Strategy lessons
Practice this topic
The bank includes 51 questions on author's purpose: 0 easy, 47 medium, 4 hard.
Why this question type matters on the HSAT
The HSAT Reading section has 40 questions in 30 minutes. The mix is roughly even across question types, so author's purpose questions appear on every test. Strong students do not over-study any one type; they make sure no type is a glaring weakness.
Author's-purpose questions ask why the author wrote the passage, not what it's about. Read the verbs in the choices: 'to argue,' 'to describe,' 'to explain.'
Other topics
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.