PSAT difficult grammar question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>From the October PSAT 2013:</p>

<p>Although medieval abbess Hildegard of Bingen wrote theological, botanical, and medical texts, IT IS HER musical compositions that have received the most recognition. </p>

<p>A) it is her (correct answer)
B) there was her
C) they are her
D) but it is her
E) her</p>

<p>I chose C because "compositions" should have the plural "they" pronoun. However, the answer on the key is A. I've gone through most of the Blue Book grammar sections and I have never seen a question like this before. I've asked my classmates, and they say that answer A just "sounds right". But most SAT questions are purposely worded to sound awkward. Does anybody have a definitive explanation as to why answer A is correct?</p>

2

<p>My theory is that “it” isn’t referring to the compositions. It’s a [dummy</a> pronoun](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dummy_pronoun]dummy”>Dummy pronoun - Wikipedia).</p>

3

<p>Thank you for the quick response, this is the most plausible explanation, I think. I guess there’s no way to be completely prepared for the writing section; there’s always going to be an obscure question like this one in the test.</p>

4

<p>Halcyonheather is correct. This is a dummy pronoun. These are very rarely tested in the SAT – you should’ve been able to figure out the answer by cancelling out the choices, because they are clearly all wrong.</p>

5

<p>If every SAT question was this easy, 800 would be the 50th percentile. Even if A didn’t seem obviously correct for some reason, choices B-D were all ridiculously nonsensical!</p>

6

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<p>Winner winner.</p>

7

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<p>You’re looking too hard for rules. On the test, A is right because it sounds right.</p>