<p>I do think the SAT writing section has value, because it provides the only sample of the student's unedited, unvarnished writing. When my son applied to private high schools 4 years ago, one of the schools had him write a paragraph about "what I did last summer" during the interview appointment, for the same reason. </p>
<p>As for the sentence completion questions, my son used a very simple technique of saying the sentences "aloud" in his head and choosing the one that sounded most correct, rather than studying any specific rules of grammar. He got a 10 on the essay and two answers wrong on the multiple choice and scored a 790.</p>