Good Luck on the SAT on Saturday

In two days, students around the world will be taking the SAT.

Many students have difficulty with the newest section, the writing section.

Here are a few tips on the writing section of the SAT.

Faulty Comparisons (look for than, different from or similar to)

• John said the iPhone’s features are better than the Blackberry

o This erroneously compares "features" to the "Blackberry." You must compare features to features.

o Correct: John said the iPhone’s features are better than the Blackberry’s features.

Correct: John said the iPhone’s features are better than the Blackberry’s.

Misplaced modifier ("ing," as in "eating" in an introductory phrase is a hint this might be the error)

• Wrong: After eating a large, seven-course meal, the dishwasher was full.

Dishwashers don’t eat large, seven-course meals.

Correct: After eating a large, seven-course meal, the family filled the dishwasher.

Pronoun

• Make sure pronouns match the nouns they represent.

Wrong: Each football player must return their equipment after he plays the game to avoid paying a fee.

Correct: Each football player must return his equipment after he plays the game to avoid paying a fee.

Correct: Each football player must return her equipment after she plays the game to avoid paying a fee.

Singular

• Everyone

• Anyone

• No one

• Each

• None

• Neither

• Either

Make sure there is not “you” in one part and “one” in another part of the sentence.

Make sure the pronoun is not ambiguous. It should be clear which noun the pronoun refers to.

• After Robert and his brother called inquiring about tutoring, Richard told him Friday afternoon would be a perfect time.

o To whom does “him” refer?

• John and his grandfather said his house would be a good place for tutoring.

o To whom does “his” refer?

Make sure you have adverbs when appropriate.

• Wrong: He ran so quick that the police could not catch him.

• Right: He ran so quickly that the police could not catch him.

Only "and" can make a compound subject.

John and Mike are very nice guys.

John as well as Mike IS a nice guy. ("as well as" doesn't make it a compound subject, so "is" is correct.)

With OR, the subject closest to the verb determines whether the verb should be single or plural.

Correct: The students or the coach ends the game. ("the coach ends")

Correct: The coach or the students end the game. ("the students end")

Make sure sentences are parallel

• Robert comes home from school at 3:45 p.m. then eats a snack, prepares for the SAT tutoring and to study.

o “to study” isn’t parallel. It should be “studies.”

o Parallel

Eats.

Prepares.

Studies.

• Robert comes home from school at 3:45 p.m. to eat a snack, to prepare for the SAT tutoring and taking a nap.

o "Taking a nap" not parallel. It should be “to take a nap.”

o Parallel

To eat a snack

To prepare

To take a nap.

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A perfect score

A perfect score of 2400 on the SAT is possible with practice...

Read about it...

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Don't Write Off the Writing Section

The Writing Section received some praise from one of the fiercest critics of the SAT.

The SAT 'at War With Itself'

April 16, 2009

SAN DIEGO -- When American high school students take an SAT that is an hour longer than it used to be, and that includes a writing test many top colleges ignore, Richard Atkinson may be the man they have to thank.

Atkinson is the former president of the University of California. When he announced in 2001 that he was recommending that the university system stop requiring the SAT of applicants, he got the attention of the College Board in a way that other critics of the test never could. The prospect of losing all of those University of California applicants led to all kinds of changes in the SAT (and succeeded in keeping the university among the institutions requiring the test).

...

Prior the reforms of this decade, Atkinson said, the SAT was known for "trickery" and "esoteric analogies" that encouraged students to try to learn test-taking skills. He applauded the elimination of the much-mocked analogies section and applauded especially the addition of the writing test to the SAT. Not only does it test something that students actually need to do in college, Atkinson said, but it sends a message to high schools to take writing instruction seriously.

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Studying for the SAT as early as possible

Some people start studying for the SAT as early as age 11. Here's the story from The Baltimore Sun:

The competition to get into selective colleges has become a complex, multi-year process that leaves high achievers and their families plotting strategies to get a fat letter from a top college.

...

Acing multiple tests is another way to play the game well. Kevin Chow started at age 11 by taking a prep course for the SAT he would take in high school. By sixth grade he dreamed of Stanford. By senior year at Pikesville, he was applying early to beat the admissions odds, submitting his near perfect scores. It worked.

While he acknowledges that that may have been extreme, most students applying to college now take a course before they sit for the SAT. Baltimore County, for instance, requires nearly every junior to take the half-year course. Many students go far beyond, spending $1,000 or more to enroll in six- or eight-week courses that are supposed to raise their scores.

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Is Score Choice a good idea?

It's a mixed bag, according to a Washington Post story on Score Choice...

Many colleges have long said they take into account only the highest scores for each section anyway. Some admissions officials say students who use score choice might lose out.

"My concern is that with the score choice, they can only send the scores from one sitting," said Lorne Robinson, dean of admissions at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., which is requiring students to send their entire SAT transcript. He said Macalester combines high scores for each test section and doesn't think too much about the rest.

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