Need help with grammar and reading! Looking for 750+

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Hey I'm a rising senior and I want to take the SAT in October.</p>

<p>I started studying for the sats about 3 weeks ago, and I took my first full practice test with test-like conditions yesterday.</p>

<p>Breakdown: 780 Math/690 Grammar/680 CR/10 Essay -> 2150 Composite</p>

<p>Math: I found the math questions to be decently easy, my only mistake was a careless addition error for one of the first few problems.</p>

<p><strong><em>Grammar: I have trouble identifying when there is NO ERROR in the sentence corrections. For some reason, I keep thinking that there is something wrong with every sentence. I got 6 MC wrong</em></strong></p>

<p>***Critical Reading: I have a good vocabulary and got none of the vocab questions wrong. However I have difficulty with the main idea/implying questions. A lot of the time, I am down to just 2 (occationally 3) choices, and I can't pick which answer is right and which answer is wrong. </p>

<p>Other times, the passages are so obsurly phrased that I barely even know what the author of the passage is even saying</p>

<p>PLEASE HELP! Need advice!! Thanks :)</p>

2

<p>For CR, realize that every single answer is supported by the text, no matter how obscure. There will be very minute differences between answer choices, but difference nonetheless. </p>

<p>For writing, just don’t second guess yourself? Once you can’t find any errors, don’t keep looking for them. If you find that you are getting the question wrong when you go back and change your answer, don’t change it.</p>

3

<p>Lol thanks for the cr tip</p>

<p>But for grammar, I dont ever second guess myself; I always think that i’m right, but then i end up getting the q wrong.</p>

4

<p>anyone else have any other advice?</p>

5

<p>Identify a section in the blue book and then list all the writing questions you got wrong. Seeing errors where none exist is a very common symptom of a student relying too much on his or her ear. If you can come up with a categorization system to identify the error types then you will feel more comfortable picking ‘no error’ when none of the underlined words/phrases fit into any of your categories. I will come back later to check.</p>

6

<p>@YZamyatin CB Practice Test #9</p>

<p>Section 3:</p>

<h1>17, I had C, it was E, no error. I thought they had to specify, like “as the refugees…”, not just “as those” because those could’ve been the plains that they mentioned</h1>

<h1>29, I had D, it was E, no error. I thought it should’ve been “had long SINCE been”, not just “had long been”.</h1>

<p>Section 10, Test #9</p>

<ol>
<li>I thought it was B, answer is C</li>
<li>I thought it was D, answer is B</li>
</ol>

7

<p>If you are willing to post your errors from another test it will give us a better sample size. I do not have access to my pc at the moment. I will give you a thorough response tomorrow night.</p>

<p>BTW, “long since” has shown up on several tests and is never wrong.</p>

8

<p>Ah, I see now. “long been” is the same as “long since”. It shows up at the end of ISE sections and serves the same function… to sound awkward to the inexperienced ear. </p>

<p>“long been” is fine. There is nothing inherently wrong with “long since been” either. I will have more tomorrow. Sorry, time got away from me.</p>

9

<p>Hey Christina,</p>

<p>To avoid No-Error-Paranoia, you should be asking yourself what grammar error is being tested for each question. There are only really ~18-20 grammar rules (S-V agreement, pronoun reference, modifiers, etc.) the SAT ever tests you on and if the answer you picked doesn’t correspond to one of them, then you probably think it’s wrong when it isn’t.</p>

<p>So for example, “had long been” => “had long since been”…what grammar rule is being tested there? Don’t insert words just because you can.</p>

10

<p>What are the CR and writing prep books you are using?</p>

11

<p>@nsnphu Thanks for that helpful and insightful piece of advice! </p>

<p>@dark98 I bought The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar by Erica Meltzer recently and I skimmed though it one time. I might do it a second time since I heard it was very helpful.</p>

<p>However, I dont have any CR Prep Books other than the CB Blue Book</p>

<p>Would you recommend any CR books to me?</p>

12

<p>@Christina1297</p>

<p>Here is my breakdown of the questions you mentioned…</p>

<p>Section 3…</p>

<p>As you know, there is no error in question #17. You selected an underlined pronoun. There are a limited number of ways in which pronouns may be used incorrectly on this section of the test. I will list them briefly in descending order of frequency…</p>

<p>Noun/Pronoun Agreement (singular vs. plural)
Wrong Case (subject vs. object)
Relative Pronoun Usage (who(m)/which/that, when/where, etc.)
Person Shift (you…you, one…one, we…we, etc.)
Missing Referent (antecedent is missing)
Ambiguous Referent (antecedent is vague)
Reflexive Pronoun Usage (myself, yourself, etc.)</p>

<p>Roughly 75% of pronoun errors will be NPA, Wrong Case, and Person Shift types. Reflexive Pronoun errors are extremely rare (there are none in the Blue Book).</p>

<p>By your explanation it seems that you suspected an Ambiguous Referent error. First of all, these errors are fairly rare (there are only two instances in the entire Blue Book). Furthermore, Ambiguous Referent errors follow a fairly straightforward formula. Here is an example…</p>

<p>-Though Rivers had (done all) the work, Peters had taken (all the credit), and so (he held him) (in contempt). (No error)</p>

<p>Sentences with Ambiguous Pronoun errors always follows the above structure fairly closely. These are frequently high difficulty level questions, but once you know to look for them they are pretty easy to spot. Can you see how question #17 is very different in structure from the above example?</p>

<p>Here is another example (skip if you don’t want to see a question from Blue Book #2)</p>

<p>-Neither Ms. Perez (nor) Ms. Tanaka (believes) that watching as much television as (her) son Sam does (will lead) to anything productive. (No error)</p>

<p>Both of those examples were level 5 difficulty questions btw.</p>

<p>For Missing Referent errors, it is only necessary that the antecedent not be present in the sentence. For Ambiguous Referent errors, however, it is necessary that there be overt ambiguity as to what a pronoun is referring to. It is not enough that there be more than one noun in the sentence that matches the pronoun in number. In other words, in question #17, it is not enough that there are multiple plural nouns in the sentence. It is obvious that the pronoun does not refer to the ‘flooded plains’ because that would make the sentence completely illogical (the ‘obvious’ part is what makes the pronoun unambiguous).</p>

<p>Look closely at my examples above. Those sentences make sense no matter which nouns the pronouns refer to (they may make more sense one way than the other, but in no case are the sentences rendered completely illogical), and that is the standard that indicates an Ambiguous Referent error.</p>

<p>Incidentally, I have never seen a pronoun error involving the word ‘those’. </p>

<p>For question #29, you selected ‘had long been’ because you thought ‘had long since been’ sounded better. As nsnphu mentioned, you should not select a word/phrase without knowing specifically what error has been committed. Virtually all Unidiomatic Phrase errors involve preposition-verb combinations or can be classified as one of the other error types (Verb Form errors involving infinitive vs. participle predominate). There are only three things that could possibly be wrong with the phrase you selected…</p>

<p>Verb Tense – the time sequence is fine to support past perfect
Verb Form – the past perfect is constructed with had + past participle, check
Adverb/Adjective – ‘long’ is an adverb that is modifying the verb ‘been’, check</p>

<p>There is nothing else that could be wrong with the phrase. As I mentioned in an earlier post, ‘long since’ and ‘long been’ show up regularly in high difficulty questions. As far as I have noticed they are always correct.</p>

<p>Section 10…</p>

<p>I will write question #6 with your choice and try to emphasize the part of the sentence that should warn you that something is wrong.</p>

<p>-Beginning photographers may choose from among several camera types, of which there is one best for their particular interests.</p>

<p>That sentence doesn’t even make sense to me. Now, maybe you could get away with this…</p>

<p>-Beginning photographers may choose from among several camera types, of which there is one that is best for their particular interests.</p>

<p>…but even that is far too clunky compared to choice C…</p>

<p>-Beginning photographers may choose from among several camera types, one of which is best for their particular interests.</p>

<p>Choice C presents a standard appositive phrase that modifies ‘camera types’. It is the only logical sentence that is grammatically correct. But there is an easier way to spot the correct sentence. Remove the propositional phrase and you are left with…</p>

<p>-Beginning photographers may choose from among several camera types, of which there is one best. (this hurts my ears)</p>

<p>vs.</p>

<p>-Beginning photographers may choose from among several camera types, one of which is best. (much better, no?)</p>

<p>Removing non-essential clauses and preposition phrases (and sometimes adverbs and adjectives) can sometimes greatly increase your chances of spotting the best answer by stripping the sentence down to its bare bones. </p>

<p>In the Improving Sentences section of the test, you will frequently run into wrong answer choices that are simply unnecessarily wordy and/or unidiomatic. The key to getting these questions right is not to identify every grammatical error in the wrong answer choices but to recognize the one clear, concise, and grammatically correct answer choice.</p>

<p>In question #13, you have selected a choice that includes a Comma Splice error. You cannot join two independent clauses by a comma without using a coordinating conjunction. </p>

<p>What did you think was wrong with choice B? </p>

<p>IS questions may seem more difficult than ISE questions because you have to fix, not just identify, errors. But by virtue of this design, student have to make two errors in order to get a question wrong. For hard questions, my advice is to start by eliminating the sentences that contain easily identifiable errors and then select the most clear and concise sentence of the choices remaining. You do not have to be able the name the grammatical error in each of the wrong answer choices.</p>

<p>Good luck with your prep.</p>

13

<p>@Christina1297</p>

<p>Erica Meltzer’s grammar book is probably the best publicly available source of grammatical error types tested on the SAT. I would quibble with very little that is in that book. Relative to the big test prep guides it is head and shoulders above the pack.</p>

<p>For Critical Reading I recommend practice with actual College Board passages and questions. With an 800 math score and no problem with Sentence Completion questions, you probably don’t need to be running to any review books yet. Check out some of the guides on this website as well as Erica’s blog.</p>

14

<p>@christina the book you are presently using for writing is ok… I read the critics review on it… But for CR after goin thru amazon review i feel that barrons mite be better cause barrons courses are always tougher than the orignal …</p>

15

<p>Though in order to improve ur reading i would like you to go through this blog once… Its has superb tips on CR … Do spend ur time reading This…
[Noitaraperp’s</a> Critical Reading Method: How to Attack the SAT Critical Reading Section Effectively](<a href=“Noitaraperp's Critical Reading Method: How to Attack the SAT Critical Reading Section Effectively”>Noitaraperp's Critical Reading Method: How to Attack the SAT Critical Reading Section Effectively)</p>

<p>It really helps…</p>

16

<p>@YZamyatin can i please ask for your help in analyzing my errors. I have taken 4 BB tests, and my errors were 6,6,8,6. around the same amnt everytime. I have Metzler’s guide. i score 660s according to BB w/ 10 essay.</p>

17

<p>Slasheer</p>

<p>I don’t want to over promise because I don’t know how much time I will have. If you list the tests and question numbers, I will show you where to look in Erica’s book for the explanations.</p>

<p>There is not much advice I can give in this format for Improving Paragraphs question, so please just list the ISE and IS questions.</p>

18

<p>I have the book, i just need to know how to NEVER make these types of errors again. Sure i can look at the book but how do I know what the collegeboard wants.</p>

<h1>9) Many people think taxes are too [high, consequently, some of these people do not report]</h1>

<p>My answer: high, therefore, some of those people do not report
Right answer: high;consequently, some do not report
(Note: I know how to use semicolon, but I though you can use “,therefore,” as a transition instead of a new sentence kinda deal with a semicolon.)</p>

<hr>

<h1>17)[Crossing and recrossing] the stream, stepping on or over slipper rocks, and [following] a trail [that grew] steeper and steeper, the hikers soon realized [how challenging] their day would be.</h1>

<p>My answer: C) that grew.
Right answer: E) No error
(Note: I though that since most of the choices had “-ing”, then grew was wrong, and that it should be “that WAS grOwING”.)</p>

<hr>

<h1>25) As a student becomes [familiar with] both early and contemporary Native American Literature, [one] may [notice that] traditional stories [have influenced] recent ones.</h1>

<p>My answer: E) No error
Right answer:B) one
(Note: I checked Pronoun-antecedent. “a student”= singular, “one”=singular so I ignored it, looking back it should be “they”?, but how would i notice that during a actual test?)</p>

<hr>

<p>For the sake of being terse(improving paragraphs), </p>

<h1>32) I chose B) providing an additional example</h1>

<p>Right answer: emphasizing a major point
(Note: I always get the main idea ones wrong, passage is best described as… how it fuctions…)</p>

<hr>

<h1>35)Which revision would NOT improve ___</h1>

<p>“We know that she tried to learn about everything she found-- I believe she would have much to say about the many countries she lived in.”</p>

<p>My answer: Change the dash to a semicolon
Right:Change “much” to “tons of things.”</p>

<hr>

<h1>8) It is hard for some young people to believe that women were at onetime not admitted to some [colleges, but they have since become coeducational].</h1>

<p>My answer: colleges, but they are now coeducational
Right answer: colleges that have since become coeducational
(Note: have trouble with since and when related questions like consequently, because, therefore, like when to use which)</p>

<hr>

19

<p>slasheer,</p>

<p>Having the book is not enough. Please don’t take this the wrong way but you will only stop making these errors when you make an effort to understand why you are making them.</p>

<p>Erica’s book covers semicolons, comma splices, coordinating conjunction, and how they all go together to construct valid sentences. You may have the book, but you didn’t use it properly if you made that very basic error in the first question you listed.</p>

<p>I will point you in the right direction but you have to be willing to do the work.</p>

<p>You don’t have to post the questions, just the test number and question numbers.</p>

<p>I will check in later.</p>

20

<p>That’s what im asking, i need help. How do i make an effort to understand the errors, what questions do i ask, and how do i correct them?</p>

<p>The first one i got wrong because I remembered a rule it the book where she uses “,however,”(found it on pg. 97, in the middle) and thought that I could use it with “therefore” but what i didnt remember seeing was the semicolon “;__<strong><em>,however,</em></strong>.”</p>

<p>Test #7 Questions 9,17,25,32,35, and 8. My though process is in the previous comment with my answer choice</p>