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Reading — Craft & Structure for the SAT Exam
Craft and Structure questions are the most vocabulary-dependent questions in the Digital SAT and often trip up strong readers who rely on passage comprehension alone. 'Words in Context' questions ask for the best meaning of a word as used in the passage — the most common vocabulary question type. Text structure and author's purpose questions require meta-level reading.
College Board Digital SAT Suite Specifications 2024 — Reading and Writing: Craft and Structure domain (~28% of RW questions).
Locale-specific study guides
Pass-rate data, regulatory context, and study tips for Reading — Craft & Structure all change by candidate locale. Pick your context:
- Reading — Craft & Structure · United StatesCalibrated for American candidates
- Reading — Craft & Structure · United KingdomCalibrated for British candidates
- Reading — Craft & Structure · IndiaCalibrated for Indian candidates
- Reading — Craft & Structure · PhilippinesCalibrated for Filipino candidates
- Reading — Craft & Structure · NigeriaCalibrated for Nigerian candidates
Common failure modes
These are the patterns that cause most candidates to lose marks on this topic. Recognising them in advance is half the work.
- !Choosing the most common definition of a vocabulary word instead of its contextual meaning in the passage
- !Misidentifying the author's purpose — selecting 'to persuade' when the text structure is actually neutral and expository
- !Confusing 'point of view' with 'main idea' — point of view asks about the narrator's stance, not the topic
- !Overlooking transition words (however, therefore, in contrast) that signal the text's logical structure
Study tips
- 1For Words in Context questions: substitute each answer choice back into the sentence and eliminate those that change the meaning or create awkwardness.
- 2For text structure: identify the first and last sentences of the passage — they almost always contain the author's main move (introduce, argue, contrast, qualify).
- 3Build a working vocabulary using College Board's high-frequency word lists. The Digital SAT tests advanced vocabulary less than the old SAT, but Words in Context still requires 11th–12th grade reading level vocabulary.
- 4Practise identifying six common rhetorical modes: description, narration, exposition, argumentation, analysis, comparison-contrast. These underlie most text-structure questions.
Sample SAT Reading — Craft & Structure questions
These sample items mirror the format and difficulty of real SAT questions. Practice with thousands more on the free Koydo question bank.
- 1
In context, the word 'precipitate' in the sentence 'The new policy may precipitate unintended consequences' most nearly means:
- APrevent
- BCause suddenlyCorrect
- CMeasure carefully
- DDelay
Why this answer?
In this context, 'precipitate' is a verb meaning to cause something to happen abruptly or prematurely. 'Prevent' is the antonym; 'measure' and 'delay' do not fit the context of the policy causing consequences.
- 2
A passage begins by describing a scientific problem, then presents a proposed solution, and concludes by noting the solution's limitations. This structure is best described as:
- AChronological narrative
- BProblem-solution-evaluationCorrect
- CCompare and contrast
- DCause and effect
Why this answer?
The passage moves from problem → proposed solution → evaluation of limitations. This matches the problem-solution-evaluation (or problem-solution with qualification) text structure pattern.
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Reading & Writing + Math in the post-2024 adaptive format.