<p>The more I practice on CR reading comprehension questions, the more I find them straightforward and objective. But Writing MC questions are still very subjective in my opinion. How do I score well in them, and how do I remove the 'subjectivity' when answering those questions? Sometimes more than one answer seems correct, and I won't know which to choose.</p>
<p>They always say, choose the most correct answer. A lot of the answers are acceptable, but some are just more right than others. This is hard, but you just have to know which is the least wrong.</p>
<p>yes, most are technically right, but which one sounds better...i mean for example the sentence... I went to school in the morning...sounds better than...i had to attend school and left in the morning. These are both techinically right, but the first one is more straight to the point, shorter and overall sounds better. Most answers are basically the short forms and straight to the point. The wrong choices are the ones that go around the point and add in more words than necessary.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<p>The radio station received (the most number) of calls from listeners (on the evening) (it) aired a discussion of (the music of) Aretha Franklin. (No error) </p>
<p>The error is 'the most number' - because 'the largest number' is supposed to be more idiomatic. I mean, I would have gone for 'no error'. These are the questions that trip me all the time!</p>
<p>are you a native english speaker?</p>
<p>Yup I am a native English speaker. Any tips on how to be more careful on Identifying Errors? I have no trouble at all with Improving Sentences and Improving paragraphs. I'm aiming for full score this time, and I have to be extra careful. The last time, just 4 mistakes pulled down my total score to 740 (69 MC), even though my essay was 12. It was quite a harsh curve.</p>
<p>i had a 740 last time as well, 10 essay.</p>
<p>but i am pretty good at telling when things "sound" correct or not. so idiomatic questions like the one you posted arent a big problem for me.</p>
<p>heres something that might help you.</p>
<p>
[quote=andrea]
Rule 1) subject-verb agreement
Subject and verb must agree in number, so isolate the subject and the verb and make sure they match.</p>
<p>Example: The proctor, as well as the students, were overcome by the tedious timer and fell asleep.</p>
<p>Isolate the subject (the proctor) and the verb (were overcome) and combine: "The proctor were overcome." This is incorrect because proctor is singular and the verb should also be singular (was overcome). The word “students” is set off by a pair of commas and is not a part of the subject.</p>
<p>Rule 2) noun-pronoun agreement
Singular subjects take singular pronouns; plural subjects take plural pronouns. Memorize this list of singular subjects: each, every, either, neither, one, no one, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, and nobody. Each of these words takes a singular pronoun. This is a hard rule to "hear" because so many people break it that we are used to hearing it the wrong way.</p>
<p>Example: Not one of the boys read their SAT study guide.</p>
<p>This sentence is incorrect because the subject "one" is singular, but the pronoun "their" is plural. (Although "boys" is plural, it is the object of the sentence rather than the subject.) The correct pronoun would be "his".</p>
<p>Rule 3) pronoun subjects and objects
Subjects: I, he, she, they, we, who. Objects: me, him, her, them, us, whom. You must know when to use subjects and when to use objects. Simplify the sentences and see if they still sound correct.</p>
<p>Example: Julio and me were down by the schoolyard.</p>
<p>Does "Me was down by the schoolyard" sound right? No, it should be "I was down by the schoolyard", and the sentence should read "Julio and I were down by the schoolyard."</p>
<p>Rule 4) pronoun consistency
Pronouns should be consistent throughout a sentence. When ONE starts with a particular pronoun, ONE should continue to use that pronoun, or a pronoun that is consistent with it, throughout ONE's entire sentence.</p>
<p>Example: The more you study for the SAT, the more one thinks about moving to Mongolia.</p>
<p>This sentence starts with the pronoun "you" and then ends with the pronoun "one". This is inconsistent and the sentence should read either: "The more you study for the SAT, the more you think about moving to Mongolia." or "The more one studies for the SAT, the more one thinks about moving to Mongolia."</p>
<p>Rule 5) correct tense
Make sure the time of an action is consistent. Look for key "time words" such as when, while, as, after, and so forth, and make sure the tenses make sense.</p>
<p>Example: While I was painting his feet, he had tickled me.</p>
<p>Presumably, he interrupted the feet painting with his tickling, so to make this sentence consistent it should read "While I was painting his feet, he tickled me."</p>
<p>Rule 6) adjectives and adverbs
Remember the difference between adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives describe nouns, and they will always make grammatical sense in the phrase "the ______ badger". (ex. beautiful) Adverbs describe verbs or adjectives or other adverbs, and they often, but not always, end in -ly. An adverb will always make grammatical sense in the phrase "the badger did it ______" (ex. beautifully)</p>
<p>Example: I ran slow.</p>
<p>The word slow is an adjective, but an adverb is needed to modify the verb "ran", so "slowly" should be used rather than "slow".</p>
<p>Rule 7) parallelism
Ideas that are parallel (related) should be expressed in the same way.</p>
<p>Example: I like spitting, drooling, and to slurp.</p>
<p>Spit, drool, and slurp are parallel activities and they should be expressed in the same way.
Correct: I like spitting, drooling, and slurping.
Correct: I like to spit, to drool, and to slurp.
Correct: I like to spit, drool, and slurp.</p>
<p>Rule 8) run-on sentences and sentence fragments
A run-on sentence is usually two complete sentences that are incorrectly joined by a comma instead of separated by a period or a semicolon.</p>
<p>Example: All the kids had rashes on their bodies. Especially those with uranium lunch boxes.</p>
<p>The first sentence is complete, but the second is a fragment. The two sentences could be combined into one sentence like this: All the kids had rashes on their bodies, especially those with uranium lunch boxes.</p>
<p>Note: Usage questions on the SAT don't test for run-on sentences or fragments.</p>
<p>Rule 9) totally bogus sight questions
These questions don't actually test anything that has to do with your ability to write, they just test whether or not you can see a single wrong or missing letter.</p>
<p>Example: Late in the war, the Germans, retreating in haste, left many of their prisoners go free.</p>
<p>You need to read the sentence carefully and see that "left" should actually be "let".</p>
<p>Rule 10) dangling modifiers
"Dangling modifier" is a fancy grammatical term for a simple concept.</p>
<p>Example: Taking the test, his copy of Up Your Score was in his pocket.</p>
<p>This sentence does not mean what the person who wrote it wanted it to mean. This sentence implies that the copy of Up Your Score was taking the test. Whenever a sentence begins with a phrase like "Taking the test," the word that it modifies must come right after the modifying phrase. So a correct sentence would be "Taking the test, he had his copy of Up Your Score in his pocket."</p>
<p>Rule 11) sentence logic
On the sentence correction section of the test, there are often sentences that are grammatically correct but don't do a good job of saying what the author wants them to say.</p>
<p>Example: It was dark in the closet, and they managed to find the exit.</p>
<p>Although this sentence is technically grammatically correct, to properly convey the author's meaning it would need to be revised. A sample correct sentence would be "Although it was dark in the closet, they managed to find the exit."</p>
<p>Rule 12) fixing commonly messed-up expressions
Sometimes the ETS will deliberately mess up an expression to try to foil you.</p>
<p>Example: Since it's a beautiful day, I'd just assume walk.</p>
<p>The expression is actually "just as soon", but it sounds a lot like "just assume". You just have to be able to see that it is wrong.</p>
<p>Rule 13) logical comparison
Make sure that when you make a comparison, you compare two like things.</p>
<p>Example: My mother's salary is higher than Jane's mother.</p>
<p>Your mother's salary is higher than Jane's mother's salary, not higher than Jane's mother. How could a salary be higher than a person?</p>
<p>That is the end of the rules, but it has a few more things to watch out for.</p>
<ul>
<li>Don't split an infinitive. Instead of saying "to slowly walk", you should say "to walk slowly".</li>
<li>Don't use slang or clich</li>
</ul>
<p>thanks! it helps alot. :)</p>