The last 50 points

<p>yea i also have trouble with the stories because those narratives are not organized like the other essays with like main points and support. narratives tell a story and soemtimes it's hard to tell what the characters are feeling. Like how can you tell if the character is happy or enthusiastic...</p>

<p>I was hopping you could help me with this one...</p>

<p>Online College Board SAT program Ptest 4 Section 8#18
If anybody has the online college board program, I am so stumped by this passage and this question in general. I don't really get the literal meaning of some of the sentences.
Can somebody explain #18; I read CB's explanations and I still don't get it. I don't see where memories come in. The explanations point to Children's ability to attend to minor differences, seek a systematic basis for the difference, and dichotomizing time into past and nonpast. They claim that these three things count as the correct answer: combinging rules and memories during language development.</p>

<p>I picked answer choice D. because I was mad confused and the passage included a very wierd sentence taht I guess I didnt understand the literal meaning of.
"They must have a built-in tendency to block the rule when a competing form(like bled) is found in memory, because there is no way they could learn the blocking principle in the absence of usable feedback form their parents."</p>

<p>Here's my interpretation of this sentence: Children must naturally block the rule when they remember an exception because they can't learn to do this without help from their parents.</p>

<p>However, CB once again explains that this choice is wrong because children can't learn to block the rule without feedback from parents so the paragraph is not referring to methods children use without adult feedback. This sentence is maddd confusing: how can the children have the rule "built-in" and know it naturally if it is impossible to learn the rule without feedback from their parents. </p>

<p>completely stumped me</p>

<p>hey akahmed, are you taking the test for the last time this fall? how long do you have to lock in those last few pts?</p>

<p>As of today, I have 19 days to get the last 100ish points.
Why, have any good advice? ;)</p>

<p>akahmed, my sn is Lays Wavy. I.M me if you have some time. I tried to p.m you, but your inbox was full.</p>

<p>Hmm. Nothing you haven't already heard. I'll tell you what I'd have you do even though it's probably all familiar to you.</p>

<p>First, clear your schedule. :)</p>

<p>Second, at this point it's really all about the practice tests: vocab and reading outside material are not going to help you so much. (I say this knowing from your other posts that you've already studied a lot of words). I wouldn't try to learn <em>any</em> new words: only review.</p>

<p>Third, spend two to three hours a day doing practice sections, if you can. (Oh joy.) Or even more if you've got a relaxed semester (not likely, I know). Basically as much as you can without exhausting yourself or jeopardizing your fall grades. Obviously, you will want to stop this by the Thurs. or Fri. before your test. </p>

<p>Fourth, divide your practice section time roughly in half. Spend half of it on realistic practice on real College Board SATs. I believe that you have quite a stash. Try to get through everything you've got; repeat old sections if necessary. As you work through the tests, find a way to break down every single choice. Force yourself to do this mechanically: actually make marks in the choices that help you break them in pieces. Look for the word or phrase (often in the middle of the choice) that makes the choice wrong.</p>

<p>Spend the other half of it doing questions that will definitely challenge you from <em>real</em> graduate-level tests. I recommend the GRE (as I've mentioned to you before). I've also recently had some luck using the LSAT for drills with top SAT scorers.</p>

<p>Come to think of it, I remember from another one of your posts that you have trouble with inference questions. There's an <em>entire section</em> on the LSAT that's essentially inference questions. Here's an example of one: </p>

<ol>
<li>Campaigning for election to provincial or state office frequently requires that a candidate spend much time and energy catering to the interests of national party officials who can help the candidate to win office. The elected officials who campaign for reelection while they are in office thus often fail to serve the interests of their local constituencies.</li>
</ol>

<p>Which one of the following is an assumption made by the argument?</p>

<p>A) Catering to the interests of national party officials sometimes conflict with serving the interests of a provincial or state official's local constituencies.
B) Only by catering to the interests of national party officials can those who hold provincial or state office win reelection.
C) The interests of local constituencies are well served only by elected officails who do not cater to the interests of national party officials.
D) Officials elected to provincial or state office are obligated to serve only the interests of constituents who belong to the same party as do the officials.
E) All elected officials are likely to seek reelection to those offices that are not limited to one term. </p>

<p>If this kind of question sounds like an example of the types of question you miss on the SAT, you could do a few of these LSAT sections (it's called the Logical Reasoning section) and see if you feel helped. I would focus primarily on actual reading passages, but a few Logical Reasoning questions wouldn't hurt.</p>

<p>Lastly--and I can't emphasize this enough!--you need to decide on a strategy <em>and stick to it</em>. I notice that you have several live questions up on CC in about the last week. I would suggest that you stop checking CC at all within a day or two--disappear completely from these forums until your test. Why? Well, in the worst-case scenario, you will end up receiving conflicting advice from CC'ers and will second-guess yourself. In the best-case scenario, you will spend a lot of your creative energy trying to synthesize a lot of excellent advice. I say this with all the respect in the world for the help you've offered your fellow students on this board. You need to put your entire focus on practice problems: at this point, anything else--even including other people's good advice--is likely to be a distraction more than a help. That probably goes even for this last post from me. :6</p>

<p>Lastly, realize that going for that perfect CR 800 is extremely difficult to achieve by SAT prep alone <em>especially</em> for international/nonnative speakers. Those last 40-50 points can depend a lot of a mastery of the nuances and idioms of English, which sucks, but there's just not a whole lot you can do about it at this point except cross your fingers and hope you don't hit a lot of those questions. Your CR score is going to be a standout. I'd say that 760+ for someone not born in the U.S., whose first language is not English, is going to get noticed. </p>

<p>I realize that most of that was redundant. Wish I could tell you something more useful. Good luck!</p>

<p>Wow, thank you so much,</p>

<p>This is exactly what I needed, you're right I have had conflicting strategies, and this forum is full of advice: varying advice. Come to think of it, I do realize that me being a nonnative speaker may hold me from the 800, but that's who I am I guess. I do have many materials and am going to try so allocate a few hours a day specifically for practice. One question: exactly how do you learn from your mistakes in CR, because each mistake seems to be unique to the passage it corresponds to.</p>

<p>Thanks a bunch,
Abdul</p>

<p>Hi Abdul,</p>

<p>I'm glad some of it was helpful. I know you've worked really hard, and I hope you rock the October test. A couple quick responses to your last post:</p>

<p>You're right. . . at this point, given your already-high score, most of the questions you miss will seem pretty unique to the passages they follow. But think of it this way: when you miss a question and you go over it again, are you able to see how and why you missed it? My guess is that, more often than not, the answer is "yes." If that's true, then you have the knowledge and critical thinking skills that you need to ace the test; the trick is to use them consistently. As long as you can understand your mistakes when you go over the test after taking it, then you should be able to improve by practice, because <em>you already have the skills that you need</em>. You just need to make them a little bit more automatic. If you hit a question that's related to English-language idioms. . . well, that's when you shrug and remind yourself that colleges will be impressed by the fact that you're bilingual. :)</p>

<p>If you don't understand problems even after you go over the test, then you need some quality advice. I guess that's the one time that I'd suggest you come back to this forum. . . if you have one specific question on a specific test that you just can't figure out by yourself. Or PM me; I swear I'll explain it. </p>

<p>As far as being a non-native speaker: just remember, that makes your 750+ that much more impressive. You're beating a huge percentage of native speakers; colleges will not ignore that achievement. Very, very few of the students who reach that score range come from an ESL background; you are truly exceptional in that regard.</p>

<p>And remember, the curve for the CR is more generous than it is for the M, so you can very often miss a question and still get a perfect score!</p>

<p>You are truly inspiring lotf629. Are you a tutor?</p>

<p>If so, you sure as hell are an excellent one</p>

<p>You are absolutely right about reviewing the questions, when I read the real answer I feel like kicking myself for choosing otherwise. Sometimes I misread: I misread seventeen for seventy, as the age of someone which cost me 2 questions. There are very few if any times I genuinely don't understand later why the right question is right. The thing is, I think it would help if I sort of 'studied' the right and wrong answer types to the passages I have done. Is this a good idea? To get a solid idea of what CB wants...</p>

<p>Thank you for your input
ak</p>

<p>interesting</p>

<p>Wow! I am so flattered that you found my comments inspiring. I am a tutor, actually. </p>

<p>I think it's a really good sign that you "kick yourself for choosing otherwise": it suggests that you understand the passages and the questions. See, that's a really good sign that practice alone will improve your score significantly.</p>

<p>It's an excellent idea to study right and wrong answer types. I'm sure you have a list of right and wrong answer patterns by now. See if there's anything that bites you consistently, and keep doing those problems, and you should see excellent results!</p>

<p>Thanks for everything lotf629, I will be sure to update you how I am doing in two weeks or so. And yes, it was inspiring, after studying for two years my motivation was dwindling, but you got me into full swing again.</p>

<p>Thanks
Abdul</p>

<p>akahmed please clear your private message inbox so i can send you a pm please.</p>