Hi all,
So it is almost time for out with the old, in with the new in terms of the SAT. This post is to be a wrap-up for those seniors taking the old SAT this fall. Since you’re almost to the finish line, your studying at this point should be a brush up. To keep things focused, here is a quick overview of things to remember, plus some links to resources for brief review of major points.
Writing Section:
Basic Steps for any sentence (can you do this quickly and accurately?):
- Find the action verbs. (What happens?)
- Find the subject of those verbs. (Who does it?)
- Identify the main (independent) clause(s). (Can it stand alone? If nothing can, it’s not a complete sentence).
Error ID Questions:
- Identify verbs and pronouns in both the answer choices and the non-underlined parts of the sentence.
- Pronoun problems: agreement, unclear antecedent (too many/no antecedent/wrong one), case (I/me).
- Verb problems: subject verb agreement (Who does what?), tense (overall sense of past/present/future viewpoint must be consistent).
- Consider other types of errors for the answer choices if the verbs and pronouns are fine. Try reading the sentence one piece at a time to check each error.
Sentence Revision:
In addition to the basic steps, if you think there is an error (that is, the answer is not A), then you must consider the following steps as a list of priorities, in order from most important to least. Note: you are the editor, not the writer. Don’t make unnecessary changes to sentences, and don’t take out unique and important ideas (for example, verbs).
- Does it have ERRORS? Fix them on the sentence.
- Does it MAKE SENSE? As in, who does what/is described? Is it logical?
- Does it MATCH? Does the sentence flow, using parallelism and matching voice (active/passive)?
- Is it CONCISE? Correct answers are almost always the shortest or second shortest answer choices. The exceptions happen when the original sentence is unclear or missing a major piece (like a verb or subject), or when parallelism or logical comparison forces the sentence to be longer for reasons of style or logic. Those are pretty rare, though.
Paragraph Revision:
The steps for sentence revision also hold true here, but added on is the idea of matching on a larger scale, or ORGANIZATION. Some major points to remember are:
- Pronouns must have antecedents. Ask who or what any pronoun stands for. Don’t use pronouns in topic sentences.
- Similar ideas and topics should go together. The sentences that are most similar belong next to each other, and ones about the same topic in general belong in the same paragraph.
- Pronouns can also show person, or voice. The way the narrator addresses the reader should be consistent, so watch out for pronoun (or voice) shifts.
Resources:
The Critical Reader’s Complete SAT Rules:
Use this to review major content areas of grammar tested on the SAT. It is broken down by Error ID Categories, and then skills tested in Sentence Revisions. Note: use this to figure out what is NOT tested as well as what is. For example, punctuation is not tested, with the exception of comma splices (really a sentence structure issue, not a punctuation one).
Students often express worry about idiom questions. This is understandable because they can be difficult, and basically rely on memorization rather than rules. That said, they are pretty uncommon, typically only included in a couple of questions. Note: because they are uncommon, they may not be worth studying much. Take a look at the list if you are worried, but your time is likely better spent on reviewing commonly tested topics like subject verb agreement, verb tense, and sentence structure.
SAT Essay:
Refer to my previous post about the SAT essay here for an overview.
Additionally, if you find the time constraints of the essay challenging, I would encourage you to make an example sheet. This should include at least three books you have read recently/know well (preferably literature), and at least three major historical figures or events. Then you study them carefully so you have the information committed to memory. This way, if you blank out, or have a hard time thinking of examples, you will have something to fall back on so you don’t waste time. Here are a couple examples of the kind of information to include:
Book: Pride and Prejudice
Author: Jane Austen
Period: late 1700’s, early 1800’s
Setting: England, countryside
Main characters: Elizabeth Bennett, Fitzwilliam Darcy
Other important characters: Jane Bennett (E’s older sister), Mr. Bingley (Darcy’s friend, gets engaged to Jane at the end), George Wickham (villain), Lydia Bennett (E’s youngest sister), other Bennett family, Mr. Collins, Lady Catherine.
Conflict: Darcy visits E’s town with his friend Bingley. Bingley likes Jane, but Darcy doesn’t approve. Elizabeth’s first impression of Darcy is of a snob/too proud (she’s the “Prejudice” part), and Darcy is rude to her (he’s the “Pride” part). Darcy and Bingley’s sisters end up convincing him to leave and not to marry Jane. Elizabeth finds out and is very mad. Darcy has fallen in love with her, but she won’t accept him. George Wickham has also lied to E to convince her Darcy is bad. She discovers truth too late– lots of misunderstandings.
Themes: Title is an obvious one– wrong first impressions, etc. Also, lots of satire. Austen is poking fun at the society of her time by pointing out bad habits and qualities of all the characters (everyone seems foolish at one point or another in the story, especially Mr. Collins).
Lessons (could tie in to SAT prompts): “Don’t judge a book by its cover”/precarious social situation of women in the past/class system/importance of communicating/downsides of keeping information to yourself/good to give the benefit of the doubt or a second chance/ love vs. money or status.
Reading Comprehension:
Briefly, reading comprehension is hard– really. Most students find it the most difficult section. Don’t give up hope, though! The major thing I want to say is that there are many strategies that can work, and it is honestly up the individual to figure out what works for him or her. However, I will note a few important points.
- Read the BLURB (introduction at the top) and mark something in it. This helps with the main idea/primary purpose.
- Make sure you UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION. What is it asking? Is it a global (overall/whole passage) question or a local (line-based) one? If line-based, do you have a line number? If not, pick a keyword from the sentence, and find it in the passage. If the question has any specific wording, it is LINE BASED so you need to find that reference in the text.
- ORDER OF OPERATIONS: Do line-based questions before attempting whole passage questions. Do easy questions before hard questions. Use the answers you have to create a framework of understanding. As in the paragraph revision part of the writing section, like goes with like.
- Use your writing implement to MAKE NOTES and to follow the center of the paragraph as you read. Keep notes simple, using abbreviations, but definitely write things down.
- BE LITERAL– like really, really literal. This will help you to make connections you might otherwise miss. When in doubt, use the “Who does what?” method on any given sentence you’re reading. Word choice matters and is often very directly connected to the answers.
Other than that, I would refer you again to The Critical Reader, as I think she has a fantastic grasp of what makes the reading section tick, and about how you can improve.
Here is a link to a summary of her method: http://thecriticalreader.com/a-summary-of-my-critical-reading-method/
Here is a link to her posts about the SAT reading section: http://thecriticalreader.com/category/sat-critical-reading/
Here is her suggestion of another way to approach passages (not reading first, also not questions first): http://thecriticalreader.com/a-suggestion-for-getting-through-critical-reading-passages-faster/
I hope that all of this is helpful to you!
Elisabeth
