Hardest New SAT English Questions Explained (2025)
- Laura (Heslin) Whitmore
- 17 minutes ago
- 2 min read
By Laura Whitmore
If you’re prepping for the SAT, you already know how tough the English module can get! Recently, College Board released about 300 brand-new SAT questions, and many of them are trickier than anything we’ve seen before.
Why should you care? Because whenever new questions drop, similar versions often show up on the actual test. That makes these essential practice if you’re testing in late 2025.
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Problem 1: Graph Question – Supporting a Researcher’s Conclusion
Graph questions are some of the hardest SAT English problems. The key is to go straight to the question and conclusion. Often, the last sentence of the passage contains the researcher’s claim. Then, skim the answer choices quickly—usually the first half sounds right but the second half contains the trap.
Strategy: Focus on whether the conclusion matches the data. In this example, answer A supports the claim about whitefly-infested plants defending against microbial infection.
Problem 2: Graph Question – Completing a Student’s Conclusion
Here, the question explicitly says “uses data”—so you’ll need the graph. Always read the axes carefully. Many wrong answers on graph questions are “opposites” (they say the exact reverse of the data).
Strategy: Compare across groups (bananas with ethylene vs. without) instead of just within one group. Answer D is correct because it shows the greater absolute change tied to ethylene treatment.
Problem 3: Grammar – Apostrophes in Plural/Possessive Contexts
This question type is testing ownership when there are multiple subjects. Ratios are plural, and both rock and rap have their own. That means the possessive form must apply to both individually.
Answer: “rock’s and rap’s” (choice B).
Problem 4: Parallelism – “That Of” Comparisons
The phrase “that of” signals that you’re comparing a characteristic, not the whole subject. Many students miss this because they compare “market to market” instead of “HHI score to HHI score.”
Strategy: Eliminate answer choices that compare unlike things. The correct subject is “the HHI score.”
Problem 5: Apostrophes – Use the Majority Rule
Sometimes the fastest way to solve an apostrophe problem is to notice patterns across the answer choices. If three out of four choices treat the noun as plural, that’s probably correct. Eliminate the odd one out.
Answer: Choice B, because it fits the plural + possessive structure consistently.
Problem 6: Subject–Verb Agreement – The Pronoun Trick
When all the answer choices are verbs, use the pronoun trick: replace the subject with “he” (singular) or “they” (plural). This instantly reveals which verb forms fit.
Strategy: Identify the true subject by crossing out prepositional phrases and non-essential clauses. In this case, the subject is singular (“the question”), so the verb must also be singular (“animates”).
Bottom Line
These new English questions are some of the hardest I’ve seen from College Board, but with the right strategies, they’re totally beatable!
🔥 Want to go deeper? My Digital SAT Self-Paced English Course includes exclusive video lessons, practice sets, and strategies you won’t find on YouTube. Click here to enroll today.
Happy prepping!
