English is not my first language and it is not as well of most of the other international sat test takers, and being such a student often becomes a problem especially when it comes to deal with literary and founding document passages in the SAT test.Vocabulary is, unfortunately, the major problem, so do you have any techniques to deal with it? I can not stand anymore to fail on these two types of passages (and I know most of you as well).Please share your preparation techniques for these, if you have.
Hi,
Even though I’m not an international applicant, Korean is actually my native language and just like you, I had trouble, especially with the founding document passages. Every time I read them I had no idea what the author was trying to say and I had a tough time answering the questions. However, I find that a lot of founding document passages are from American history. This year, I am taking APUSH and my teacher has given us A LOT of primary sources/founding documents to read such as the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s Inaugural Addresses. As the year went on, I found myself getting better at these passages, not only because I can look at the passage date and know what was going on during that time, but I was accustomed to the old vernacular. So my tip is to read a lot of primary sources from American history and with the vocab, you can’t predict what will be on the test so it’s kind of a gamble there. I hope this has helped you and good luck on the SAT!