<p>Well, i understand that you don't need to know every part of the sentence to score well, but I'm just one of those people who have to know everything in order to understand things really good. There seems to be infinitely many parts of speech/grammar to learn if i want to be a comprehensive grammar guy, but I'm not really sure if i have the time and memory capacity. I'm a rising sophmore! rougly over 2 years until my SAT. </p>
<p>If you're in a similar situation, what're you planning to do? The SAT grammar books are crap. seriously. They don't even tell you what a preposition is! (of, as, etc.) <--- that confuses people. If stupid SAT grammar guides can't even tell you the basics, then you might as well just dump the book out in the garbage. </p>
<p>I'm a victim of 2 SAT grammar books made by barrons. complete waste, total 100% garbage. </p>
<p>so, anyways what would you recommend me doing in order to score well on the grammar section? I know its impossible to know every part of speech but if you scored well on it, or you are scoring well on it, can you tell me what made you to succeed so much? thanks/</p>
<p>Don’t you think it’s a little early to be prepping for the SAT? I mean I guess earlier the better but you have all of next summer to study. But anyway, the reason the grammar sections are so seemingly difficult is because the test makers are trying to include common mistakes made by English-speakers. English as a language is inherently complicated, and it doesn’t help that its speakers commonly use slang and conjunctions. Hopefully growing up in an English-speaking country and attending school throughout your childhood has defined your linguistic mastery, so grammar isn’t really something you can study. </p>
<p>There are, however, patterns of the actual test that you can start to pick up on by taking some practice tests and reviewing some problems. But again, unlike math there is no formula card of grammar rules. Pay attention to verb agreement, tense, appositives, idioms, compound subjects, and dangling modifiers (ambiguous pronouns). Those are popular errors that you’ll see on most every test. </p>
<p>Don’t be concerned so much with the names of the errors, just know the jist of them so you know one when you see it. Also, when you’re practicing, be able to correct the error in each sentence once you’ve identified it (assuming there is one). You don’t have to concern yourself with this as much on test day, but its good assurance that you’ve found an error. Be careful though that you’re not choosing an answer because you want it to be worded differently. Just because it’s not worded the best doesn’t mean it’s grammatically incorrect.</p>
<p>You can trust me as a valid source, I just finished my last SAT with an 800 in writing (80 MC, 10 Essay). I wish I could swap that with CR, since a lot of places won’t even look at Writing. (Another reason not to stress too much about the grammar section). But I digress. Good luck to you, hope this helps.</p>
<p>@NewDivide, thanks man. your post actually gave me more intel & actually made me a little relieved. I just remembered nyu & cornell don’t look at writing sections. phew! those 2 are on my “top college list”. </p>
<p>oh, too early you say? (not trying to be sarcastic/offensive)
you’re real funny NewDivide. my parents threw me in SAT prep in the beginning of 7th grade, and believe it or not, i know some people who started being exposed to psat material in 4th grade. So I’m actually not too “early” or too “late”, im just in the middle. 
</p>
<p>oh and I’m glad to hear you got an 800, congratulations! you pulled off an amazing feat. I too would also like to swap grammar scores with english<— its like the hardest subject in my opinion. xD</p>
<p>hey, don’t worry about learning every little grammar detail. For the SAT, you don’t need to know what all the grammar is, you just have to be able to recognize what is wrong. You just have to get a feel for what is wrong in a sentence, and how to fix it. All you have to do to get this feel is to practice. I went from a 620 on the January SAT (with 10 wrong on the multiple choice to an 800 (with every multiple choice right and a 12 essay) on the March one, with just 3 weeks of practice.</p>
<p>Glad I could help man. And wow, that’s scary information haha. And I thought I was ahead of the game for taking an official practice test with Kaplan my sophomore year. That’s kind of discomforting, knowing that kids in your area take this test so dang seriously. I know Asian parents who start their kids beginning in high school but 7th grade is a little ridiculous, let alone 4th grade (I can’t even imagine). I understand if its for one of those talent search things but even still. </p>
<p>I think it’s important to do well on the SAT/ACT but I think there’s only so much you can teach a kid before he peaks. It’s all about test-taking ability and general aptitude. The test on that particular day plays a huge role too–whether you like the essay prompt, the ease of understanding the reading passages, the types of math problems–things you can’t plan for. Studying only helps so much I feel. But what do I know. </p>
<p>But yea I don’t know why some places ignore the Writing section–I understand the whole subjectivity issue that goes into grading the essays but its the same for everyone and there are professional graders with guidelines and rubrics so its not like they’re rolling dice (hopefully!). But anyway I’d be glad to help answers any further questions of yours if you’d like to PM me or on here is fine too. I get carried away with these posts so sorry for the length.</p>
<p>@NewDivide, thanks. The reason being that writing sections are ignored mostly is because that section doesn’t particularly test “intelligence”. if you don’t have a firm understanding in the english grammar, you can’t score well 700+, but whereas, in mathematics, when you learned algebra, you should be able to fully integrate concepts with problems, ← that requires logical thinking, but grammar? not really.</p>
<p>and yes, the essays can be subjectively graded. Graders, I think, tend to sway from mood to mood depending on how many essays they graded so far. If they are grading the 1st essay, then they will put more interest/attention to it. </p>
<p>If, however, they are grading the 80th essay after 2 hours of staring at a boring dull computer screen, straining their eyes, then they might get angry and furiously annoyed that your essay in confusing, and thus, they will give you a low grade because they DON’T have enough ENERGY or ATTENTION to fish for your details and comprehend complexing things about what you’re trying to say.</p>
<p>^^^ but hey, the writing section can act as an advantage: it can give your score a boost. On the other hand, if you do bad, there are plenty of other colleges who ignore this particular section. So if grammar isn’t your thing, don’t make it let you down. </p>
<p>But in your situation @Newdivide, it has immensely given you a great boost in your overall score on the 2400 scale.</p>
<p>Actually, SAT grammar is an extremely abbreviated subset of English grammar–it’s very lucky the exam isn’t a broader grammar test than it is!</p>
<p>@OP my parents had me do PSAT practice exams since third grade, although I had no idea what they were and did horribly XD now I’m a freshman and luckily do better. I don’t think the SAT’s (or ACT’s, for that matter) grammar is that bad. </p>
<p>Your score on the writing/grammar sections doesn’t always correlate with your scores on the rest of the test. The first time I took the ACT (6th grade), I got a perfect 36 on English but a measly 6 on the essay. And my math score was 21.</p>
<p>@marvin, yea i guess, but the test needs to be rushed and you have a be a keen, analytic person. </p>
<p>@sg12909, awesome. you went beyond and above the call of asian duties. good job. give yourself a pat on the back.</p>
<p>lol, stereotypes for the win.</p>
<p>To be statically valid the test must yield a decent looking Bell Curve, meaning that only so many can get the right answer and even fewer can get a great score. It too many people do too well or too poorly then it’s a bad test. (statistically)</p>
<p>“Only so many can get the right answer and even fewer can get a great score.”</p>
<p>Not sure what you are talking about here.</p>
<p>“If too many people do too well or too poorly then it’s a bad test.”</p>
<p>True only if assuming an average body of students, and an appropriate statistical threshold.</p>
<p>The curve and therefore its critical values are determined by the collegeboard prior to the test administration. Evaluation of the test itself can be done by comparing the observed data to the anticipated results (basic statistics). According to collegeboard, the mean score of each section is 500 with a standard deviation of 110. Theoretically, that makes a 1900 a “good” score. However, the reason why it is not is because the student body that takes the SAT is not necessarily the same that applies to UCs/Ivies. Remember that what a good score is depends not on percentile charts but the college you want to go to.</p>
<p>Sorry I went a bit off topic, but I wanted to clear up the previous post.</p>