Aug 8 • General discussion
How I got an 800 on SAT R&W
In the June SAT I got an 800 on R&W.
Here is the best advice I have on that section.
I would split it into 2 parts.
- Technique
- Words in context
The reason I split it like this is because Words in Context are a whole beast of their own.
While I would say a large component is luck (because they throw CRAZY words in there sometimes)...
There are things you can do to better your chances. I mean, it worked for me!
So, in this post I’ll just tackle the second part (i.e. what you can do to get all of the words in context questions right)
Step 0:
Every SAT question has a strategy.
Understanding the strategy is KEY to getting the Q right in the most efficient way possible.
For WiC questions, the strategy is the following:
i) Cover the options
ii) Read the passage with the blank and UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT!
iii) Make a prediction of an appropriate word
This strat will guarantee 100% on the WiC questions in section 1 of R&W.
The following steps are for section 2, which is when crazy words start popping up.
Step 1:
Learn the roots & derivations of words.
Our language evolved from Latin.
Luckily, I had studied Latin, so I knew a lot of these already. But I still had to learn more.
The meanings of the roots can give you clues to the meaning.
For example, “un-” means “not”. Therefore, any word beginning with “un-” will be the opposite of what follows.
I accept that that is an easy example, but here’s a link to a ton of roots you can learn:
Step 2:
Do LOADS of these questions.
If you’re doing the August SAT, you still have time.
I didn’t start drilling my WiC questions until the week before (do not recommend)
Go on CollegeBoard’s website and do EVERY SINGLE ONE of the WiC Qs in the question bank.
For every one you get wrong, find the true meaning of the word, write the word in a Quizlet, and test yourself on them every day.
Without this, there is NO WAY I would have got a perfect R&W score.
Step 3:
Do the WiC questions last.
While WiC questions are hard, the main beast is the long passages.
While the long passages are doable if you have time, WiC questions aren’t the same.
If you don’t know a word, spending more time on it won’t bring you the correct answer.
However, it’s so easy to spend extra time agonizing over the WiC questions.
This is why I did them last.
Get the easy points, then get the hard ones.
This way, EVEN IF I didn’t get the WiC questions right, I STILL would have got a 750+ score...
Lmk if you got any more questions about R&W or SAT in general :)
If I think of anything else, I’ll leave a comment on this post.
Look out for my post about Part 1: Technique
4
1 comment
How I got an 800 on SAT R&W
