Reading and Writing

54† questions in 64 minutes†. That is about 71 seconds each — and unlike the old SAT, one question per passage†, so there is no long passage to read once and mine repeatedly. Every question is a fresh, short text.

What that changes. Skimming a long passage was the old skill. Here the text is usually 25–150 words and you must read all of it, because there is nothing else. The pace pressure is real but the reading load per question is small. Read the question first only when it is a Conventions item; otherwise read the text, then the question.

The four domains and what they weigh

4 domains† — the shares below are College Board’s own, and they are stable enough to plan around. Questions appear in domain order within each module, roughly easiest to hardest.

≈28%

Craft and Structure

The largest slice. Vocabulary in context, the function of a sentence within a text, and connections across two short texts.

Words in Context is the one to drill: it is not a vocabulary test in the old sense, it is a logic test with a blank. Cover the options, predict the word yourself from the sentence, then find the option closest to your prediction. Choosing among four options you have already read is how people talk themselves into a wrong answer.

Text Structure and Purpose asks what a sentence is doing, not what it says. Answers that merely restate the content are the trap.

≈26%

Information and Ideas

Central ideas, detail retrieval, command of evidence — including the ones with a small data figure — and inference.

Command of Evidence items give you a claim and ask which finding would support or weaken it. Decide what the claim needs before looking. With the graph versions, read the axes and units first; a wrong answer usually misreads the axis rather than the argument.

Inference items end with a blank and want the most logically completing statement. The correct answer never needs outside knowledge — everything required is in those few lines.

≈26%

Standard English Conventions

Grammar with a rulebook: sentence boundaries, subject–verb agreement, pronoun agreement and clarity, verb tense and form, punctuation within and between clauses, and modifier placement.

This is the most learnable domain on the whole test. The rules are finite, they repeat, and unlike reading comprehension they do not depend on how you feel that morning. If your time is short and your conventions score is soft, this is where points are cheapest.

The single most common item: is this a sentence boundary problem? Find the subject and the verb of each half. Two independent clauses cannot be joined by a comma.

≈20%

Expression of Ideas

Rhetorical synthesis and transitions.

Transitions are pure logic: work out the relationship between the two sentences — same direction, opposite, cause, example, sequence — and name it before you look at the options. Do not read the four transitions and see which “sounds right”.

Rhetorical Synthesis gives you bullet-point notes and a stated goal. The goal is the whole question. An option can be true, fluent and drawn from the notes and still be wrong because it does not do what the goal asked.

Practice

These are written for this site. They are not College Board questions and not taken from any test. They are here to show the shape of each type. For real items, use the free official practice — free, official†.

Transitions

The colony’s founders planted olives, expecting the mild coastal winters they had known at home. ______ the first frost killed every tree in a single night.

A) Similarly B) Instead C) For example D) Therefore

Answer
B. Name the relationship before reading the options: the expectation and the outcome are opposed. Only B marks a reversal. D would need the frost to follow from the mild winters, which is backwards.
Words in Context

Far from settling the question, the excavation ______ it: each new layer contradicted the dating offered for the one above.

A) resolved B) complicated C) documented D) abandoned

Answer
B. Predict first: “far from settling… ” demands the opposite of settling, and the colon explains how — contradiction upon contradiction. A is the opposite. C is true of any excavation and says nothing. D does not fit “it”.
Standard English Conventions — boundaries

The tide charts were printed each spring ______ fishermen relied on them for a decade.

A) , and B) , C) and, D) ; and

Answer
A. Both halves are independent clauses. A comma alone (B) splices them; “; and” (D) doubles up. Comma plus coordinating conjunction is the standard join.