SAT I CRITICAL READING

Skim the passages as quickly and superficially as you can.
It may sound strange, but the best way to address SAT Critical Reading is to read each passage as little as possible the first time around.  (In fact, when possible, you should do your best to skip the reading the entire passage altogether.) 

There are two main reasons for this strategy: First, reading the passage too closely is either going to bore you to sleep or distract you from your main focus, which should be attacking the SAT in a systematic way.
Second, reading the passage is mostly a waste of time anyway, because
many SAT questions will refer you to specific parts of the passage (often
identified by line numbers) that you will have to read again later.

Your only goal at this point is to get a rough idea of some of the concepts that appear in the passage.  That’s all.  Once you’ve done that, you move on to the first question.

Make sure you read questions and citations COMPLETELY. 
If you miss a word like not or because, you won’t be able to answer the question correctly.
 
Make sure you read the key parts of the passage.
If you miss a word like not or because, you won’t be able to answer the question correctly.
Make sure you read the key parts of the passage.
Even if the question doesn’t ask you to, it’s usually a good idea to read these key parts of the passage:

•    the italicized introduction to the passage
•    the opening sentence of the passage
•    the closing sentence of the passage

These parts of the passage will often contain key information that gives you an idea of the passage, and it only takes a few seconds to read them!