SAT Skills Insight
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6/1
- Overview
- Reading
- Mathematics
- Writing
Select a score band
Reasoning and Inferencing
Skills needed to score in this band
SKILL 1: Perform complex reasoning tasks on short sections of text
SKILL 2: Determine an author’s unstated assumptions and develop inferences from explicit evidence in different sections of a text
SKILL 3: Draw multiple extended inferences that require several steps of reasoning
SKILL 4: Draw inferences based on implications throughout a text
SKILL 5: Consider the entire text when making inferences, linking information to ideas both before and after a specific section
SKILL 6: Integrate both general and detailed information across texts
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1
Perform complex reasoning tasks on short sections of text
ExampleThe following passage is from a 1993 book that discusses the effects of environment on behavior.
View Passage
A reading passage Line Number Text Our relationship with the world is built from countless
sensory interactions between us and our settings. In a very
real sense, the places in our lives get “under our skin” and
influence our behavior in ways we often don’t suspect.
Line 5 In the 1960s, an era of experimental thinking, psychol-
ogist Roger Barker had a particularly wild idea. He decided
to chronicle the entire days in the lives of children, recording
all their interactions not only with people but with places
and things. After examining his data, he came to a startling
Line 10 and most unorthodox conclusion: their settings were more
important determinants of his subjects’ behavior than were
their personalities.
Broadening the study of what he called “psychological
ecology,” Barker went on to analyze and contrast the
Line 15 doings of entire small towns in both Kansas and Yorkshire,
England. The more he watched all sorts of people go about
their business in shops, playing fields, offices, churches,
and bars, the more certain he became that individuals and
their inanimate surroundings together create systems of a
Line 20 higher order that take on a life of their own. When we enter
one of Barker’s “behavior settings”—a school, restaurant,
gas station, hospital—everything in that environment
encourages us to maintain the status quo. In a sense, we
are no longer quirky individuals, but teachers and students,
Line 25 proprietors and customers, doctors and patients. Simply by
the way it sets business hours, displays its merchandise,
and situates the vendor, even a corner newsstand deter-
mines that business will be transacted in a predictable
way: just about any clerk or customer will do the right
Line 30 thing.
We unconsciously rely on behavior settings to supply
much of the stability of our social institutions. Under
their influence, we line up to buy movie tickets rather than
elbowing our way to the window, stop at red lights, and
Line 35 lower our voices in libraries. Sometimes we even gang
up with others to enforce a setting’s rules, as when we
join in shushing whisperers in a theater. Even as small
children, we work hard to secure the stability of our
settings, and later in life, we’re particularly eager to
Line 40 do so in the workplace. In an office that’s temporarily
understaffed, for example, Barker discovered that most
employees will do whatever is required to maintain the
established order of things, including working more
themselves and upbraiding those who won’t.
Line 45 On the other hand, behavior settings have a dark
side that we brush up against whenever we contemplate
changing the positioning of the furniture in the living room,
say, or try to get people we live with to hang their coats in
the closet instead of dumping them in a chair. We find that
Line 50 what started out as “a way” has somehow turned into “the
way,” becoming so entrenched that otherwise competent
people are reduced to paying a professional decorator to
find a better spot for the sofa or to bribing the children to
use hangers. It seems that once the environmental particu-
Line 55 lars of a modus operandi work their way into the nervous
system, they help close our minds to better options and
incline us toward knee-jerk reactions.
The more we experience a behavior setting, the greater
its power to alter our perception of the “real world.” If a
Line 60 child puts on a pair of eyeglasses fitted with special lenses
that are flat on one side and wavy on the other, the skewed
information delivered to his or her retina will disorient
the child, even in a familiar setting. When an adult dons
the same glasses, however, he or she finds that the world
Line 65 looks quite normal, because the adult’s brain quickly reor-
ganized the aberrant input into what he or she expects to
see. “Sometimes when a familiar environment has been
changed—your office has been painted while you were
on vacation—you don’t even notice, because you correct
Line 70 for it,” says psychobiologist Myron Hofer. “This same
tendency can make it hard to see anything new in a sci-
entific experiment. We find confusion hard to tolerate,
but it allows us to see things the way they really are. One
thing that distinguishes artists may be the retention of that
Line 75 childhood ability to see the world afresh.”
On the other hand, our ability to put mind over matter
when it comes to our settings gives us some powerful
advantages. In one experiment, a man is rotated in the dark
for several hours and told to imagine an object rotating with
Line 80 him; responding to this suggestion, his brain will keep his
eyes focused on the thing’s supposed location. This skill
at internalizing environmental cues and settings enables
athletes trained in visualization techniques to improve
their performances by going through imaginary sports
Line 85 events in their minds, “sensing up” as much as psyching
up. That we can not only reorganize “wrong” sensory input
into the “right” setting but also change our unconscious
physiological reactions by imagining a setting puts a new
twist on an old metaphysical question: What is the real
Line 90 world?
In lines 29–30, “the right thing” primarily refers to behavior that is
-
2
Determine an author’s unstated assumptions and develop inferences from explicit evidence in different sections of a text
ExampleThe following passage is from a 1993 book that discusses the effects of environment on behavior.
View Passage
A reading passage Line Number Text Our relationship with the world is built from countless
sensory interactions between us and our settings. In a very
real sense, the places in our lives get “under our skin” and
influence our behavior in ways we often don’t suspect.
Line 5 In the 1960s, an era of experimental thinking, psychol-
ogist Roger Barker had a particularly wild idea. He decided
to chronicle the entire days in the lives of children, recording
all their interactions not only with people but with places
and things. After examining his data, he came to a startling
Line 10 and most unorthodox conclusion: their settings were more
important determinants of his subjects’ behavior than were
their personalities.
Broadening the study of what he called “psychological
ecology,” Barker went on to analyze and contrast the
Line 15 doings of entire small towns in both Kansas and Yorkshire,
England. The more he watched all sorts of people go about
their business in shops, playing fields, offices, churches,
and bars, the more certain he became that individuals and
their inanimate surroundings together create systems of a
Line 20 higher order that take on a life of their own. When we enter
one of Barker’s “behavior settings”—a school, restaurant,
gas station, hospital—everything in that environment
encourages us to maintain the status quo. In a sense, we
are no longer quirky individuals, but teachers and students,
Line 25 proprietors and customers, doctors and patients. Simply by
the way it sets business hours, displays its merchandise,
and situates the vendor, even a corner newsstand deter-
mines that business will be transacted in a predictable
way: just about any clerk or customer will do the right
Line 30 thing.
We unconsciously rely on behavior settings to supply
much of the stability of our social institutions. Under
their influence, we line up to buy movie tickets rather than
elbowing our way to the window, stop at red lights, and
Line 35 lower our voices in libraries. Sometimes we even gang
up with others to enforce a setting’s rules, as when we
join in shushing whisperers in a theater. Even as small
children, we work hard to secure the stability of our
settings, and later in life, we’re particularly eager to
Line 40 do so in the workplace. In an office that’s temporarily
understaffed, for example, Barker discovered that most
employees will do whatever is required to maintain the
established order of things, including working more
themselves and upbraiding those who won’t.
Line 45 On the other hand, behavior settings have a dark
side that we brush up against whenever we contemplate
changing the positioning of the furniture in the living room,
say, or try to get people we live with to hang their coats in
the closet instead of dumping them in a chair. We find that
Line 50 what started out as “a way” has somehow turned into “the
way,” becoming so entrenched that otherwise competent
people are reduced to paying a professional decorator to
find a better spot for the sofa or to bribing the children to
use hangers. It seems that once the environmental particu-
Line 55 lars of a modus operandi work their way into the nervous
system, they help close our minds to better options and
incline us toward knee-jerk reactions.
The more we experience a behavior setting, the greater
its power to alter our perception of the “real world.” If a
Line 60 child puts on a pair of eyeglasses fitted with special lenses
that are flat on one side and wavy on the other, the skewed
information delivered to his or her retina will disorient
the child, even in a familiar setting. When an adult dons
the same glasses, however, he or she finds that the world
Line 65 looks quite normal, because the adult’s brain quickly reor-
ganized the aberrant input into what he or she expects to
see. “Sometimes when a familiar environment has been
changed—your office has been painted while you were
on vacation—you don’t even notice, because you correct
Line 70 for it,” says psychobiologist Myron Hofer. “This same
tendency can make it hard to see anything new in a sci-
entific experiment. We find confusion hard to tolerate,
but it allows us to see things the way they really are. One
thing that distinguishes artists may be the retention of that
Line 75 childhood ability to see the world afresh.”
On the other hand, our ability to put mind over matter
when it comes to our settings gives us some powerful
advantages. In one experiment, a man is rotated in the dark
for several hours and told to imagine an object rotating with
Line 80 him; responding to this suggestion, his brain will keep his
eyes focused on the thing’s supposed location. This skill
at internalizing environmental cues and settings enables
athletes trained in visualization techniques to improve
their performances by going through imaginary sports
Line 85 events in their minds, “sensing up” as much as psyching
up. That we can not only reorganize “wrong” sensory input
into the “right” setting but also change our unconscious
physiological reactions by imagining a setting puts a new
twist on an old metaphysical question: What is the real
Line 90 world?
The author suggests that “paying a professional decorator to find a better spot for the sofa” (lines 52–53) is
-
3
Draw multiple extended inferences that require several steps of reasoning
ExampleThe following passage is from a 1993 book that discusses the effects of environment on behavior.
View Passage
A reading passage Line Number Text Our relationship with the world is built from countless
sensory interactions between us and our settings. In a very
real sense, the places in our lives get “under our skin” and
influence our behavior in ways we often don’t suspect.
Line 5 In the 1960s, an era of experimental thinking, psychol-
ogist Roger Barker had a particularly wild idea. He decided
to chronicle the entire days in the lives of children, recording
all their interactions not only with people but with places
and things. After examining his data, he came to a startling
Line 10 and most unorthodox conclusion: their settings were more
important determinants of his subjects’ behavior than were
their personalities.
Broadening the study of what he called “psychological
ecology,” Barker went on to analyze and contrast the
Line 15 doings of entire small towns in both Kansas and Yorkshire,
England. The more he watched all sorts of people go about
their business in shops, playing fields, offices, churches,
and bars, the more certain he became that individuals and
their inanimate surroundings together create systems of a
Line 20 higher order that take on a life of their own. When we enter
one of Barker’s “behavior settings”—a school, restaurant,
gas station, hospital—everything in that environment
encourages us to maintain the status quo. In a sense, we
are no longer quirky individuals, but teachers and students,
Line 25 proprietors and customers, doctors and patients. Simply by
the way it sets business hours, displays its merchandise,
and situates the vendor, even a corner newsstand deter-
mines that business will be transacted in a predictable
way: just about any clerk or customer will do the right
Line 30 thing.
We unconsciously rely on behavior settings to supply
much of the stability of our social institutions. Under
their influence, we line up to buy movie tickets rather than
elbowing our way to the window, stop at red lights, and
Line 35 lower our voices in libraries. Sometimes we even gang
up with others to enforce a setting’s rules, as when we
join in shushing whisperers in a theater. Even as small
children, we work hard to secure the stability of our
settings, and later in life, we’re particularly eager to
Line 40 do so in the workplace. In an office that’s temporarily
understaffed, for example, Barker discovered that most
employees will do whatever is required to maintain the
established order of things, including working more
themselves and upbraiding those who won’t.
Line 45 On the other hand, behavior settings have a dark
side that we brush up against whenever we contemplate
changing the positioning of the furniture in the living room,
say, or try to get people we live with to hang their coats in
the closet instead of dumping them in a chair. We find that
Line 50 what started out as “a way” has somehow turned into “the
way,” becoming so entrenched that otherwise competent
people are reduced to paying a professional decorator to
find a better spot for the sofa or to bribing the children to
use hangers. It seems that once the environmental particu-
Line 55 lars of a modus operandi work their way into the nervous
system, they help close our minds to better options and
incline us toward knee-jerk reactions.
The more we experience a behavior setting, the greater
its power to alter our perception of the “real world.” If a
Line 60 child puts on a pair of eyeglasses fitted with special lenses
that are flat on one side and wavy on the other, the skewed
information delivered to his or her retina will disorient
the child, even in a familiar setting. When an adult dons
the same glasses, however, he or she finds that the world
Line 65 looks quite normal, because the adult’s brain quickly reor-
ganized the aberrant input into what he or she expects to
see. “Sometimes when a familiar environment has been
changed—your office has been painted while you were
on vacation—you don’t even notice, because you correct
Line 70 for it,” says psychobiologist Myron Hofer. “This same
tendency can make it hard to see anything new in a sci-
entific experiment. We find confusion hard to tolerate,
but it allows us to see things the way they really are. One
thing that distinguishes artists may be the retention of that
Line 75 childhood ability to see the world afresh.”
On the other hand, our ability to put mind over matter
when it comes to our settings gives us some powerful
advantages. In one experiment, a man is rotated in the dark
for several hours and told to imagine an object rotating with
Line 80 him; responding to this suggestion, his brain will keep his
eyes focused on the thing’s supposed location. This skill
at internalizing environmental cues and settings enables
athletes trained in visualization techniques to improve
their performances by going through imaginary sports
Line 85 events in their minds, “sensing up” as much as psyching
up. That we can not only reorganize “wrong” sensory input
into the “right” setting but also change our unconscious
physiological reactions by imagining a setting puts a new
twist on an old metaphysical question: What is the real
Line 90 world?
In lines 59–67 (“If a . . . see”) the difference between the child’s and the adult’s responses to wearing the eyeglasses primarily demonstrates the
Skills needed to score in the next band
When you’ve finished reading a text, think about the conclusions you’ve drawn from that text. How might these conclusions apply to a different scenario or situation? Think about other texts your conclusions bring to mind, and consider how your conclusions might relate to them.
As you read a challenging text, think about the assumptions that underlie the author’s position. What does the author assume about the world? Are the author’s assumptions logical? Are his or her assumptions defensible? Does your view of the author and his or her assumptions affect your understanding of the text?
Read essays by different authors on the same topic or related topics. Analyze the essays’ similarities and differences from many different perspectives. Consider things such as each author’s reasoning, evidence, and logical appeals.
