How to 800 Writing! - I just did on BB practice test.

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>This post is for the regular kids, not the many geniuses on the forum who already get 800s. This is for the kids who get 600-750.
Note: I didn't do the essay, just did multiple choice but I'm pretty dam sure I could get at least a 9.</p>

<p>Now I'm not saying I'm a big grammer expert, but, I got everything right with about 8 minutes left over the big section, and 3 minutes left over on the 14 question section. I definetely recommend checking your answers though.</p>

<p>Step numba one:</p>

<p>Come into section with positive attitude. Do problems correctly to feed your confidence.</p>

<p>Improving sentences on the big section:</p>

<p>I find improving sentences the easiest, because there really are no tricks, just straight up grammer rules which remain consistent on every test. The most concise answer is right a lot of the time, so if your're stuck between two choices, go with the shorter one.
Watch out for errors like:
Because of their ability to eat large numbers of insects, some people are building bat houses in their backyards.
This is wrong because the "some people" aren't doing the eating, so immeadietly cross out any choices which contain this error.
- Verb tenses- this is pretty easy, i'm sure you all know how to do this.</p>

<p>Identifying sentence errors:</p>

<p>I want to emphasize how to do well on these, because these gave me the most trouble. I always got a few wrong on these because of the "No error" choice.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>If it sounds wierd but it has no noticeable error that violates any of the grammer rules you traditionally know, just put no error. For example, I thought that "hardly anyone" and "so painstainstakingly" sounded "wrong", but I didn't choice them because I kept in mind that just because we don't use them in everyday life doesn't mean they're wrong. I just kept to the grammer rules I already know and chose no error.</p></li>
<li><p>Watch out for the trickly ones which heavily seperates the subject and teh verb.
"Anne Tyler's novel The Accidental Tourist features a character whose obsession with saving time and money are absurb, yet somehow plausible. No error.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>It's not "are", it's is because it refers to obsession. However, this one tricked me at first until I looked at it again because with the "time and money", I thought it was plural. </p>

<p>Also there are some harder errors such as "Both sides had refused earlier offers for assistance".</p>

<p>It's not "for", it's of. </p>

<p>I suggest, to study, that you read up on Sparknotes, Collegeboard book, and Princeton Review grammer reviews a little, but mostly do practice sections out of Blue book. You don't have to do entire test, just section. </p>

<p>Good luck</p>

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<p>@collegekid 92: first off congratulations w/ your 800! Quick question: was there a specific SAT grammar book that you utilized/studied?</p>

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<p>Good Stuff.</p>

<p>I feel like I’ve plateaued on writing. I usually get 1-3 wrong on my practice tests because of things like idioms.</p>

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<p>^no. I didn’t study much from books, only things I didn’t understand like whether to use I or me and stuff like that, and I studied that from sparknotes. It depends on what your grammer score is right now. If it’s above 600, then just read a little about stuff like:
when idioms like of and for and what words they go along with.</p>

<p>but i just practiced a lot, and once you keep practicing you already know all the comon mistakes, and it’s just like the things that harambee says up there that you kind of plataeu on writing because of wierd/specific questions like idioms.</p>

<p>then it’s just about luck, and watching out for those tricky “no error” questions on which yoru’re not sure about.</p>