THE 4-STEP BASIC APPROACH

Step 1: Preview
The first step involves two parts. First, check the blurb at the beginning of the passage to
see whether it offers any additional information. Ninety-nine percent of the time, all it will
offer will be the title, author, copyright date, and publisher. There is also no guarantee that the
title will convey the topic. But occasionally, the blurb will define an unfamiliar term, place
a setting, or identify a character.
Map the Questions
Take no more than 30 seconds to scan the questions. Underline the lead words. Star any
line or paragraph reference. Do not read the questions and try to ponder their meaning: Let
your eyes run through the questions to identify the line/paragraph references and lead
words.
Lead Words
These are the specific words and phrases that you will find in the passage. They are not the
boilerplate language like “main idea” or “author’s purpose.” They are usually nouns, phrases,
or verbs. Map the following questions that accompany the prose fiction passage. If a
line/paragraph reference features a direct quote, do not worry about underlining the quote, but
you can underline any lead words outside of the direct quotation.
1. The narrator states that she had NOT thought that:
2. It can most reasonably be inferred from the passage that the narrator interprets Gretchen’s
“I’ll go get you a Band-Aid” (line 73) to mean which of the following?
3. When the narrator mentions “a natural rhythm of domesticity” (line 34), she’s most nearly
referring to:
4. The narrator speculates that one reason for Gretchen’s comfort with her might have been
that:
5. The passage reveals that when Gretchen’s mother announces that they had to move,
Gretchen asks the narrator if she and her mother can move in. The narrator indicates that she
views this request as
6. As it is used in line 59, the word minefield most nearly means:
7. The narrator claims that since her children had moved away, her living situation has been
marked by:
8. As the narrator reflects on the past year spent with Gretchen, the narrator realizes that she:
9. The references to calm and explosions in lines 59-60 are most likely intended to suggest
that at the time, the narrator felt:
10. In the context of the passage, the concluding two sentences (line 73- 74) are most likely
meant to suggest
Mapping the questions provides two key benefits. First, you’ve just identified with stars
five questions with easy-to-find answers. With the lead words, you have three or four more
questions whose answers will be easy to find. Second, you have the main idea of the
passage before you’ve read it.
Don’t work the questions in the order given. Work the Now questions first: these are the
questions that are easy to answer and the questions whose answers are easy to find.
Questions 2, 3, 6, 9, and 10 all have line references. They are all smart choices to do Now.
Even if you predicted the answer, you can easily check the line references to confirm your
answer. These questions are also all Reasoning questions, which means it’s important to be
careful with the question, the window of text, and the answer choices.
Referral Questions
Referral questions are easy to answer because they ask what was directly stated in the
passage. Read the question carefully to identify what it’s asking. The passage directly states
something about what? Once you find your window to read, read to find the answer. The
correct answers to Referral questions are barely paraphrased and will typically match the text
very closely.
How to Spot Referral Questions
• Questions that begin with According to the passage
• Questions that ask what the passage or author states
• Questions with short answer
Questions 4, 7, and 8 are referral questions. Notice that each asks what is stated in the
passage. The lead words in the questions are underlined in the passage.

Later Questions
Do Later questions that are difficult to answer and whose answers are hard to find. These
include any questions that have neither a star nor any underlining, as well as questions
whose lead words are difficult to find. The later you do such questions, the easier they
become. Working the Now questions, you’ll either stumble across the hard-to-find lead word
or gain a deeper sense of the main idea.
Question 1 is neither: it has no star and nothing underlined. Even worse, it’s a NOT question,
which makes it particularly tricky to answer.
Reading Actively
Look again at all the words you’ve underlined. They tell you what the passage will be about:
a narrator whose children have moved away and who has a friend Gretchen, and Gretchen
asks to move in along with her mother. You will read the passage better because you know
going in what to look for. Reading actively means knowing in advance what you’re going
to read, and that’s exactly what mapping the questions has provided. You have the
important details to look for, and you won’t waste time on details that never appear in a
question. Reading passively means walking into a dark cave, wandering in the dark trying to
see what dangers or treasures await. Reading actively means walking into the cave with a
flashlight and a map, looking for what you know is in there.

Step 2: Work the Passage

You can read the whole passage, or you can skim the passage, or you can just scan it for the
lead words.
You may have been skimming or reading the passages up until now. For the following
passage, you can try a new approach or you can use your typical method to work the passage.
In either case, add the following three rules.
Rule 1: Look for and underline any lead words. You’ll have more questions whose
answers are easy to find.
Rule 2: Finish in 2-3 minutes. If you don’t think you can read the passage in two or three
minutes, then try to skim or scan for lead words.
Rule 3: Do not read anything more than once. If you read text and you do not understand,
just move on. You should only come back to it again if there is a question about this text.
Why waste time trying to understand something that you might not even be asked about?

Step 3: Work the Questions

• Pick your order of questions. Do Now questions that are easy to answer, easy to find the
answer, or best of all, both.
• Read the question to understand what it’s asking.
• If you think you know the answer, confirm it by finding its exact place in the passage.
• If you don’t know the answer, read a window of 5-10 lines to find the answer.

Step 4: Work the Answers

• If you can clearly identify the answer in the passage, look for its match among the answers.
• If you aren’t sure if an answer is right or wrong, leave it. You’ll either find one that’s better
or three that are worse.
• Cross off any choice that describes something not found in your window.
• If you’re down to two, focus on key words in the answer choices and determine whether
you can find support for those key words in the window of text.