<p>On my most recent practice PSAT (found it online and dled it) I scored a 207 or 2070.</p>
<p>The breakdown goes
CR - 690
M - 780
W - 600</p>
<p>The writing score is the one that dismays me the most. I had spent the past 3 days intensively learning grammar, from all 12 tenses to comma splicing etc. But I still managed to miss 7 out of the 39 problems. I cannot figure out how to improve my score for the life of me. I really REALLY would appreciate some sort of help/advice with the writings section (PS, I don't miss any of those passage improvement questions)</p>
<p>I think the biggest flaw in your writing is the fact that you only seemed to have paid attention to grammar and punctuation. Sentence structure and quality matters just as much, if not more. Not only should you present your position and back it up with solid details, you should also include clever references to history, literature, or current events. The essay scorers latch onto those references like ticks if they’re presented well enough. The information should be precise, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be correct if you don’t know much about it.</p>
<p>The essay is only a bit of the writing section, though. Since you said you had trouble with the sentence reasoning questions, I’d recommend sounding it out in your head, or trying to envision it in a letter or paragraph. The SAT is a reasoning test, and they occasionally can trick you, especially in this section. Try to dig a little deeper on these questions, and try to pinpoint exactly how the sentence should be written.</p>
<p>That’s all I have to say. If you want more advice, I’d suggest that you inquire with a tutor or purchase a book on it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice but as you realize I wrote about the PSAT. The PSAT has no essay.</p>
<p>I realized that, yes. But I decided to give some words of wisdom on it anyway.</p>
<p>You should look at the the 7 questions you missed. They will tell you what you need to study. If you have other practice tests, check them as well.</p>
<p>Never pick a “wrong” answer on writing if you can’t explain explicitly WHY it’s wrong. Just say in your head: “that idiom should be ‘to’ instead of ‘for’”, or “that phrase makes the subject unclear”, or “that pronoun was redundant.” Like that. It will help you cut down on your mistakes.</p>