<p>S did well on the SAT's M and CR sections (1540), but his poor grammar skills led to a disappointing writing score (610). What should DS do to learn grammar AND prepare for the Nov SAT? Books to suggest?</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition: William Strunk Jr., E. B. White, Roger Angell: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-Fourth-William-Strunk/dp/020530902X)</p>
<p>I really don’t know much about the SAT writing section…how do you KNOW it was grammar that pulled his score down. I thought the prompt was holistically scored…mostly on content. Did the grammar interfere with the meaning? BTW…610 isn’t bad. Are colleges USING the writing section of the SAT?</p>
<p>His essay grade wasn’t that bad. It was the multiple choice section (improve/correct sentences and paragraphs) that got him. Frankly, I am not surprised. </p>
<p>In terms of whether colleges are using this section, my sense is that some are. Besides, it is mom’s lame attempt to finally get this boy to learn grammar. </p>
<p>No imagination – great idea and I still have my college copy.</p>
<p>My S brought up his W score from 450 to 750 by doing a practice test and then going over every question with me before doing the next practice test. The grammar section is SO easy to learn and to improve on. Every test asks the same basic questions. The biggest “trick” is that there needs to be consistency to the sentence. Do some practice questions and you’ll see what I mean.</p>
<p>1of each: Whoa, that was some increase! We can give this a try. Your approach is essentially what he did (with good result) for the M section. CR is just natural for him and didn’t require studying.</p>
<p>Way back in the day, I remember the SAT really tested punctuation rather than grammar.
Is that still the case?</p>
<p>I found that the best way to learn grammar was to take Spanish classes. No lie. I liked McGraw Hill SAT 2009 for SAT grammar. You may also want to look up Eats, Shoots, and Leaves. I’ve never read it but I’ve heard good things about it.</p>
<p>I agree with applicannot. English grammar is not taught well in our schools, but you pick up a lot of it when studying a foreign language. Having to grapple with the grammatical complexities of the other language makes you aware of the structure of your own language.</p>
<p>No wonder kids who know another language do well on the grammar section…I will have to check into it but it certainly looks convincing…</p>
<p>Latin helped me! Our school never taught English grammar, everything I’ve learned has come from latin class, it’s been so helpful- writing was my best subject on the SAT. Grammar and parts of speech really get emphasized. But if you’re in a time crunch it’s probably better to focus directly on english…I’m sure there’s a book out there</p>
<p>Go with the practice test method. I’m thankful I got to spend a few years in private school in elementary school so that I could properly learn English grammar. IMO, public schools fail in that category. </p>
<p>Foreign languages definitely help as well (oddly enough) in my experience. Learning Spanish to fluency definitely aided me in scoring so well on my SAT Writing. </p>
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<p>You don’t know what a grammar nazi is until you read this book. It’s a painful read too IMO.</p>
<p>I thought Eats, Shoots and Leaves was good fun, but probably not that helpful for the SAT. I think the best bet is to take some practice tests and see what you are getting wrong. My kid kept getting the parallel construction questions wrong. They sound pretty good unless you are paying attention.</p>
<p>As a teacher, I recommend any of the writer’s guides by Diana Hacker. Strunk and White is great, but Hacker gets down to brass tacks without the accompanying commentary, which I think makes it a better choice for SAT prep. Go for the basics: subject-verb agreement, prounoun cases, etc., and then move on to more sophisticated style points such as parallel structure, which will help in the sentence improvement questions. On the foreign language angle, one can often find a very basic and quick review in the ESL section of Hacker-type books.</p>
<p>IloveLA - My D said the ACT had a fair number of questions about punctuation. She mastered the art of the colon and semicolon before taking it a second time, and her score increased considerably. I don’t know if the SAT is so concerned with punctuation, but it certainly couldn’t hurt to prepare for it.</p>
<p>…diagramming sentences…noticed it wasn’t used in the public school here but our private still uses the system. i loved diagramming sentences when i was in school. we’d use the blackboard and that was always fun.</p>
<p>ILoveLA: regarding punctuation, about half the “grammar” is find the error (or no error) and about half is find the best way to structure this sentence / couple of sentences.</p>
<p>The first very rarely has punctuation–it’s mostly subject verb agreement and false parallelism and stuff like that. However, the sentence corrections often have punctuation. </p>
<p>There’s also a third part, which takes up much less of the writing section, which is basically revising a paragraph, and that also has a lot of punctuation (start a new sentence or not?)</p>
<p>So I’d say, yes there’s still quite a bit of punctuation. Not too many comma vs. semicolon things though; that seems to be a more ACT kind of thing. It’s usually comma vs. nothing, or comma vs. period.</p>
<p>If your kid does well in his English classes and on his SAT essay, he can get his point across effectively. If he misplaces a modifier, that’s not a problem. Get him to improve his writing score, which should not be too difficult and don’t harass him about grammar any further, because few about it care in today’s society, unless its specific to what you do (editing, e.g.). Last thing kids need in a stressful time is somebody hectoring them about their grammar.</p>
<p>I have a grammar/punctuation workbook at home that I’ve had for almost 25 years–prepped for the LSAT with it and it worked like a charm. Basically, it explains concepts simply, gives you the opportunity to do some homework to solidify skills and has a lot of cartoon pictures. I’d look for something like that at your local Barnes & Noble. It’s probably written at the 7th grade level.</p>
<p>Whether or not he gains good grammar skills for the future is something he can decide later. But right now, it’s imperative that he find a way to get his SAT writing score up.</p>
<p>On the bright side, not all schools know how they want to use the writing section for admissions purposes. His scores on the other portions are quite stunning. It would be nice to get the writing scores within a stone’s throw of those scores.</p>