SAT Prep Black Book: The Most Effective SAT Strategies Ever Published (24 page)

But a lot of students may not trust the word “reprieve” in choice (A). A “reprieve” is a chance to be let out of doing something, let off the hook. That works here because the sentence talks about the museum being “on the verge of . . . collapse.”

So if we can figure out that (C) doesn’t quite work, and if we have the confidence to trust (A) even though it sounds odd to many test-takers, then we can pull out the correct answer here and mark (A). Otherwise, we’re probably better off skipping this one.

Coincidentally enough, this is another question in which some awareness of financial terms would be helpful, and not all test-takers are likely to know all of the relevant jargon. Still, let’s give it a shot.

The words “although” and “actually” indicate that the sentence is putting forward contradictory ideas.
So the word in the first blank needs to indicate the opposite of the idea of being able to stay in business. Let’s start there.

(A) gives us a word for the first blank that most test-takers won’t know, so let’s skip it for now.

(B) gives us a word that won’t work here, as we can probably figure out. You may recall that earlier in the book I cited “prudent” as a word that we might be able to recognize from its similarity to “Prudential,” a financial services company you might have seen advertised. From this association we can tell that “prudent” is a positive word—nobody would name their company “Stupid, Unreliable Financial Services.” That means it doesn’t work here.

(C) is a word that many students might not recognize. But we can recognize the prefix “auto-,” which has to do with the idea of self-directed activity. Does that seem relevant here? Probably not. So this one is probably no good.

(D) definitely seems like a word that contradicts the idea of being able to stay in business.

(E) definitely doesn’t work, because it’s a positive adjective.

So that would leave us with (D) as a word that seems to work, (A) as a word we don’t know, and (C) as another word we don’t know that’s unlikely to be correct. Now let’s take a look at the other blank.

The word in the second blank needs to describe some kind of activity that could let a company stay in business even when it shouldn’t be in business.

(A) definitely seems to work for that second blank, then.

(C) really doesn’t offer us much for the second blank. Even if we don’t know what “subordinate”
means, we can probably recognize that “sub-“ means something is underneath something else, and that really doesn’t seem relevant here.

(D) doesn’t work for the second blank. There’s no way that “engaging in charitable activities,” which would basically mean giving stuff away for free,
would allow a company to stay in business if it were bankrupt.

So at this point we may be able to figure out that (A) must be correct, since it has a word for the second blank that definitely fits and a word for the first blank that we don’t really know, and since all the other choices have flaws in them.

This is another example of a question in which the words in the blanks will rely on one another. In other words, if the first blank says something like “contradicted,” then the second blank needs to say something like “growing;” if the first blank were something like “supported,” though, then the second blank would need to be something like “shrinking.”

So we’ll really have to make sure that we pay attention to both blanks. (That’s always important, of course, but it’s extra important here to consider the words we choose not only in relation to the given part of the sentence, but also to one another.)

For (A), we might not know what the first word means, but the prefix “co-“ or “cor-“ probably suggests the idea of going along with something. The second word, though, would be going against the “warning” in the sentence
, because “prospering” is the opposite of “declining.” So this one seems not to work as an answer.

For (B), “confirmed” seems like it might be able to go in the first blank, but we might not know what “extant” means. So let’s skip this for now.

For (C), we might not know “belied,” but it could have something to do with the word “lied,” which is related to falsehood. “Dwindling” is a synonym for “declining,” though, so these two words also don’t seem to fit together to complete the sentence.

For (D), it sounds a little odd to say that a “warning” was “diminished.” Still, even if we accept that, the word “debilitated” goes along with the word “declining.” So this choice doesn’t hold together
—as we said at the beginning of this discussion, if the first word is something negative, then the second word would have to be something positive.

For (E), we might not recognize the word “tempered” in this context. But “thriving” definitely seems relevant to the idea of a population “declining”—“thriving” is the exact opposite of “declining” in this context.

So we’re left with (B) and (E) as possible choices at this point. Let’s review them. (B) will be right if “extant” means something like “declining.” (E) will be right if “tempered” means something like “called into question.”

As it turns out, (E) is correct, but a lot of test-takers may not feel confident enough in deciding that, and
they should skip this question if that’s the case.

For this sentence, we probably want a word in the first blank that would indicate using something up completely, and a word for the second blank that will mean the opposite of that idea (because the sentence mentions “replac[ing]” one with the other.

Let’s take a look at our options for the first blank. (B), (C), and (D) all have words for the first blank that we can probably recognize as valid options for the first blank. (A) and (E) don’t work for the first blank.

Now let’s take a look at the options for the second blank. Again, we’re looking for a word that would describe a policy that will not “deplete” “natural resources” “forever.”

“Dispersion” doesn’t really work here, because the idea of “dispers[ing]” “natural resources” is nonsensical.

“Gathering” is a synonym of “harvesting.” If “harvesting” might lead to “deplet[ion],” then so might “gathering.”

“Husbandry” seems like an odd word to a lot of test-takers, most of whom are unfamiliar with the term. It clearly has some relationship to the word “husband,” but is that enough to make it right?

Well, let’s think about that, especially in light of the fact that all the other choices definitely seem to be wrong. Could it be that the root idea of the word “husband” might be something along the lines of “protector” or “guardian?” That seems possible—and, if it is possible, then “husbandry” in this case might refer to the idea of protecting resources so they aren’t “deplete[d] . . . forever.” Again, this seems especially coherent when we remember that we’re probably pretty familiar with all the other words we’ve looked at, and we’re sure they don’t work. So “husbandry” is part of the right answer, and (D) must be right.

This is the kind of problem-solving that the Sentence Completion portion of the SAT rewards. We read carefully, we think carefully,
and we work stuff out based on our fundamental knowledge of everyday words.

Here, the word “although” indicates that there’s a contradiction between the ideas of the way Keller was treated as a “hero” and the way he was “in the political arena.” We can also probably tell that the word in the first blank needs to be positive, since the sentence says he “achieved” it, and since a “hero” is a good thing to be. Finally, the word in the second blank needs to be negative, to go with the idea of something being “painful.”

(A), (C), and (D) might seem like good choices for that first blank, then. Now, our job is to figure out which of those options could work for the second blank. (A) is unlikely to work, since the word “versatility” is positive. (C) is also no good, since “finesse” is positive (we can see the word “fine” right there in the beginning of it). (D), on the other hand, looks promising, since “ineptitude” is a negative-sounding word that indicates inability (notice its apparent difference from the
positive word “apt”).

Given all of this, it’s probably pretty clear that (D) is correct. A lot of test-takers accidentally choose (A) or (C), though, because they decide they like the first half of the answer choice and then don’t bother to consider the second ha
lf and see that it doesn’t fit.

This section has discussed all the rules, patterns, and strategies for SAT Sentence Completion questions. We’ve learned a process to answer those questions, and we’ve used that process on some real SAT questions from the Blue Book, second edition of the College Board publication
The Official SAT Study Guide
.

The most important part of SAT Sentence C
ompletion is that we don’t give up just because we don’t know a word—but we never guess, either!  We rely on careful reading, careful thinking, and an awareness of the SAT’s rules. When necessary, we attack words to figure out if they might be relevant to the concepts in a sentence. Finally, we remember that we can always skip a question if we can’t figure out the answer with certainty.

Working with this section and your copy of
The Official SAT Study Guide
will help you get better and better at SAT Sentence Completion questions. Keep it up!

By now, you’ve seen that the SAT
Passage-Based Reading questions aren’t really about the kind of reading you do in high school, and that the SAT Sentence Completion questions aren’t really about memorizing vocabulary. In fact, we’re establishing a general theme that the SAT is pretty horrible at testing the things it claims to be testing.

You’ve also probably noticed by now that the general approach to each question is the same: we read very carefully, we think very carefully about words that we know the meanings of, we avoid any interpretation, and we skip questions we can’t answer. If you practice
using those simple principles and get very good at them, you’ll have an amazing score on the SAT. That’s truly all there is to it. Most of the people who fail to get an amazing score on the SAT either aren’t aware of how the test actually works, or they don’t get good enough at reading and thinking very carefully.

If you’d like to see videos of some sample solutions like the ones in this Black Book, please visit
www.SATprepVideos.com
.
A selection of free videos is available for readers of this book.

This is a one-page summary of the major relevant concepts. Use it to evaluate your comprehension or jog your memory. For a more in-depth treatment of these ideas, see the rest of the section.

The Big Secret:
Vocabulary doesn’t matter as much as everybody thinks. Careful reading is much more important.

Remember to read carefully at all times.

The right answer will restate some other part of the sentence.

Focus on the questions where vocabulary isn’t an issue first.

Don’t choose a word just because you know what it means.
Only choose it if you think it restates a part of the sentence.

There are a few special techniques that will help you better understand words you don't know:

o
Think of any connotation
the unknown word might have for you.

o
Remove any suffixes
the word may have, and see if it sounds more familiar.

o
See if the suffix indicates anything about the word’s possible meaning.
For example, “-able” indicates that some action can be done to something. “-ism” indicates a philosophy. And so on.

o
Consider any likely prefixes
, and possible meanings of the word without them.

o
Consider possible cognates
from other languages, books, company names, etc.

o
The goal isn’t to figure out exactly what a word means. The goal is to figure out if the word might be related to the ideas in the sentence.

Rules for this part of the test include:

o
The correct answer must restate some part of the sentence.

o
The correct answer must make a natural-sounding English sentence.

Here's the
general Sentence Completion process:

o
Read the sentence and answer choices with an open mind.
Don’t pre-form the answer.

o
Look for an answer choice that restates key elements of the sentence.

o
Use the special Sentence Completion techniques on any words with unknown meanings.

o
Make certain your choice restates key elements of the sentence.

o
Read the sentence with your answer choice in the blank (or blanks) to make sure it fits.

o
Mark your answer.

o
Skip the question if you run into too many unknown words and can’t work around them with the techniques above. Make sure you answer all the questions correctly where you know enough of the words to do so. The most important thing is to avoid careless mistakes.

For demonstrations of these ideas, see the many sample solutions in this Black Book.