SAT Reading section techniques, strategies & approaches: Difference between revisions

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 ** social media and other technological challenges to modern society
 ** libraries, academics, and information technology
+== Comprehending long or complex sentences ==
+* long and complex sentences may intimidate or confuse students
+* key to comprehension of difficult text is to isolate sentence parts
+* once the student recognizes the distinct sentence parts, the difficulty of the sentence is reduced
+* of course, vocabulary may still present a challenge, but we can get around unknown words, as well
+=== identifying & isolating sentence elements ===
+** every sentence has a core of a subject-verb main clause (or clauses)
+** additional information is added to the subject-verb core with
+** modifying elements that add to or qualify the main clause, including:
+*** subordinate or dependent clauses:
+**** "''If I study in the library'', I can stay focused"
+*** relative or adjective clauses:
+**** "I study in the library, ''which helps me stay focused''"
+*** prepositional phrases:
+**** "I study ''in the library'', ''which helps me stay focused''"
+**** "I stay focused ''by studying in the library''"
+*** parenthetical phrases
+**** "I study in the library ''(the one near my house)'', so I can stay focused"
+* see this Video by Michael Bromley on breaking down a complex sentence from College Board
+=== steps for sentence comprehension ===
+# isolate modifying elements
+#* especially prepositional phrases (starting w/ "in, of, about", etc.)
+#* and relative clauses (usually being with "that" or "which")
+#identify main and any dependent clauses
+#* clauses contain a subject and verb
+#* subordinate clauses begin with a subordinating conjunction such as "if," "because", "since", etc.
+# identify pronoun references
+#* replace unfamiliar words with "something" in order to get past them
+# re-arrange the sentence by adding the modifying elements
+#* and you don't have to add them back in the original order: just make sense of them
+* click EXPAND for an example of this technique from an actual SAT test:
+<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
+here for a complex sentence from a random College Board practice test on Khan Academy:
+<pre>The latter shows that while the conglomeration of “Plains culture” may have been a product of merging new ideas with old, combined with cultural interchange between groups, the details of what was accepted, rejected or elaborated in each case reﬂected pre- existing ideological biases.</pre>
+#. isolate modifying elements:
+#* "'''''The latter shows''' <strike>that while the conglomeration of “Plains culture” may have been a product of merging new ideas with old, combined with cultural interchange between groups,</strike> '''the details of what was accepted, rejected or elaborated''' <strike>in each case reﬂected pre- existing ideological biases.</strike>''"
+#. which helps to identify the main clause:
+#* "''The latter shows the details of what was accepted, rejected or elaborated''"
+# identify pronoun references:
+#* "''The latter'' = the second of two prior references
+#** as opposed to "the former" which is the first of two prior references
+#* in thise case, "''the latter''" = "moccasin decorations"
+#* so we have
+#** "''The latter [moccasin decorations] shows the details of what was accepted, rejected or elaborated''"
+# add back in modifying elements:
+#* "''while the conglomerate [something] of "Plains culture" may have been a product of new ideas with old''"
+#* "''combined with cultural interchange between groups''"
+#** and "''in each case [the details] reflected pre-existing ideological [something] biases''"
+#* now simplify and combine:
+#**# "''while the "Plains culture" may have been a product of new ideas with old''"
+#**# and "''combined with cultural interchange between groups''"
+#**# then "''The [moccasin decorations] show<strike>s</strike> the details of what was accepted, rejected or elaborated''"
+#**# and "''in each case [the details] reflected pre-existing ideological [something] biases''"
+</div>
+* see also:
+** video by Michael Bromley on simplifying a complex sentence from College Board Practice Test 10, Reading Section Question 15: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3M8G4SulCw&feature=youtu.be SAT Reading Prep breaking down a complex sentence Test 10, Q 15]