Do you find when working through reading passages that you get a question wrong, but no matter how many times you look at the correct answer, your answer still makes sense? Do you like to read and enjoy literature and yet still seem to struggle on the SAT critical reading section? Do you enjoy humanities and artistic classes but like math and science much less? If so, you may be an artistic reader.
Artistic readers are typically strong readers who enjoy reading and other artistic pursuits. However, due to the standardized nature of the exam, artistically minded students will struggle with the critical reading section. Because the SAT must follow a similar pattern of right answers and wrong answers, even the critical reading section has a mathematical and formulaic feel to it. Artistic students who struggle in math are therefore unable to apply their strong subjective reading skills to a very objective test.
The biggest problem artistically minded readers have is a weakness in evaluating questions from the perspective of looking for evidence from the passage that supports the correct answer choice. The SAT cannot be a subjective exam and thus every answer choice is rooted directly from a piece of information in the text. However artistically minded students, who evaluate a passage and are likely to draw conclusions as they read, are especially vulnerable to an SAT error type known as “seems true”. This error type is designed to trap students who draw conclusions based on personal experience as opposed to drawing a conclusion based on information in the text. For example, in a passage where the author discusses the decline of the population of cheetahs, an artistically minded student may pick an answer choice that says “the author supports wildlife conservation”. While this MAY be true, if there is no information to directly support that this is what the author thinks in the passage, it is not ALWAYS true. SAT correct answers are ALWAYS true, and artistically minded students who do not understand this distinction will continue to select answer choices that are incorrect and not be able to understand why they are wrong.
In order to combat these weaknesses, if you think you may be an artistic reader, here are three quick tips to help you improve your critical reading performance:
1. Read for evidence. When it comes time to answer the questions, first summarize the question into your own words. Then go back to the passage and read UNTIL you find your answer. DO NOT try and answer the question in your own words. By only allowing yourself to find the answer from within the passage, you will help to alleviate your impulse to draw conclusions that are not supported by the text.
2. Answer inference questions first. Inference questions (questions with the words imply, infer, assume or suggest) are the only questions on the exam that allow for conclusions to be drawn separate from what is directly stated in the text. These questions require you to “read between the lines”, which will be one of your strongest skills. By answering these questions first, you will often get a sense of what the SAT thinks are the main take away points from the passage. You can then use that information to help answer the other questions.
3. Outline the science passages. These passages, which usually involve refuting, presenting or evaluating a hypothesis, will be the most challenging for you. To help alleviate your problems with these passages, you should try and find the main point of each paragraph of the passage. Look for whether each paragraph is evaluating a hypothesis, refuting a hypothesis, presenting a hypothesis or providing an example. Almost every paragraph in a science passage follows one of these patterns. By evaluating each paragraph in this way, you will help to understand the format of a science passage and the role each paragraph plays in the author’s purpose. You can then use that information when it comes times to answer the questions by ensuring the answer choice correctly relates to the purpose of the paragraph it is found in.
