SAT Prep Black Book: The Most Effective SAT Strategies Ever Published (59 page)

The two choices that would violate the patterns at all are (C) and (E). (C) adds an “-ed” word and makes the sentence a little longer, while (E) adds one extra short word and makes the sentence longer as well. So each choice adds in a new word that goes against the patterns, but if we look closely we can see that (E) makes the sentence slightly longer overall than (C) does. This means that (E) will be the revision that the College Board dislikes the most. Once more, the SAT’s style patterns save the day.

I realize that it’s a little ridiculous that the width of a couple of letters is enough to make one answer choice right and another wrong, but these are the principles the College Board has decided to follow, so these are the principles we have to use when answering
questions on the SAT Writing section.

This question is basically an Improving Sentences question. Since the shortest answer choice, (C), has no grammatical mistakes, it’s the right answer according to the College Board’s rules and patterns. Some students like (A), but (A) is another example of a comma splice: both sets of words on either side of the comma could be a sentence by themselves, which makes a comma inappropriate.

This question asks us which sentence should be inserted into the paragraph. In these cases, we’ll look for the answer choice that has the most in common with the concepts that are already in the passage, because that’s what the College Board likes.

Choices (A) and (D) might both seem like pretty good options at first glance. In these cases, one of two things is basically possible: either there’s some small distinction between the two choices that makes one of them right, or they’re actually both wrong.

So let’s see if we can identify any differences between them that are relevant to what the SAT likes when it comes to Improving Paragraphs questions.

One thing that jumps out at me is that (A) involves the idea of the mother teaching the speaker something, while (D) omits any mention of the mother.

Since the mother appears throughout the essay, and since we know that the College Board likes us to introduce sentences that include concepts that are already in the essay, we can tell that (A) must be the right answer here.

Remember that knowing the real rules and patterns of the test will always allow us to know which answers are correct with total certainty.

This question asks us where a new paragraph should begin, which is kind of an unusual thing for the College Board to ask. But we still answer this question by choosing the answer that will group similar concepts together into paragraphs.

(D) is correct because it allows us to group all the sentences about the speaker being an authority at school into one paragraph without other ideas being involved.

This question might look at first like an Improving Sentences question, but it actually has elements of Passage-Based Reading in it, as well. Many of the answer choices may seem grammatically or stylistically similar, but only one answer choice begins with a phrase that ties it back to the previous sentences in the essay. Choice (B) begins with “in addition,” which shows that the idea in this sentence is meant as another example of the way that Hoover “triumphed over the limits of her position and the times in which she lived,” as described in sentence 12.

This question is an excellent example of the way that an easily overlooked issue like the lead-in phrase on a sentence can clearly indicate which answer is correct once we notice it.

This question asks us how to handle sentence 4, so we’ll rely mostly on the approach we would use for Improving Sentences questions. Since the question gives us the option to delete or move the sentence, we may also have to consider the College Board’s patterns for ideal paragraphs. Let’s see what happens.

(A) doesn't seem to make much sense because we should delete sentences if they only contain ideas that don’t appear elsewhere in the paragraph, which isn’t the case here.

(B) doesn’t work because nothing would be improved from the standpoint of the College Board’s patterns if those two sentences were switched.

(C) might look like a pretty bad answer at first, since it would make the sentence longer, which is generally not good on the SAT. But (C) actually fixes an SAT grammatical issue that we might not have noticed originally: the word “they” in sentence 4 technically can’t refer to the word “elevator” in sentence 3, because “elevator” is singular and “they” is plural. So this answer choice actually fixes a grammatical issue that no other choice will fix, which is why it’s correct.

(D) doesn’t help any of the College Board’s rules or patterns for the Writing section.

(E) just makes the sentence longer without fixing anything.

Once more we see the importance of reading carefully and knowing the test’s rules!

Now you’ve covered everything you need to know in order to answer Improving Paragraphs questions on the Writing Section of the SAT. As long as you remember that these questions are mostly Improving Sentences and Passage-Based Reading questions in disguise, you’ll have no problems.

The next page contains a one-page summary of the major ideas for the Improving Paragraphs questions. Make sure you don’t stop reading after that, though—we still have a few important points to consider.

If you’d like to see videos of some sample solutions like the ones in this 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, jog your memory, whatever. For a more in-depth treatment of these ideas, see the rest of the section.

The Big Secret:
These questions are basically
a combination of Improving Sentences questions and Passage-Based Reading questions
, with one more idea thrown in.

These questions can seem to vary widely on the surface but
they’re all basically the same.

Questions that ask about fixing or combining sentences should be answered like Improving Sentences questions
.
Find the choice that follows the SAT grammar rules and has the best SAT style according to the 3 Improving Sentences patterns.

Questions that ask about the meaning of a word or phrase should be treated like Passage-Based Reading questions.

The SAT likes paragraphs in which every concept appears more than once. So if you’re asked to add or delete sentences, then:

o
add sentences that restate ideas in the paragraph and contribute the fewest new concepts

o
delete sentences that mention ideas that aren’t found    elsewhere in the paragraph

Here's the Improving Paragraphs process:

o
Identify the type of question you're dealing with.

o
Use the modified Improving Sentences approach for questions about fixing or combining sentences.

o
Use the Passage-Based Reading approach for questions about the meanings of words or phrases.

o
If you’re asked about adding or deleting sentences, add sentences that restate ideas in the paragraph, and/or delete sentences that mention ideas that aren’t elsewhere in the paragraph.

For examples of these ideas in action, please see the sample Blue Book solutions in this Black Book.

“Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.”
- Michelangelo

In this
book, I talk a lot about how to answer individual questions. Obviously, that’s an important part of beating the SAT.

But you may have noticed that the processes and sample solutions get pretty
repetitive pretty quickly. My students often complain, “After a while, doing these questions is just the same thing over and over . . .”

Some teachers might be insulted by that, but when
I hear those magic words I just smile and say, “Exactly!”  On a standardized test, when answering questions begins to feel repetitive and automatic, you know you’ve made a huge improvement.

It seems obvious, but a lot of people never realize that standardized tests must have standardized questions and standardized answers—otherwise, the results from one test day would have no relation to the results from another, and the test would be meaningless.

In writing the Black Book, my goal has been to teach you the standardization rules of the test, so that you can know how to attack
every real SAT question you’ll ever see.

Never forget that the SAT is a test with rules and patterns that it has to follow, and once you start to unlock them you almost can’t go wrong—it’s almost like you turn into an SAT machine.

One of the things
I often do for students is show them how I would take a section of the test. I don’t just show them the processes and strategies I use, although the processes and strategies are definitely very important. I also show them the speed and the attitude I use to approach the test. What do I mean by that?

When
I’m taking the SAT, I have an inner dialogue going on in my head. It’s very simple and straightforward. I’m reading each question, thinking briefly about what kind of question it is, then walking myself through the various steps described in these pages. It’s all second nature to me. And when I get to the answer choices, I’m ruthless about cutting them out—as soon as I see something wrong with an answer, it’s gone. Bam. Bam. Bam. Question. Bam. First step. Bam. Second step. Bam. Answer choices—bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Next question. Bam. I keep it going until I’m done with the section, then check my answers. Unless I get confused or lose my concentration, I usually finish each section in well under half the allotted time. And it’s not because I’m rushing or anything. I just don’t waste time thinking about any unnecessary aspects of the questions.

When
I take a test, there’s no dilly-dallying or second-guessing. I’m prepared, and I know what to expect, because I know the SAT is ALWAYS THE SAME in all the important ways.

When most students take the SAT, they let their minds wander. They don’t realize that every question has one clear answer, so they waste their time trying to justify every answer choice to themselves. They don’t have set processes to rely on. They don’t know the recurring rules and patterns to look for in every question. In other words, they don’t take advantage of any of the gaping holes in the SAT’s armor. They’re inefficient and unfocused, and their scores suffer for it.

So what do you do if you want to turn into a machine? The key thing is to remember that every question has one clear answer, and that you can find it. Stick to a game plan—know how to start in on any SAT question and keep going until you either arrive at the answer or decide to skip the question. Then just keep working your system all the way through the test. That’s it. Don’t get distracted
. Rely on the test to give you the same sorts of questions you’ve seen before—because it definitely will. It has to.

In a way, taking the SAT is similar to taking a driving test. You know in advance which skills you’ll be asked to demonstrate and what rules you’ll have to follow during the test; what you don’t know is the specific situation you’ll be in when you demonstrate each skill. Keep this in mind—stay flexible about applying what you know, but never forget that the range of things you can be asked to do
on the SAT is very limited.

Also, as weird as it might sound
, you should strive for the SAT to be boring and repetitive. Some students look at the SAT as a way to be creative—what’s the point of that? Find each answer, and practice finding it as efficiently as possible. You’ll be attacking the test in a systematic, methodical way before you know it—and that’s the secret to real SAT success.

“At the College Board, our mission is to connect students to college success.”
- Gaston Caperton, former President of the College Board

I
talk a lot about how you need to use College Board materials when you study, especially the Blue Book. The College Board is the company that writes the SAT, and they’re the only source of real SAT questions, which are absolutely essential if you’re going to prepare intelligently.

But that doesn’t mean that you should take everything the College Board says
about the SAT as the truth. Trusting them too much would be a huge mistake.

I
keep telling you to practice with the Blue Book, which is the College Board publication
The Official SAT Study Guide
. But I don’t want you to listen to the College Board’s advice on test-taking, because it’s usually pretty bad. So I’ve written this section of the Black Book to explain exactly how you should use the College Board’s materials. You have to use them properly if you want to do your best.

The first thing we’ll look at is the proper way to use the College Board publication
The Official SAT Study Guide
. I’ve gone through the book page-by-page to explain the best way to approach it.

The third unnumbered page of
The Official SAT Study Guide
contains a letter from Gaston Caperton, the President of the College Board. It includes this sentence:

The best preparation for the SAT, and for college, is to take challenging courses.

This is laughable.

You should take challenging courses because they help you become a better person. They don’t do anything at all to help you on the SAT, and it can be argued they don’t do anything to help you in college either.
I would love it if they did, but they don’t.

Advanced courses will teach you to write well, for example, while the SAT will reward the sor
t of elementary, cookie-cutter writing that appears in our earlier discussion on the SAT Essay, and in the College Board’s own sample essay. Advanced courses will teach you higher math principles that will never appear on the SAT. Advanced courses will teach you to read and analyze a text like a literary critic, but the SAT will ask you to forego all subtlety and nuance and answer questions like a third-grader writing a book report.

The best way to prepare for the SAT is to get a bunch of sample tests written by the College Board and pull them apart on a technical level to see what they keep doing, and then learn how to do those things—and only those things—well. And that’s what
the Black Book is all about.

These pages sketch out the format and background of the SAT and its development
. You can read them if you want, but they’re pretty useless as far as doing well on the test is concerned.

These pages explain the way the test is scored, and tell you how to interpret your score report
. You’ll definitely want to read them when you get your scores back, but if you haven’t taken the test yet you can skip them for now.

This section explains the College Board’s general theory about how you should prepare for the SAT
.

Ignore it.

This lays out the online resources that are available to you through the College Board’s web site.

You MUST read these pages before test day
. They lay out the things you’ll need to take with you to the testing site.

You can pretty much ignore this part
. You should especially ignore the part on page 14 that talks about the difficulty level of questions going from easy to hard within a section. (See the section of this book called “8 Things You Thought You Knew About The SAT Are Wrong.”)

These pages discuss the traditional guessing strategy
. Skip them, and check out my section on SAT-guessing in the Black Book instead.

These pages give you the College Board’s take on test anxiety
. It might be useful to read this if you’re looking for another perspective on the issue, but it isn’t necessary.

These pages explain how to use the PSAT
. They’re useful as general information.

These pages give you the College Board’s general advice on how to approach the Critical Reading Section
. You should ignore it.

This section gives you some sample Sentence Completion questions and lets you see the College Board’s approach to them
. It’s different from the approach I recommend, and it doesn’t take you step-by-step through the process of completing any question.

These pages give you some sample Sentence Completion questions to practice on
. Give them a shot if you want.

This section explains how the College Board suggests you approach Passage-Based Reading questions
. You are STRONGLY cautioned to ignore these pages—they tell you to approach the questions subjectively, which is not only bad advice but would be an invalid basis for the design of a standardized multiple-choice test.

These pages give you some sample questions
. The first questions also have sample responses. Give these a look if you want; you might find them useful for practice.

These pages introduce you to the Writing Section of the SAT
. Ignore them.

These pages explain how the College Board thinks you should approach the essay part of
the SAT. Ignore them. Make sure you especially ignore the scoring manual on page 105—instead, use the advice in this book.

These pages provide several useless writing exercises
. Do them if you feel like it, but don’t expect them to help you on the SAT at all.

This section provides several sample essay responses
. Compare them—and the sample essay responses that appear elsewhere in the book—to the scoring guide on page 105 and decide for yourself if that guide is any real indication of what scores high on the SAT.

These pages introduce the Identifying Sentence Errors questions, and give you the College Board’s advice for approaching them
. Some of the advice is okay, like looking for the mistakes that commonly appear on the test. But other advice is probably not that helpful. For example, you’re advised to practice by reading sentences out loud—even though acceptable spoken English and acceptable written English are pretty different, and you won’t be able to read aloud on test day.

These pages give you a chance to practice rewriting sentences—something you’ll NEVER do on the SAT
. This is pretty much a waste of your time.

This section gives you some sample questions to practice on
. Go for it if you want.

This section introduces you to the Improving Sentences questions and gives you the College Board’s advice for these questions
. As usual, you can ignore it.

These pages have more writing exercises on them, which are pretty much a waste of time as far as the SAT is concerned
. Skip them, unless you feel like doing them for some non-SAT-related fun.

These pages have samples for the Improving Sentences questions
. Do them if you feel like it; it can’t hurt.

This section introduces you to the Improving Paragraphs questions
. Again, it gives some pretty poor advice for these questions.

This section provides even more writing exercises that won’t help you do multiple-choice questions at all.

These pages give you sample Improving Paragraphs questions to work on.
It can’t hurt to practice with them if you feel like it.

These pages let you practice all the question types in the SAT Writing Section
. Give them a shot if you feel like it. Make sure to check out the sample essays on pages 197 – 212, and remember to compare them to the scoring guide on page 105. You’ll see that high-scoring essays have several grammatical errors, and that the most reliable way to predict an essay’s score is to see how long it is.

These pages introduce you to the Math Section of the SAT, and give you the College Board’s ideas about the best way to approach it
. You can skip this if you feel like it.

These pages take you through all the mathematical concepts you’ll need for the SAT
. This section is similar in content to the Math Toolbox in this book, but the Toolbox is more simplified. If you don’t understand a concept after looking at the Toolbox list, or if you just want another explanation of something, then give this section a try. Just like the Toolbox, this part of
The Official SAT Study Guide
contains every single math concept you’ll need on the SAT.

These pages explain how the College Board thinks you should approach multiple-choice questions on the SAT
. Ignore this advice, especially the part on guessing (see my advice on guessing earlier in the Black Book instead).

This section provides sample multiple-choice questions, some with explanations
. Give them a shot.

You MUST read these pages
. They’ll explain how to fill out the grids for the Student-Produced Response questions. They’ll also remind you that it’s okay to guess on these questions, because on these questions there’s no penalty for wrong answers.

These pages give you sample problems for the Student-Produced Response questions on the SAT
. Try them if you feel like it.

This section gives you general math questions to practice with
. Try them out.

These pages are the meat of the College Board’s book
. They provide you with sample tests written by the test-maker, which you absolutely must use to get your score as high as possible.

The College Board provides an online tool that you can use to get extra help on the test. It’s called the Official SAT Online Course, and you can access it from www.collegeboard.com. It has a variety of tools that you might find useful as you apply to college—sample tests, lessons, study planners, and so on. Use these if you want. The sample tests will be especially helpful as you search for more official SAT questions if you exhaust the ones from the Blue Book. The lessons and quizzes probably won’t do you too much good, but I guess they can’t hurt either apart from the time they take up.

You simply can’t prepare for the SAT effectively if you don’t use the sample tests and other resources provided by the College Board—the College Board is the only source of real SAT questions on the entire planet, and real SAT questions are essential to the preparation process.

But that doesn’t mean you should take everything the College Board says at face value!  Much of their advice reflects what they
wish
the SAT were like, not what it actually
is
.