the right answer By

coming up with a BOSS solution to each question, you have

created a picture of the treasure you are looking for This will makeyour job much easier on the SAT Reading section Don’t go on atreasure hunt without knowing what the treasure looks like

READING EXPERT STRATEGIES

Find PKP (Passage’s Key Point)

Expert Strategy

PKP stands for the Passage’s Key Point On the SAT Reading

section, start attacking each passage by finding the PKP Clarifyingthe main idea of the passage at the beginning will make life somuch easier as you tackle the associated questions

You can typically come up with a good PKP after reading the firstparagraph of a passage If you are unable to synthesize a PKP afterreading the first paragraph, you should continue reading until thePKP becomes apparent (this is especially true for literature

passages, which often have short paragraphs) Or you may need torestart your reading from the top if you had a hard time graspingthe message of the passage

There are two benefits to physically writing down a PKP First, youwill comprehend the passage better because you now have a

central theme to focus around Second, you will answer questionsmore accurately because SAT Reading questions are often related

to the main idea of a passage

I used to begin answering questions before fully understanding anSAT Reading passage This was a bad approach And many

students take a similar approach Misinterpreting a passage is

detrimental to your score because many questions relate to themain idea of the passage

In addition, SAT test question writers are really good at trickingunsure students There are many incorrect answer choices

intended to bait students who are unsure of the passage’s keypoint SAT Reading questions are written so that students whounderstand the passage are rewarded.

If you don’t understand the PKP of a passage, you will be extremelyfrustrated when you are answering questions associated with thepassage Therefore, you must grasp the key point of each SAT

Reading passage

Clarifying the Passage’s Key Point will help you on a number ofbroad questions associated with the SAT Reading passage Someexamples of broad questions related to the PKP include:

What is the main idea of the passage?

What is the purpose of paragraph X?

What is the author’s tone?

You will need to find the PKP on the SAT Reading section a total ofsix times There are four single passages and one set of pairedpassages

Expert Example

This passage is adapted from O Henry, Gift of the Magi, originally

published in 1906.

One dollar and eighty-seven cents That

was all And sixty cents of it was in pennies.

Pennies saved one and two at a time by

bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man

5 and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned

with the silent imputation of parsimony that

such close dealing implied Three times Della

counted it One dollar and eighty-seven cents.

And the next day would be Christmas.

PKP: Della has very little money for Christmas

Of course, the PKP would likely take me too long to write in my testbooklet Therefore, the abbreviated version of my PKP would be:PKP: D $ 4 X-mas

As you can see, my Passage Key Point is very simple There is noreason to overcomplicate your PKP

READING EXPERT STRATEGIES

Tackle Line-Cited Questions First

We can use this to our advantage by reading lines 1 – 10 and thenanswering the first line-cited question; reading lines 11 – 20 andthen answering the second-line cited question; and reading lines

21 – 30 and then answering the last line-cited question Note that

in reality we would actually read a couple of lines past the linescited by a question in order to understand the full context (e.g.read through lines 12 or 13 for a question that cites line 10)

Tackling a line-cited question first is a huge advantage because itallows us to focus on one question at a time

This strategy works well because tackling the line-cited questionsfirst will often take you chronologically through a passage

However, there will be broad questions mixed-in with line-citedquestions on any given SAT Reading passage Broad questions areones that do not cite specific lines of the passage, such as

questions that ask about the main idea or the author’s tone As youcome across broad questions, you should circle them and return

to them later, after you have completed all of the line-cited

questions associated with a particular SAT Reading passage.

Be flexible! A line-cited question may not actually have specific linescited Instead, broad questions often still follow the order of thepassage So you may not need to immediately skip a question thatdoes not cite specific lines Determine whether you have alreadyread the particular part of the passage needed to answer a “broad”question If so, feel free to answer it immediately

Expert Practice

This passage is adapted from O Henry, Gift of the Magi, originally

published in 1906.

One dollar and eighty-seven cents That

was all And sixty cents of it was in pennies.

Pennies saved one and two at a time by

bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man

5 and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned

with the silent imputation of parsimony that

such close dealing implied Three times Della

counted it One dollar and eighty-seven cents.

And the next day would be Christmas.

10 There was clearly nothing left to do

but flop down on the shabby little couch

and howl So Della did it Which instigates

the moral reflection that life is made up

of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles

15 predominating.

While the mistress of the home is

gradually subsiding from the first stage to the

second, take a look at the home A furnished

flat at $8 per week It did not exactly beggar

20 description, but it certainly had that word on

the look-out for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could

25 coax a ring Also appertaining thereunto

was a card bearing the name “Mr James

Dillingham Young.”

The “Dillingham” had been flung

to the breeze during a former period of

30 prosperity when its possessor was being paid

$30 per week Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of “Dillingham” looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and

35 unassuming D But whenever Mr James

Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called “Jim” and greatly hugged by Mrs James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della Which is

40 all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag She stood

by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard.

45 Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and

she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far Expenses had

50 been greater than she had calculated They always are Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim Her Jim Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him Something fine and rare and sterling -

55 something just a little bit near to being

worthy of the honor of being owned by

Jim.

* Note that instead of putting answer choices in A – D, I have

written the word “COVERED.” I purposefully did this in order toemphasize that your hand should be covering the answer choices.This is more important on the SAT Reading section than on anyother part of the SAT

Solution

1 – Examine Lines Related to Question 1

This passage is adapted from O Henry, Gift of the Magi, originally

published in 1906.

One dollar and eighty-seven cents That

was all And sixty cents of it was in pennies.

Pennies saved one and two at a time by

bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man

5 and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned

with the silent imputation of parsimony that

such close dealing implied Three times Della

counted it One dollar and eighty-seven cents.

And the next day would be Christmas.

2 – Treat Vocab-In-Context Like A Sentence Completion*

Pennies saved one and two at a time by _ the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with

the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.

* Sentence Completions on the 2400-version of the SAT werequestions that directly tested vocabulary They had one or twoblanks in a sentence and asked the student to pick the bestword to go in the blank(s) On the new 1600-version of theSAT, you should treat vocab-in- context questions like

Sentence Completions by imagining that the word you aresupposed to replace is actually blank This will help you

develop an appropriate BOSS solution because you are nolonger distracted by the word that is currently in the passage

3 – Apply BOSS

Pennies saved one and two at a time by coercing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.

I believe that the best word to place in the “blank” of this

sentence is “coercing.” Once you have a BOSS solution, youneed to uncover answer choices A – D with your hand andcompare your BOSS against the given answers

solution prior to looking at the answer choices, the otherincorrect answer choices may have tricked you For example,you might have convinced yourself that Della was in fact

“cheating” the vegetable man and the butcher However, thisthought would have never crossed your mind if you followedthe simple Prep Expert technique of covering the answerchoices with your hand