SAT error

Part of the following sentence is underlined; beneath the sentence are five ways of phrasing the underlined material. Select the option that produces the best sentence. If you think the original phrasing produces a better sentence than any of the alternatives, select choice A.

They use light that is 100 million times dimmer than the midday sun, and tropical nocturnal sweat bees leave their nests to forage for food.

A. They use light that is 100 million times dimmer than the midday sun, and
B. By using light that is 100 million times dimmer than midday,
C. In light that is 100 million times dimmer than the midday sun,
D. With the light being 100 million times as dim as midday,
E. When the light is 100 million times as dim as with the midday sun,

College Board says the correct answer is C. This answer shows that you must pick the best of the worst; the choice is far from ideal because C has a problematic comparison. It should compare light to the light of the sun. "In light that is 100 million times dimmer than the midday sunlight,..."

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Eliminating Answer Choices

Here's a great example of eliminating answer choices.

Add 8x to 2x and then subtract 5 from the sum. If x is a positive integer, the result must be an integer multiple of
A. 2
B. 5
C. 8
D. 10
E. 15


Well, if 10 is a correct answer, then 5 would be correct, too. You can't have two correct answers. So 10 could not possibly be an answer. The same goes for 15. So two answers are eliminated.

There are two ways to do this:
Add 8x and 2x and you get 10x, a multiple of 10. If you subtract 5, it's no longer a multiple of 10, but it's a still a multiple of 5.

OR
substitute for x. Let's make x=4.
8x plus 2x = 40. Subtract 5, and you get 35, which is a multiple of 5.

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Good News on SAT: Girls Are Improving at Math

Overall, women face hurdles in sciences but they have seen improvement on the SAT.

Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences

A report on the underrepresentation of women in science and math by the American Association of University Women, to be released Monday, found that although women have made gains, stereotypes and cultural biases still impede their success.

…

At the top level of math abilities, where boys are overrepresented, the report found that the gender gap is rapidly shrinking. Among mathematically precocious youth — sixth and seventh graders who score more than 700 on the math SAT — 30 years ago boys outnumbered girls 13 to 1, but only about 3 to 1 now.

 

Read more...

Don't Cheat on the SAT

It's unethical, and it could get you in a lot of trouble.
Here's an interesting article about cheating...

The month of March means different things to different people. For college basketball fans, March may mean March Madness; for those seeking more daylight, March can mean "springing forward" as we change our clocks for daylight savings time (Sunday at 2am, by the way); for others March means bursting flower bulbs (daffodils and hyacinths are my favorites), and for still others March gives hope that shorts and t-shirts will soon be coming out from their hibernation. But for college-hopefuls, March means the SAT, more formally known as the Standardized Aptitude Test.

March 13th is the big day this year, the 14th for those who celebrate the Sabbath.
While the students will spend the better part of four hours worrying over Math and English questions, the biggest concern for those in the security office of the Educational Testing Service (ETS), which administers the test, is cheating. The security surrounding the SAT is so high that it conjures up images of the Declaration of Independence, pre-National Treasure.

Considering the numbers, security should be a big concern. On an average SAT-administering day, there are 6-thousand centers conducting tests.

Read more...

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Writing Section - Pronouns - Finding Antecedents

TIP: If you see a pronoun, always try to find the word referred to by the pronoun (its antecedent).

If the antecedent doesn’t exist, then there’s an error.

If the pronoun is ‘they’ but the antecedent is singular, then there’s an error.

If you find two potential antecedents, then the pronoun is ambiguous.

You should always be searching for antecedents for any pronouns you see in the writing section.

This is something I review in more detail in my lessons, using examples.

Error ID: Be Skeptical of Prepositions Underlined Alone

	The following sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E.    Between 1508  to  1512, Michelangelo,  working on  a    A     B      scaffold 60 feet above the floor, painted the     vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome      with hundreds of  giant figures  that represented   C     D      his vision of the world’s creation.  No error     E    A.     (A) B.     (B) C.     (C) D.     (D) E.     (E)

 

 

C isn't ideal. But you can't fix it without changing a portion that is NOT underlined.

If something doesn't seem right, see if you could change it by fixing only words that are underlined.

If the only way to fix it is to rework other non-underlined portions of the sentence, then it's not the right answer.

Answer A can be fixed merely by changing the word to "and."

Another tip: Be really skeptical when a preposition is underlined by itself.

 

Should I take the SAT or ACT?

It’s a tough choice because the tests are very different.

Here are comments from Your Score Booster SAT / ACT test prep tutoring, followed by an article on the topic...

Your Score Booster analysis

The ACT has a science section; the SAT does not. Don't be too intimidated by the science itself; it's not that difficult, and most of the information is provided in a passage. Your Score Booster provides tips on doing well on the science section. But the sections require students to work very fast, getting through seven sections on science (40 questions) in 35 minutes. Students must be quick thinkers.

The ACT writing section consists of several passages, and students have to correct the grammar.
The SAT writing section has individual questions that are not part of a larger passage, except for six questions in a 35-question section.

Again, the ACT requires more speed, as students must answer 75 questions in 45 minutes.
For two writing sections of the SAT, students must answer 35 questions in 25 minutes and 14 questions in 10 minutes, respectively (a total of 49 questions in 35 minutes).

The writing section on the ACT is more straightforward than the writing section on the SAT.

The ACT tests for style, whereas the SAT doesn't do so. For example, students should recognize an academic style of writing shouldn't include colloquial phrases. The ACT also tests for knowledge of the use of apostrophes -- pretty easy. The SAT tests more for misplaced modifiers and complicated use of parallelism. I have run some SAT questions by former colleagues who edit a major newspaper in New York, and they have questioned the validity of the questions. But most of the SAT writing questions have a clear answer. Both tests check for correct subject-verb matching, verb tenses, redundancies and idiom usage.

With some tips and practice, the writing section is one of the easiest to master on both the SAT and ACT.

The ACT math section deals with trigonometry and imaginary numbers, which are not included on the SAT. Again, the ACT requires students to work very quickly and to work longer without a break between sections, answering 60 questions in 60 minutes.

The ACT math section is all multiple choice. The SAT is mostly multiple choice but does include 10 questions in which the students provide an answer that can be any number from 0 to 9999, including decimals and fractions.

The SAT gives students more time to answer questions. One section includes 20 questions to be completed in 25 minutes. But the SAT questions can be trickier and require students to think outside the box.

The bottom line is that the ACT requires more knowledge of the math and has more math topics but is more straightforward. The SAT only covers a limited ranged of math topics but is trickier.

Again, the SAT reading section gives students more time but the questions are trickier. Students must rush through the ACT reading section.

Here's an article on the topic of the SAT vs. ACT...

By Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Should your teenager take the SAT or ACT test?

…

Teenagers who earn high ACT scores are more likely to:

• Possess a strong memory.
• Be fast readers.
• Process information swiftly.

Teenagers who earn high SAT scores are more likely to:

• Possess a strong vocabulary.
• Be a strong reader.
• Enjoy test-taking strategies.

Teenagers who ace the ACT are able to speed through the test. The ACT, for instance, requires a student to answer 40 questions in the reading section in 35 minutes. In comparison, the SAT reading section seems downright leisurely. Students receive 70 minutes to answer 54 SAT reading questions.

…

Some students like the ACT because it’s more straight forward. The ACT, for instance, doesn’t contain obscure vocabulary and the reading passages aren’t tough. In comparison, the SAT reading section is loaded with tricky questions. Even though the SAT typically directs students to the very line in a reading passage where the answer can be found, pinpointing the correct answer can still be tortuous.

Read the full article…