PSAT/NMSQT Prep 2022 - Eggert M.D., Strelka A. 2022
Reflect
The method for PSAT reading questions
PSAT Reading
Directions: Take a few minutes to recall what you’ve learned and what you’ve been practicing in this chapter. Consider the following questions, jot down your best answer for each one, and then compare your reflections to the expert responses on the following page. Use your level of confidence to determine what to do next.
Describe active, or strategic, reading on PSAT passages.
What do PSAT experts mean by summarizing the big picture of a passage?
How can writing brief “margin notes” help you answer PSAT Reading questions more effectively?
What does a PSAT expert look for in the question stem of a PSAT Reading question?
Why do expert test takers predict or characterize the correct answer to each PSAT Reading question before assessing the answer choices?
What will you do differently on future passages and their questions?
Expert Responses
Describe active, or strategic, reading on PSAT passages.
Because the PSAT asks many questions about why an author has written the passage or about how the author makes a point, expert test takers read for the author’s purpose and main idea. Noting keywords that indicate a shift or contrast in points of view or that indicate opinions and emphases help keep PSAT experts on point as they anticipate where the passage will go.
What do PSAT experts mean by summarizing the big picture of a passage?
To read for the big picture means being able to accurately summarize the main idea of a passage and to note the author’s purpose for writing it. The big picture summary helps you answer Global questions and questions that ask about the author’s opinion or point of view.
How can writing brief “margin notes” help you answer PSAT Reading questions more effectively?
Jotting down margin notes provides a reference “map” to the subject or purpose of each paragraph in the passage. It helps you locate specific subjects or opinions expressed in the passage when they are called out in the questions.
What does a PSAT expert look for in the question stem of a PSAT Reading question?
Each question stem indicates the type of question and contains clues as to whether the answer will come from researching the passage text or from your big picture summary. Many question stems have specific clues (e.g., line numbers or references to details from the passage) that tell you precisely where to research.
Why do expert test takers predict or characterize the correct answer to each PSAT Reading question before assessing the answer choices?
Predicting or characterizing the correct answer allows you to evaluate each answer choice one time and to avoid rereading for every answer choice. Wrong answers often distort what the passage said or misuse details from the passage, so it’s best to research the passage once to know what the correct answer must say before diving into the choices.
What will you do differently on future passages and their questions?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Each student has his or her own initial strengths and opportunities in the Reading section. What’s important here is that you’re honestly self-reflective. Take what you need from the expert’s examples and strive to apply it to your own performance. Many test takers convince themselves that they’ll never get faster or more confident in PSAT Reading, but the truth is, many test takers who now routinely ace the Reading section were much slower and more hesitant before they learned to approach this section systematically and strategically.
Next Steps
If you answered most questions correctly in the “How Much Have You Learned?” section, and if your responses to the Reflect questions were similar to those of the PSAT expert, then consider the Method for PSAT Reading Questions an area of strength and move on to the next chapter. Come back to this topic periodically to prevent yourself from getting rusty.
If you don’t yet feel confident, review the material in “The Method for PSAT Reading Questions,” then try the questions you missed again. As always, be sure to review the explanations closely.
Answers and Explanations
BIG PICTURE
Main Idea: The discovery of three domains of life has led to interesting research in the evolutionary relationships among the domains.
Author’s Purpose: To explain the background of discoveries about archaea and bacteria and the current research in evolution to which those discoveries led
1. A
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Global
Strategic Advice: If all the choices begin with verbs, use the author’s tone to quickly eliminate choices.
Getting to the Answer: The tone of this passage is descriptive, not persuasive, so you can immediately eliminate (B), (C), and (D). The passage discusses the discovery of a new domain of one-celled organisms, the Archaea, confirming that (A) is the correct answer.
2. C
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Inference
Getting to the Answer: A small detail like “ribosomal RNA” may not be in your passage map, but three capital letters like “RNA” should stand out if you have to skim over the passage. Once you find it, read carefully and match the information in the passage to the choices. “RNA” appears in line 28. Woese used analysis of ribosomal RNA to separate the Bacteria from the Archaea. The preceding sentence says that Woese proposed his three-domain system based on the “degree of genetic relatedness among species” (lines 24—25). So ribosomal RNA must be a way of determining how related species are to each other. This matches (C).
(A), (B), and (D) are distortions of the information in the passage. Although ribosomal RNA did improve scientific understanding of the types of single-celled organisms, the text does not connect ribosomal RNA to the biochemistry of single-celled organisms, so (A) is incorrect. Ribosomal RNA is used to distinguish between the two types of one-celled organisms that do not have nuclei, not between those that have nuclei and those that do not, so (B) is incorrect. Although archaea were originally believed to be extremophiles, this view was discounted; moreover, it was never connected to ribosomal RNA. Eliminate (D).
3. C
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Command of Evidence
Getting to the Answer: The support to the previous question comes from the two sentences in lines 21—30. Choice (C) cites the first of these sentences and is thus the correct answer.
(A) and (B) have no connection to ribosomal RNA. (D) introduces the early thinking about archaea and again has no connection to ribosomal RNA.
4. D
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Vocab-in-Context
Getting to the Answer: Return to line 30, read the sentence it contains, and predict a word or phrase to replace “branches” that retains the original meaning of the sentence. That sentence says, “The... branches... form the basis of the... system of classification,” so “categories” would be a good prediction. This matches (D), the correct answer.
(A), (B), and (C) are alternative definitions of “branches” that do not make sense in the context of the passage. The text is not discussing branches of trees (“boughs”), branches of a business (“offices”), or branches of a club (“chapters”).
5. B
Difficulty: Hard
Category: Inference
Getting to the Answer: The evolutionary relationships among the three domains are discussed in paragraph 4,
which begins with the sentence “Despite our growing understanding of prokaryotes, the evolutionary relationships among the Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya are far from clear” (lines 49—53). The paragraph ends with the hypothesis that the Eukarya evolved from the Archaea, but that first sentence announces the author’s opinion of that hypothesis: it hasn’t been conclusively established. Eliminate (A). The author does seem to think that the stated hypothesis has evidence to support it: the Archaea are related to the Eukarya, and the Eukarya evolved later. Eliminate (C) and (D). The correct answer is therefore (B).
6. C
Difficulty: Hard
Category: Command of Evidence
Getting to the Answer: The evidence for the answer to the last question comes from several sentences in paragraph 4. The first sentence shows that the author thinks the hypothesis is not proven; that is found in lines 49—53, which corresponds to choice (C), the correct answer.
(A) is concerned with the three-domain system. (B) is about biochemistry, not genetic relatedness. (D) might be tricky: these lines describe one of the models of the evolution of the eukaryotic nucleus, and according to that model, the Eukarya evolved from the Archaea. But the author states no opinion in that sentence.
7. D
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Function
Getting to the Answer: Review your passage map and determine how the third paragraph contributes to the author’s overall purpose. A good map would note that the third paragraph provides information on the new domain of one-celled organisms, the Archaea. Archaea are defined in lines 16—21 as prokaryotes, so (D) is correct.
(A) is too narrow. Although the paragraph does note, and correct, the original thinking about archaea, it continues to provide other examples of new knowledge about prokaryotes. (B) is a subtle distortion of information in the passage. Although archaea were originally considered to be extremophiles, the text corrects that error. (C) is a faulty use of a detail from the passage. A contrast is drawn between bacteria and archaea, but this discussion is presented in the second paragraph, not the third.
8. B
Difficulty: Hard
Category: Detail
Getting to the Answer: This question contains two clues. First, the question refers to the similarities between the Archaea and Eukarya. Consult your passage notes to find that this clue sends you to the fourth paragraph. Second, the question asks why those similarities are important, so scan the fourth paragraph for the similarities between the Archaea and Eukarya and look for a word or phrase indicating a reason. The similarities are mentioned in lines 60—64, and the reason is introduced by the keyword “Because” (line 67). The similarities are important because they indicate there may be an evolutionary connection between Archaea and Eukarya. Therefore, (B) is correct.
(A) is a distortion of information presented in the passage. Although archaea were originally thought to be extremophiles, the passage does not connect extreme environments to the origins of archaea. (C) and (D) are not discussed in the passage at all. The similarities between archaea and eukaryotes are not connected to the origin of the Bacteria, as in (C), nor to any limitation of the number of domains, as in (D).
9. B
Difficulty: Medium
Category: Vocab-in-Context
Getting to the Answer: Lines 78—80 refer to “a number of competing models for how this structure might have evolved.” Substitute a different word that would make sense and use that word as your prediction. Ideas or theories would be good predictions. Choice (B) is a match and the correct answer.
(A), (C), and (D) are alternative definitions of “models” that do not fit the context. (A) might be tricky. The word “ideals” indicates a high standard to be aimed at; it does not have the same meaning as “ideas.”
10. A
Difficulty: Easy
Category: Detail
Getting to the Answer: The eukaryotic nucleus is discussed in the last paragraph. A quick skim shows that the “syntrophic model” is mentioned in line 85. The sentence states that according to this model, “archaea slipped inside bacterial cells and eventually became those cells’ nuclei” (lines 86—88). So the eukaryotic cell arose from the two types of prokaryotic cells according to this model, making (A) correct.
(B) is incorrect because the theory that involves viruses is the controversial one that the author chooses not to describe. (C) refers to the second and third theories that are described, not the syntrophic model. Similarly, (D) refers to the third theory, not the syntrophic model.