SAT Function Questions: What Is This Sentence REALLY Doing?

SAT Function Questions are not simply asking what a sentence says—they’re asking why the author included it and what role it plays in the passage. In this video, Scholar Coach breaks down SAT questions that ask about the function of an underlined sentence, showing you how to identify the sentence’s purpose, connect it to the surrounding text, and eliminate answer choices that describe what the sentence says without explaining what it does. You’ll learn how to: • Identify the role an underlined sentence plays in the passage • Look beyond the sentence itself and use its surrounding context • Distinguish function from simple summary • Recognize common patterns in SAT answer choices • Eliminate answers that are too broad, too narrow, or unsupported • Determine why the author included the sentence in the first place The key is to stop asking only “What does this sentence say?” and start asking “What is this sentence doing here?” That shift can make one of the SAT’s most deceptively difficult question types much more predictable.