SAT Critical Reading: Answering Line Number Questions
February 4, 2009 by Adam
Filed under All Posts, Critical Reading, Passage Reading, SAT Strategies
Always read a few lines above and below the line numbered portion of text to understand its context. The SAT counts on students simply reading only the specific text cited by the line number. For this reason, most line number questions include false answer choices that appear correct when a line is read on its own, but not when read in context of the larger passage. Reading above and below is the key to getting the correct answer because the information you need from the passage is usually located nearby (but not within) the text cited by line number.
Tip:
Between 2/3 and 3/4 of all SAT Passage Reading questions in any given long passage question set include at least one line number reference.
