2.

THE BIG PICTURE

QUESTIONS
 Every SAT Reading Test will have questions that test
your understanding of the passage as a whole.
 These questions may ask you to summarize the text or a
large portion of the passage; these questions may also
ask you to recognize the central point or claim of the
passage.
 The Big Picture Question may also ask you to recognize
the Primary Purpose of the passage.
 IDENTIFYING TOPICS
 The Topic is the person, idea, or object that is of primary
focus and subject in the text.
 It appears most frequently in the text, sometimes by
name and sometimes by abstract nouns.
 It will usually be established in The Introduction of the
passage.
 Identifying the Topic is CRUCIAL. There are many
questions that present Off-topic answer choices, and by
identifying the Topic of the passage, you can easily
eliminate Off-topic answer choices.
WHAT TO WE MEAN BY MAIN
POINT?
 The Main Point/Main Idea of a passage refers to the
primary idea the author wants to convey.
 A Main Point is an argument that answers the question
“so what?” It tells us why the author thinks the Topic is
important.
 Main Point = Topic + So What?

 Usually, we find The Main Point of a text on the

Introduction, and it is further reiterated on the
Conclusion.
 THEY SAY/I SAY
 A Passage is a conversation. Authors in Academia are always
in conversation; they write to rectify opinions, defend ideas,
and reprimand an argument.
 In their writing, authors will sometimes devote a significant
portion of their writing to discuss an idea they are in support
of.
 Just because an author doesn’t explicitly flesh out the ideas
he believes in, don’t make the assumption that he/she doesn’t
have a claim. No matter how much time an author wastes
discussing ideas, know that there will come a time when the
author will reveal his true convictions, and pay attention to
that revelation, for the “I SAY” portion of the passage is a
concise summation of what the author thinks about the
subject.
 PHRASES THAT CAN BE USED TO
SIGNAL THE “THEY SAY” AND “I SAY”
OF A PASSAGE
1. Phrases that indicate that the succeeding information is the
“They Say” component of the passage:
 Some people(scientists, readers, critics, etc) believe…
 Most/Many people think that…
 Conventional wisdom holds that…
 In the past,…
 For a long time...
2. Phrases that indicate that the succeeding information is the
“I Say” component of the passage:
 But it really seems that…
 Recently, it has been found that…
 New researches show that…
 However, but in reality, but in fact,….
FICTION PASSAGES: WHAT IF THE
MAIN POINT IS NOT OBVIOUS?
 Because The Fiction Passages on the SAT aren’t based
on arguments, it can be very difficult to determine their
main point.
 Regardless, Fiction Passages focus on a specific
instance, character trait, reaction, and relationship.
 N.B: The main point of these Fiction Passages can be
considered as the 4-6 line summary of the passage that
answers the question, “What was the Passage about?”
 On Fiction Passages, Stay clear of unfounded
interpretation; be as literal as possible.
 EFFECTIVE SUMMARY
 Being able to summarize a text quickly and accurately is
an important skill one must possess to do well on the
SAT.
 Describing Content: Recounting information without
distinguishing the main point from the supporting ideas.
 Effective Summary: Involves identifying the main point
and eliminating unnecessary information; it is
pinpointing overarching ideas.
SUPPORTING EXAMPLE
QUESTIONS
 Certain Question on the SAT Reading Section will test your
understanding of the Main Point indirectly.
 These Questions will list of examples used by the author and
will ask you to identify why he/she used these examples.
 Why do authors use examples? To support his/her claims.
 Consequently, The Correct Answer to such a question will
restate the author’s claim: sometimes the point of a particular
section or sometimes the main point of the entire passage.
 Since the Point must precede the list of examples, you ought
to look for it by reading a few lines back from the list of
examples.
MAIN POINT VS. PRIMARY
PURPOSE
 Main Point: The Argument the author is making
 Primary Purpose: The Goal the Passage is trying to
achieve: is it to introduce, support, contradict, expand an
idea?
 Though they are mistakenly regarded as the same things,
The Main Point and The Primary Purpose are not the
same things; they are loosely related concepts that are
interdependent on one another, but they remain different
concepts that serves different functions.