← Home

Reading topic

Paired Passages

Compare and synthesize two related texts.

Practice this topic

The bank includes 28 questions on paired passages: 4 easy, 13 medium, 11 hard.

Why this question type matters on the PreACT 9

The PreACT 9 Reading section has 33 questions in 40 minutes. The mix is roughly even across question types, so paired passages questions appear on every test. Strong students do not over-study any one type; they make sure no type is a glaring weakness.

Paired-passage questions combine two related texts. Read each separately first, then identify whether the authors agree, disagree, or talk past each other.

Topics are aligned to 8th-grade Common Core standards. The actual CPS HSAT covers slightly more than these buckets but the core mix is the same.