Everyone says each passage should take 13 minutes but that’s not working for me, different passages take different time based on their genre.
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not even 13 minutes tbh. i spend 12 minutes 20 seconds max to reserve time for bubbling and potential going back. no passage should take you longer imo. i struggled a lot with science so I would unintentionally take extra time on that and i would still perform poorly. if you practice each “genre”, then you should be able to spend an equal amount of time on every passage. i will say though that I always speed through the first couple of passages because naturally the last couple of passages are harder so you could spend your extra time there
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What’s your average time for each section that you find easy if you take 12 mins max? Also are you good at the SAT?
the first passage is usually fiction, which I end up spending like 8-9 mins on. science is rough for me as I’m a history person so I usually spend the max allotted time (12 minutes 20 seconds). history is also relatively easy for me, i spend around 10 mins.
I suggest the 4-4-4 method. 4 minutes reading the blurb, familiarizing yourself with the questions and annotating the passage accordingly + skimming, 4 minutes fully reading the passage, and then 4 minutes answering questions. doesn’t work for everyone tho
It really depends on your personal strengths and weaknesses.
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The trick is to not get stuck on a harder passage. Move along, make best guesses, and get to the next passage. Then circle back in the end. Kids get stuck in the middle and run out of time when those questions might have been easy ones.
It’s not that you must use 13 minutes per passage. That’s just the allocated time, divided by 5.
If you have done several practice tests by now, say four or five, you might have a good sense of which passages are easier for you. For example, if you consistently find the first passage easy (fiction or lit. narrative), then maybe you spend ten minutes on that, which frees up more time for other passages. Whatever passage you usually find easiest, do first.
Do easier questions first. You don’t have to go in order. Easier questions can be ones in which a numbered line or particular paragraph is indicated. That’s because the test tells you where the answer is. Paired best evidence questions are more difficult, so save those for the end of the particular passage you are working on. Easier questions give context for harder ones.
Rule #1 is never get hung up on hard questions at the expense of easy ones. Keep moving.
Rule #2 is always eliminate two wrong answers. Usually, two wrong answers are pretty easy to spot, whereas looking for the right answer is more difficult.
Bubble in at the end, after you’ve answered all questions in that section of the test. Never skip an answer. Review if you have time.
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I think you recognize a key expect that most students don’t, and that is that each passages take different time based on their genre. This also differs for every student. For me, I took the longest on historical passages because the language would be hard to understand, but my friend took the longest on natural science passages because the technical jargon would be sometimes hard to understand.
I would rather focus on the order that you tackle passages. For me, I knew the genre of passages that was the easiest, so I tackled those first. I then went onto harder passages, and then if I didn’t have time, I just wouldn’t have time to answer the harder questions. But in the end, I knew I answered the easy questions correctly.