Central Ideas and Details — Digital SAT SAT Reading and Writing revision notes
A 4-page visual revision sheet for Central Ideas and Details, written for Digital SAT SAT Reading and Writing. Formulas, diagrams and the traps that cost marks, laid out to be read the night before rather than the term before. Free, and it opens inside CapCompass.
Page 1 as PDF
Central Ideas and Details in one look
one short passage, one question: say what it is mainly doing
How the section is built, and why it changes your reading
- Reading and Writing is 54 questions in 64 minutes, two modules of 27 questions in 32 minutes, so the average is about 71 seconds a question
- every question carries its own short passage, roughly 25 to 150 words, and no other question uses it
- so there is nothing to gain by reading ahead: the passage IS the question, read it when you reach it
- questions are grouped by domain inside a module and run roughly easiest to hardest within the group, which is what makes skipping and returning safe
- four choices, no penalty for a wrong answer, so a blank scores exactly what a guess scores: never leave one
- the test adapts, module 1 decides whether module 2 comes in the easier or the harder form
Read the stem first. Which of the three is it asking for
- asks what the passage is mainly about, or states its main idea — Main idea: the answer covers the whole passage, not one line of it
- asks what the passage says or states about one named thing — Supporting detail: the answer is findable, one or two lines carry it
- asks what a quoted phrase or sentence means as used here — Paraphrase: restate the phrase yourself before you look down
Page 1 of 4. The full sheet, all 4 pages, opens free in the app.
What this Central Ideas and Details sheet covers
- How the section is built, and why it changes your reading
- Main idea against supporting detail
- Main idea
- Supporting detail
- Predict before you read the choices
- A main idea question, fully worked
- Words in the stem that change the job
- mainly about
- according to the text
- as it is used here
- best describes the function
- Traps that cost points
- Tricks that save time
How CapCompass uses this sheet
These notes are not a standalone PDF. CapCompass plans SAT Reading and Writing chapter by chapter against your real exam dates and free hours, and when the plan reaches Central Ideas and Details the sheet opens inside the study block itself — at the page covering the sub-topic that block is on, with the timer still running. Revision arrives at the moment the plan says revise, instead of having to be gone looking for.