<p>I don't really know how to improve on it, any book/guide suggestions? thanks</p>
<p>take a look at the blue book (college board's official guide) or just read like a grammar/style book (elements of style is great, or grammar for dummies), and then start doing practice grammar problems. do some that are featured here in the forums, and in practice sat books (any should do for practice, the most comparable to the test can be found in the blue book)</p>
<p>ok.... well im in a simiar circumstance
My first time I got a 73 in grammar but a 7 on the essay
Then I just got a 65 on grammar but an 11 on the essay
My score was basically the same..... so try to focus on both sections.....because even if you do great on the essay....... the poor grammar score will cancel it out...........
btw you can get a 10+ easy if you just have reasonable examples and have a constant format......work on error ID</p>
<p>ok here is the thing,
the Writing is somewhat predictable in the sense that the same type of questions will be asked in different tests.</p>
<p>Now, I(we on CC) do not know that you what kind of questions you are missing, so, I(we on CC) cannot tell you how to improve.</p>
<p>i raised my score from 600 to 720</p>
<p>its easiest by far to improve</p>
<p>2 weeks b4 the test. I bought barrons writing workbook & kaplans writing workbook and just did that. And memorized a bunch of quotes for the essay.</p>
<p>Which section do you need help on?</p>
<p>For the multiple choice, review grammar, etc. For the essay, remember to do a multi-paragraph essay with an intro and a conclusion. Provide evidence (references to books, speeches by famous people, historical events, etc. are good), and don't take too much writer's license. They want to see you get the basics, they don't really care how creative you are.</p>
<p>Of course, sometimes it just depends on whether you get a good essay prompt. As for me, my writing score went down the second time I took it (from 770 to 690), though I improved on the other 2 sections. So it depends on a lot of things besides how well you really write (though obviously, don't expect to get a good score if you can't write well at all). But if you are consistently getting the same score, then I don't think that's the problem.</p>
<p>Essay: most important is a STRONG STRUCTURE. Start with an intro (reiterating the prompt), two examples (make them up if need be, I always do that: My uncle always used to spend his money on his passion for painting or some stupid made-up-on-the spot example that's relevant), and strong concluding paragraph that once again restates your thesis AND ties it in to some other, broader topic. Structure, structure, structure, and of course strong writing (but it doesn't have to be exemplery) and grammar.</p>
<p>MC: Ok, here's the way I helped my friend study. Most of these MC questions, especially the type where you find the one word that's wrong in the sentence, follow the same type of formula. Many of them try to trick you by making subject-verb disagreement, then filling in the space between the subject and the verb with a really long prepositional clause that confuses you.</p>
<p>Example: Every pet belonging to doctors of the neurological branch of medicine are spotted.</p>
<p>This is a VERY simplistic version, but the main point is that 'pet' and 'are' do not go together. However, someone could easily be tricked because that prepositional phrase 'to doctors of...' makes them think that 'doctors' and 'are' agree, so the sentence is correct. Many MC problems follow this sort of setup. (Like instead of subject-verb disagreement, it might incorrectly compare 'Jane Austen's BOOKS' with 'Charles Dickens', but again insert that long, distracting phrase in the middle to throw you off.)</p>
<p>So try to block out all that pointless stuff in the middle of a sentence and concentrate on the main particles that matter. :D I've helped my friend raise her SAT Writing by about 60 points this way.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I have an 800 on writing, so if you want to know if I'm trustworthy.</p>
<p>EDIT: And here's an actual question that follows that same tricky format: After hours of futile debate, the committee
has decided to postpone further discussion
of the resolution until their next meeting.</p>
<p>Much of what pammeh is getting at is to identify PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES (like "over the fence" and "from New York") and basically discount them. Gerund phrases too. I put them in brackets. On the example pammeh gave:</p>
<p>Every pet belonging to doctors of the neurological branch of medicine are spotted.</p>
<p>Get rid of prepositional phrases ("of the neurological branch" "of medicine") and the gerund phrase ("belonging to doctors") and you're left with:</p>
<p>Every pet [belonging to doctors] [of the neurological branch] [of medicine] are spotted.
Every pet are spotted.</p>
<p>Now it's pretty clear that "is" is the correct verb.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Like instead of subject-verb disagreement, it might incorrectly compare 'Jane Austen's BOOKS' with 'Charles Dickens', but again insert that long, distracting phrase in the middle to throw you off
[/quote]
</p>
<p>They put these on their a lot. This example appears on the practice exam: "Lynn Marguli's theory that evolution is a process involving interdependency rather than competition among organisms differs dramatically from most biologists."</p>
<p>Marguli's theory doesn't differ from biologists. It differs from biologists' theories.</p>