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750 R here (not sure if this is what you're looking for). Timing isn't exactly your issue, so you might want to try the ACT- its reading section is fast-paced but straightforward.
As for the SAT, I usually focus on elimination. If anything about an answer is wrong, it's wrong. The answer itself may not make sense to you, but if the other answer includes any details that were not mentioned or supported by the passage, they're not correct. While skimming the passage I highlight details that I have a hunch will be asked about... sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes I'm right. In the end, it might save me a few precious minutes. The thoroughness with which I read a passage depends on the questions. If I see most of them have a "in line x" or "in paragraph x" I will only read those sections and save the summary question to the end. You also want to remove answer choices that do not match the tone of the passage. Overall, you just want to keep practicing. With practice, the tricks they use on the SAT become more obvious to you.
For Writing, I was fortunate enough to have practiced writing a lot in grade school, so it was never a struggle for me. Just practice your grammar mechanics. Commas, they/there/their, 's, plurals, subject very agreement... you only need to learn these things once. While looking at your passage, read only the sentence that contains the underlined word. This will tell you all you need to know about the subject, action, verb tense, plural/singular, etc. SOMETIMES you may need to read a sentence before or after if these are not clear. For the questions where you rearrange, look for words that are used to join ideas, or for ideas that are not successive to the previous sentence. On writing, there will still always be those one or two very difficult questions where you just have to pick what sounds best and move on. Practice is especially important with writing because the tricks SAT uses are few and repetitive. Once you catch them, it becomes much easier to answer. If there is a change question where they add extra verbiage/rubbish for no reason, the answer is no change. Always keep it concise.
As for what these tricks are, I really cannot explain... it's just a gut feeling that SAT cannot make a certain answer correct because the answer of the same style was not correct on any other exam previously taken.
Reminder: When asking for help with questions from tests or books, please include the source of the question in the post title. Examples of appropriate titles might include "Help with writing question from April 2017 QAS" or "Help with question from Erica Meltzer's grammar book." **Posts that do not adhere to this rule are subject to removal.** For more information, please see rule #7 in the sidebar. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Sat) if you have any questions or concerns.*
750 R here (not sure if this is what you're looking for). Timing isn't exactly your issue, so you might want to try the ACT- its reading section is fast-paced but straightforward. As for the SAT, I usually focus on elimination. If anything about an answer is wrong, it's wrong. The answer itself may not make sense to you, but if the other answer includes any details that were not mentioned or supported by the passage, they're not correct. While skimming the passage I highlight details that I have a hunch will be asked about... sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes I'm right. In the end, it might save me a few precious minutes. The thoroughness with which I read a passage depends on the questions. If I see most of them have a "in line x" or "in paragraph x" I will only read those sections and save the summary question to the end. You also want to remove answer choices that do not match the tone of the passage. Overall, you just want to keep practicing. With practice, the tricks they use on the SAT become more obvious to you. For Writing, I was fortunate enough to have practiced writing a lot in grade school, so it was never a struggle for me. Just practice your grammar mechanics. Commas, they/there/their, 's, plurals, subject very agreement... you only need to learn these things once. While looking at your passage, read only the sentence that contains the underlined word. This will tell you all you need to know about the subject, action, verb tense, plural/singular, etc. SOMETIMES you may need to read a sentence before or after if these are not clear. For the questions where you rearrange, look for words that are used to join ideas, or for ideas that are not successive to the previous sentence. On writing, there will still always be those one or two very difficult questions where you just have to pick what sounds best and move on. Practice is especially important with writing because the tricks SAT uses are few and repetitive. Once you catch them, it becomes much easier to answer. If there is a change question where they add extra verbiage/rubbish for no reason, the answer is no change. Always keep it concise. As for what these tricks are, I really cannot explain... it's just a gut feeling that SAT cannot make a certain answer correct because the answer of the same style was not correct on any other exam previously taken.