<p>I am writing to report an ambiguous test question on this year's PSAT. On Form S, Section 5, question 34, the question is as follows:</p>
<p>The first woman in the United States to be granted (A) a patent was Mary Dixon Kies, her (B) new method for weaving (C) straw with other fibers proved useful to (D) hatmakers. No Error. (E)</p>
<p>The error in this sentence is the comma splice, a common error in which two independent clauses are inappropriately joined together by a comma. This question is ambiguous because the error (the comma) is not underlined. Choice B is listed as the answer however the punctuation is not included with that choice. </p>
<p>Because the instructions for this section states, "The error, if there is one, is underlined..." students would either have to make the flimsy assumption that the comma was meant to be underlined, or by the instructions, choose no error.</p>
<p>[address, signature. blah blah]</p>
<p>Agree? Disagree?
Do you think they'll actually reply?</p>
<p>I think they’d reply (eventually…), because there was another ambiguous question on Wednesday’s version. They just explained why their answer was correct, though. </p>
<p>Anyway, I’d just replace “her” with “whose,” which would seem to make the comma splice moot.</p>
<p>Can you, using the underline feature of this message board or with parentheses, indicate exactly what was included in each choice? Also, you might want to fix this:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Are you sure that you have correctly reproduced the question?</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand what’s wrong with the correct answer. If the punctuation mark is not underlined, then you must assume that it’s correct. Because the punctuation mark before “her” is a comma, the clause following it must be a dependent clause. The use of “her” makes the clause independent so (B) is the error.</p>
<p>When I copied and pasted from my Gmail, I forgot to reinsert underlines.</p>
<p>The first woman in the United States to be granted<a href=“A”>/u</a> a patent was Mary Dixon Kies, her<a href=“B”>/u</a> new method for weaving<a href=“C”>/u</a> straw with other fibers proved useful to<a href=“D”>/u</a>hatmakers. No Error. (E)</p>
<p>I just double-checked again with my PSAT packet, so I am positive it is correctly reproduced.</p>
<p>Yes, I sent it by email to ETS, following the guidelines I found in the NMSC booklet.</p>
<p>“Whose” is a legitimate correction (that I didn’t notice), but wouldn’t the comma be considered the error, not the pronoun? </p>
<p>Aarelle, could you show me the other ambiguous question? Just out of curiosity.</p>
<p>EDIT
31459265 pointed out something good, so I guess its not ambiguous after all since there’s no other way to fix the error based on the choices.</p>
<p>I disagree. Coming after the comma, “her” and “whose” are very similar: each has the same antecedent, each is possessive, each is an adjective related to a pronoun (“her” and “who”). The only real difference is that one introduces an independent clause while the other introduces a dependent clause. The fact that the “error” and its grammatical correction are so similar yet one is wrong and one is right is exactly what the writers think about when they write the questions. </p>
<p>Also, I’ve never seen an SAT question with punctuation marks underlined.</p>
<p>One of Writing’s main rules is: Never consider anything outside the lines, but for the sole sake of evaluating and figuring out the wrong answer choice, if there is any. So, it is out of question whether the out-of-brackets are wrong. But that doesn’t attribute perfection to the CollegeBoard’s exams. If there is any error they would cancel the whole question. And I believe that all of you about the time when the CB had to cancel the SAT exam for 10000 students!!! Don’t worry OP, for every problem lies a solution. And the answer is B, whose.</p>