How to Actually Increase Your Score on the Digital SAT English Section

Let's be real for a minute. The switch to the Digital SAT has changed the game. The new "Reading and Writing" section isn't about enduring long, boring passages anymore. It’s a series of short, intense sprints that test your precision, your logic, and your ability to figure out what’s going on, all in about a minute per question. If your score has been stuck, it’s probably because you’re still using strategies from the old paper test for this new digital format.

It's time for a new playbook. Forget the generic advice. We're going to dive deep into the core skills the Digital SAT is actually testing and give you the strategies you need to master them. This isn't about finding shortcuts; it's about learning to think like the test itself.

The Real Secret Weapon: A Daily Reading Habit

This is the single most important piece of advice that most students ignore. You can’t just do SAT practice problems to get better at reading; you have to actually read. The short passages on the SAT are taken from high-quality sources on a wide range of topics. The more you expose your brain to this kind of writing, the more natural it will feel on test day.

How to Build This Habit:

Commit to reading just one article every single day from a high-quality source. Don’t just skim it. Read it actively. Here are a few great places to start:

• For Science: Read articles from Scientific American or the science section of The New York Times. These will train you to understand the structure of scientific arguments, which is a huge part of the SAT.
• For History and Social Studies: Check out publications like The Atlantic or The New Yorker. Their articles are complex, well-argued, and use the kind of sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structure you’ll see on the test.
• For Literature: This might sound strange, but reading poetry from a site like the Poetry Foundation can be incredibly helpful. It forces you to pay close attention to every single word and how it contributes to the overall meaning, which is exactly what you need to do for the "Words in Context" questions.

When you read, highlight words you don't know, and at the end of each article, try to summarize the author's main point in a single sentence. This daily practice will do more for your score in the long run than any amount of cramming.

It's Not Just About Words, It's About How They're Used

The Core Concept: The Digital SAT doesn't care if you know words like "abnegation" or "pusillanimous." It tests what are called “Tier Two” words. These are words you’ve probably seen before but might not know precisely, like "articulate," "corroborate," "discrepancy," and "ambiguous." The test-makers choose these words on purpose because their meaning often depends on the surrounding text.

The Deeper Strategy: Think Like a Detective

Don't just memorize definitions. For every word you study, ask yourself these three questions:

1. What is the word's flavor? Is it positive, negative, or neutral? The words "unique" and "aberration" can both mean "different from the norm," but "aberration" has a negative flavor. The SAT loves to test this subtle difference.
2. Where does this word usually live? What kind of sentence does it appear in? A word like "catalyst" is often used to describe the start of a process, whether in science or history. Understanding its natural habitat helps you understand its role.
3. How does this word connect ideas? A word like "whereas" is a signpost for a contrast. A word like "therefore" is a signpost for a conclusion. Learning these signal words is like getting a map to the logic of the passage.

Think of Punctuation as a Secret Code

The Core Concept: The grammar questions on the Digital SAT are really logic puzzles in disguise. Punctuation marks are the rules of the game. They tell you how different parts of a sentence are related to each other.

The Deeper Strategy: Know the Job of Each Mark

Instead of memorizing dozens of comma rules, focus on the specific *job* that each punctuation mark does:

• A comma has two main jobs: it separates items in a list, or it sets off extra, non-essential information from the main part of the sentence.
• A semicolon is like a bridge that connects two complete sentences. The two sentences must be closely related in meaning.
• A colon is like a spotlight. It tells you that what comes next will explain, define, or give an example of what just came before it.

When you see a punctuation question, don't just guess. Ask yourself, "What is the logical relationship between these two pieces of the sentence?" The correct punctuation will be the one that reflects that relationship perfectly.

How to Spot the Traps the SAT Sets for You

The Core Concept: Getting a top score isn't just about finding the right answer. It’s also about understanding why the wrong answers are wrong. The test-makers design tempting wrong answers, called "distractors," that are specifically meant to trick you.

The Deeper Strategy: Identify the "Distractor DNA"

You can learn to spot these traps from a mile away. Most wrong answers on the SAT have one of these three patterns:

1. The "Too Extreme" Trap: This answer choice will use absolute words like always, never, impossible, or every single time. Academic writing is cautious and rarely makes such bold claims. The correct answer is usually more moderate, using words like "can," "may," or "often."
2. The "True, But Irrelevant" Trap: This is the sneakiest trap. The answer choice might be a factually correct statement, but it doesn't actually answer the specific question that is being asked. Always double-check that your answer is directly addressing the prompt.
3. The "Logical Twist" Trap: This answer choice will use words and ideas from the passage but will twist their relationship. It might confuse a cause with an effect, or say that two things are similar when the passage says they are different. This trap catches students who are just matching words instead of understanding the meaning.

Your Mistakes Are Your Best Tutors

The Core Concept: Simply grinding through hundreds of practice questions won't raise your score. Real improvement comes from a cycle of practicing, deeply analyzing your mistakes, and then reviewing what you've learned.

The Deeper Strategy: Become a Detective of Your Own Errors

This is a technique that top-scoring students swear by. Get a notebook and dedicate it to your SAT prep. Every time you review a practice test, write down every single question you got wrong. But don't just write down the right answer. Analyze *why* you got it wrong. Categorize each mistake:

• Vocabulary Gap: I didn't know a key word.
• Rule Gap: I forgot a specific grammar rule.
• Comprehension Error: I misunderstood what the passage was about.
• Silly Mistake: I just made a careless error from rushing.

After a week, you'll have real data on your own performance. If you see that most of your mistakes are from vocabulary, you know exactly what you need to focus on. This process turns frustration into a clear plan of attack.