<p>I would ask silverturtle this viggy. It’s illogical comparison like you said. I don’t feel confident in giving an explanation… I got B but was hesitant.</p>
<p>(Digging at the site, all power was cut off when the backhoe hit an electric cable); fortunately, no one was hurt.
a) original
b) Digging at the site, an electric cable was hit by a backhoe, cutting off all power
c) Cutting off all power, the backhoe hit an electric cable digging at the site
d) All power was cut off when the backhoe digging at the site hit an electric cable
e) When digging at the site, an electric cable hit by the backhoe cut off all power.</p>
<p>^this one confused me…so many terms and things to look for. also, i didn’t understand what a backhoe was.
i’ll post answer after a couple responses.</p>
<p>Approximately one-third as many people live in Canada (as in) Mexico.
a) as in
b) as live in
c) instead of in
d) when compared to
e) than</p>
<p>Though three-fourths of Kenya is a barren plain, (the highland area, were most people live, is farmed extensively.)
a) original
b) the highland area is where most people lives and it is extensively farmed
c) where most people live is in the highland area, it is extensively farmed
d) where most people live is the highland area, extensively farmed
e) most people live and extensively farm the highland area.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>“Live” isn’t implied, so you have to repeat it in the second clause.
“People” is implied, so you don’t have to repeat it.</p>
<p>I’m going to post a bunch of examples that use the same construction instead of trying to explain with logic and complicated terms. Hopefully you see the pattern.</p>
<p>(NOTE:
Bold are the verbs. Notice they are repeated.
Underlined are the adjectives. Notice they are not repeated.)</p>
<p>
hot and humid signifies that temperature and humidity is being compared. One day it was hot, and another day it was not as hot.
fast signifies that speed is being compared. One person runs at one rate, and the other person runs at another rate.
many signifies that quantity (of people) is being compared. One amount lives in Canada, and another amount lives in Mexico.</p>
<p>(Digging at the site, all power was cut off when the backhoe hit an electric cable); fortunately, no one was hurt.
a) original
b) Digging at the site, an electric cable was hit by a backhoe, cutting off all power
c) Cutting off all power, the backhoe hit an electric cable digging at the site
d) All power was cut off when the backhoe digging at the site hit an electric cable
e) When digging at the site, an electric cable hit by the backhoe cut off all power.</p>
<p>D looks good to me. Not sure lol.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A contribution is an action, and “inventing” is an action. Think about it: when you invent something, you contribute something as well. They are basically synonymous in this context. “Including” modifies the object “contributions to science.” Inventing a scientific device is a contribution to science.</p>
<p>(A) is wrong because it emphasizes the time in which (or event at which) the action took place as opposed to the action itself.</p>
<p><a href=“Digging%20at%20the%20site,%20all%20power%20was%20cut%20off%20when%20the%20backhoe%20hit%20an%20electric%20cable”>quote</a>; fortunately, no one was hurt.
a) original
b) Digging at the site, an electric cable was hit by a backhoe, cutting off all power
c) Cutting off all power, the backhoe hit an electric cable digging at the site
d) All power was cut off when the backhoe digging at the site hit an electric cable
e) When digging at the site, an electric cable hit by the backhoe cut off all power.</p>
<p>^this one confused me…so many terms and things to look for. also, i didn’t understand what a backhoe was.
i’ll post answer after a couple responses.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This one is more difficult to understand if you don’t know what a backhoe is, although it is possible to answer this with just grammatical knowledge.</p>
<p>(D) is correct because it correctly attributes the action “digging” to the noun “backhoe.” Backhoes are digging devices.
The other answer choices attribute the action “digging” to the wrong noun and are therefore illogical.</p>
<p>(A) Digging at the site, all power was cut off when the backhoe hit an electric cable…
This implies that the power was digging, which makes no sense.
(B) Digging at the site, an electric cable was hit by a backhoe, cutting off all power…</p>
<p>(C) Cutting off all power, the backhoe hit an electric cable digging at the site…</p>
<p>(E) When digging at the site, an electric cable hit by the backhoe cut off all power…</p>
<p>See? Told you I can get these questions right, but can’t explain them. :p</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>(E) is not correct because the ideas are not positioned in a way that makes sense. Also, the structure is not consistent.</p>
<p>The correct structure of the sentence is as follows:
Though X is barren, Y is farmed extensively.
Though X is barren, Y is NOT barren.</p>
<p>The incorrect structure, as utilized by (E), is as follows:
Though X is barren, most people extensively farm Y.</p>
<p>^This grammatically doesn’t say anything. So what if most people extensively farm Y? It is not directly in contrast with the statement “X is barren.” The extra information that most people live there is irrelevant because the sentence wants to compare the differences in the LAND. The original sentence correctly uses this extra information as a parenthetical:</p>
<p>Though three-fourths of Kenya is a barren plain, the highland area, where most people live, is farmed extensively.
Though three-fourths of Kenya is a barren plain, the highland area (where most people live) is farmed extensively.</p>
<p>It is irrelevant information that is inserted mid-clause. If you delete it, the sentence would still make sense.</p>
<p>^AHH, yea, makes way more sense once you omit the clause. thanks a lot everyone!</p>
<p>SAT Diagnostic Test A 3/17/2010 690(m) 630(cr) 660(w) 59 (grammar) 12 (essay) = 1980
SAT Diagnostic Test B 3/23/2010 700 (m) 730 (cr) 590 (w) 63(grammar) 6 (essay) = 2020</p>
<p>^what is up with these scores??? i’m so stressed right now…i don’t understand why I’m scoring so low in the PR diagnostic. and honestly, they aren’t even that much harder, if at all. Like, CR was very impressive…my jump…but Writing! what is going on?? Like 12 essay to 6 essay? w t f ?</p>
<p>Like 40 pt. improvement…that’s all! I have 1 month to get to 2250! i don’t understand this at all. I didn’t think my essay was that bad, nor was is brilliant. i expected 8. That might’ve got my score to high 2000s…still pretty bad…but not as bad at 2020!</p>
<p>also, for W sections…at home when i take tests, i feel relaxed, not stressed, and finish on time. at the actual test center for our PR course I feel stressed, struggle to finish, and constantly look at the clock. at home i put a big digital clock right in front of me, so i don’t really lose any time from looking at the clock. Is this bad? Is this good? What is going on with me? I can score 700 in W for sure at home! A 700 in W on that last diagnostic and i’m sitting at 2130. And a 6 essay!?? omg, even an 8 boosts me like 40-60 pts. help me CC, anyone else have these problems?</p>
<p>at home i can get 2100, at the testing place…apparantly i can barely get 2000…so stressed.</p>
<p>just wrote another practice test (a legit. one).</p>
<p>Got the following:
Math (3 wrong) = 710 (is this a harsh curve?)
CR - 630 (did absolutely terrible on sentence completion…made like 4-5 mistakes all together on the actual passages)
W - 2 WRONG! See this is what I mean, I am capable of doing well on writing…I made 2 dumb mistakes too. I don’t know what happens during a PR diagnostic…they aren’t even that much harder, if at all. i just do really bad because of lack of time and such.</p>
<p>At home, I usually finish just as time expires. Like, I never finish early unless it is a math section, i finish a minute early because i try to work slow. </p>
<p>So, Overall…my score is 710 M + 630 CR + 75 scaled W (this is about 750ish right? like should be around there with a 8-9 essay) = 2090. If I didn’t absolutely blow CR…I’d be into mid 2100s. Aghh, why can’t I do that on the actual diagnostic tests? Like, today I was tired as hell and if I wrote it fresh, like on a sat. morning, I would’ve gotten higher for sure.</p>
<p>the Math curve seems right. Usually -3 is like 720 or so. Don’t force study. Study with a calm mind and go over your errors. Be optimistic. I’m totally being a hypocrite right now, but it’s definitely true.</p>
<p>You seem incredibly anxious which probably does nothing to help you and might even be detrimental.</p>
<p>Generally small or possibly even moderate anxiety can heighten awareness which might help someone test a little bit better; more than that can have the opposite effect.</p>
<p>THat is a very harsh math curve. (-3 710)</p>
<p>EDIT: nvm, you got -4 for a 710, its normal</p>
<p>^yea, cause of the errors adding to 0.75. </p>
<p>also, do practice tests with no answers help at all?</p>
<p>Nope. The biggest benefit of taking practice tests is going back to them after you’re done and seeing what you did wrong.</p>
<p>There is great benefit in taking practice exams with no answer key. You should be able to answer all the questions correctly and be able to justify it, whether doing so is within the time limit or not. The lack of an answer key in some cases may actually be beneficial because it tests your reasoning.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not saying that you should have the answer key next to you when you’re taking the test lol. But I highly doubt that he will get every question correct, so he needs some way of going back and realizing what he did wrong.</p>
<p>Most of the time, as soon as you see that your answer was wrong, you can explain to yourself why it was wrong and you can usually see the right answer immediately.</p>
<p>You should be able to figure out the correct answer to any question without the answer key. Getting a question wrong should only be due to not having enough time, not to not being able to figure out the correct answer upon reflection and more time.</p>
<p>If you can justify something having looked at the answer key, you can justify it without looking at the answer key. The difference is how much you are learning in the process.</p>
<p>^that makes sense. I just wanted to know if writing those tests with no answers would be worthwhile. But, I always run out of time, or go right up to the time limit. So, should I write the entire test, THEN upon completion, go through every question and explain my reasoning?</p>
<p>Or should I do it while writing? I think I would run out of time of most CR and W sections if I do this. I mean, for writing, its easy, because I use reasoning to eliminate wrong answers and figure out the right ones, but CR is more of 'not that, not that, not that…now between these 2…yea that makes sense/should be correct"</p>
<p>It makes sense to take the test without the time limit every once in a while because it helps gauge your reasoning skills, which you wouldn’t normally really utilize when you are pressured by time. One thing you could do is not to time yourself at all. After a few tests, you should intuitively know that you are spending less and less time. Eventually you will feel comfortable taking it timed, as opposed to feeling anxious every single time you take a practice test (and not really improving your reasoning either). If you use this method, make sure to take a few timed exams before you take the real SAT because you don’t want to get shocked by the time limit.</p>
<p>CR is more complicated because it requires a different form of comprehension, which is different for each person. If you tend to read the whole passage in order to understand it as much as possible, try not to use process of elimination. You should know the answer in the back of your head if you spent that much time comprehending the passage. If you don’t read the whole passage through, you could use the extra time to use process of elimination.</p>
<p>On the vocabulary, don’t think. If you don’t know the answer, don’t expect to figure it out. Just skip it and move on. Vocab should take like 3-4 minutes</p>