SAT Reading & Writing case studies
SAT Reading & Writing · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The SAT Reading and Writing section is one of the two sections of the SAT, the college admissions test administered by the College Board. It is taken by high school students preparing for college applications, and it is also used in school-day testing and in the PSAT-related assessments, which share the same content domains. The section presents short reading passages, or passage pairs, each followed by a single multiple-choice question. Passages run from 25 to 150 words and draw on literature, history and social studies, the humanities, and science. Topics on this exam: Craft and Structure, Information and Ideas, Standard English Conventions, and Expression of Ideas. The SAT Reading & Writing case studies are 5 cases and about 3,118 words.
1The Sourdough Starter Log and the Ambiguous Pronoun
A food-science club keeps a shared log of its sourdough starter. First, the word which in the first sentence. Second, the word This in the second sentence. She tells the students that each circled word has more than one possible referent, and that the argument in the second sentence depends on which referent a reader picks.
634 words, about 3 min2The Trail-Counter Data and the Missing Baseline
A regional parks office installed electronic trail counters at two trailheads. The table below summarizes counts for one season. The office has no visitor counts from the season before the counters were installed. Check the memo's arithmetic and explain what the per-day figures do and do not establish.
626 words, about 3 min3The Scholarship Essay and the Dangling Modifier Chain
A student drafts the opening of a scholarship essay. A peer tutor marks four spots. (1) Having volunteered at the shelter for two years, the application essay felt personal to Maya. (2) She wrote about the residents she had met, and about how their stories changed her plans for college.
611 words, about 3 min4The City Budget Paragraph and the Misplaced Concession
A student writes a paragraph for a civics essay arguing that a city should fund a night-bus pilot. (1) The night-bus pilot would cost $400,000 for one year. (2) Critics point out that ridership on existing late routes is low. (3) This objection deserves serious weight, and it may well be correct.
672 words, about 3 min5The Sleep-Study Summary and the Overreaching Conclusion
A student summarizes a study for a science class. Researchers tracked 240 high-school students for six weeks. Students who reported sleeping fewer than six hours on school nights scored lower on a weekly attention test than students who reported seven or more hours. The gap held after the researchers accounted for caffeine intake and screen time.
575 words, about 3 min