<p>Hi Everyone,</p>
<p>Recently, I took the PSAT and got decent scores in both reading and math, (64, 71, respectively), but I got a low 54 on writing. Is there anyway to improve this score? I had been practicing for the test, too. And, I know most grammar rules, but my score doesn't seem to improve. Is there anyway I can improve my writing score? </p>
<p>Incidentally, there seem to be some errors in the answers that is part of the reason why I avoid picking them, like one answer "the grass tickled her feet as she walked through the park" there should be a comma for the coordinating conjunction, but there isn't. And, it's the right answer.</p>
<p>On average I miss 1-2 in the "Change the underlined portion", 4-5 in "Identify the Error in the sentence" and 0-1 on "improve the paragraph" per 35 questions.</p>
<p>“As” is not a coordinating conjunction–only the FANBOYS are (for and nor but or yet so). You don’t really know the rules yet, amigo (more evidence: your habit of starting sentences with “And,”).</p>
<p>My bad for the coordinating conjunction gaffe, but starting sentences with “and” is acceptable in most literary works as long as this method isn’t used in a research paper.</p>
<p>I usually just read them aloud and pick the best sounding. That works most of them time, I wouldn’t worry too much about grammar rules. I got a 52 on the psat writing and just got a 780 on sat writing. All I did was practice, practice, and practice some more. The test is standardized after all. You’ll eventually just know how to do it. Good luck!</p>
<p>Best way to prepared for writing is getting the barron’s sat writing book and making flash cards for the “common mistakes” section. Once you got all these memorized, take practice tests over and over again, and keep a notebook to write in all your missed questions. Constantly go over these errors and memorize your mistakes. Plan to take about 40 tests over the course of a year. I’ve done this and missed only 2 multiple choice questions on the writing portion.</p>
<p>Yes, starting a sentence with a conjunction is fine, but not with a comma immediately following.</p>