PSAT Reading — main purpose and overall structure

Two of the most common question stems in the Craft and Structure domain of the PSAT/NMSQT Reading and Writing section ask about a passage as a whole: “Which choice best states the main purpose of the text?” and “Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?” They look easy and cost points in predictable ways. A purpose answer can be accurate about one sentence and still wrong for the passage; a choice can use a strong verb such as “argue” or “urge” when the writer only explains; a structure answer can leave out the last turn of the passage, often the one introduced by “yet,” “in fact” or “even so.”

This material isolates those two questions. It gives twelve original passages of three to five sentences, across the subject areas of the test: the chain linking sea otters, urchins and kelp; the translator's dilemma; inelastic goods; how geckos cling; the white churches of New England; the first transcontinental railroad; why stars twinkle; the three-minute song; how a bill becomes law; Ignaz Semmelweis and handwashing; the narrator and the author; and how rivers form oxbow lakes. Six questions ask for the main purpose and six for the overall structure. The patterns covered are the ones the test returns to: an assumption and its correction, an old explanation replaced by a better one, a definition with contrasting examples, a process in stages, an event and its wider effects, an observation tested and then resisted. Each explanation labels what every sentence does and shows why each wrong choice is too narrow, too strong or off the passage.

The flashcards set out purpose verbs, the common structures and their signal words. The printable written work asks you to label sentence roles, repair an answer that is too narrow, explain what a transition sentence does, and write a short passage of your own in a given structure. The oral exam reads passages aloud and asks you to state a purpose beginning with a verb, or a structure in order.

Practice material written by Zestly for students preparing for the PSAT/NMSQT; it is not produced or endorsed by the College Board or NMSC.

  • State the main purpose of a short passage with an accurate verb
  • Describe a passage's overall structure as an ordered sequence of roles
  • Recognize common structures: assumption and correction, old and new explanation, process in stages, cause and wider effects
  • Use signal words (yet, in fact, even so, then) to find where a passage turns
  • Reject choices that are too narrow or claim a purpose the writer never pursues

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Text Structure and Purpose skill (Craft and Structure domain) described in the College Board's Assessment Framework for the Digital SAT Suite. All passages are original.

Sample question

A science writer explains a relationship on the Pacific coast of North America: “Sea otters feed heavily on sea urchins. Urchins, in turn, graze on kelp, the giant seaweed whose underwater forests shelter hundreds of other species. Where otters were hunted out for their fur in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, urchins multiplied and many kelp forests were grazed down to bare rock, known as urchin barrens. Where otters have returned, the kelp has often come back with them.” Which choice best states the main purpose of the writer's account?

See the answer

To explain how sea otters indirectly help preserve kelp forests

The account links otters, urchins and kelp in a chain: otters eat urchins, urchins eat kelp, and where otters disappeared the kelp was grazed away, while their return brought it back. The point is the otters' indirect effect on the forests. The writer mentions the fur trade only as history and argues nothing about it, names only one food of the otters, and compares no oceans.

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