Verbal Section of SAT Strategies Sentence Completions Sentence

Verbal Section of SAT: Strategies

Sentence Completions • Sentence completions rely on your ability to decipher two elements: context clues and word definitions • Process for Sentence Completions: § Look for context clues in sentence to make an educated quess about missing word BEFORE you look at answer choices § Once you have an idea in your mind what you are looking for, use POE and work through answer choices § Once you have decided on the answer, plug the choices back into the original sentence (whisper them out loud if you have to) to see if they hold; if they seem correct, keep your choice; if not, go back and substitute your second runner up

More Sentence Completions Considerations • Remember: questions are arranged according to increasing difficulty so as questions increase, they get harder: 1 because sentence structure gets more complicated or 2 vocabulary gets less familiar • Remember: just because you might not know what a word means from choices does not mean it is wrong answer (it’s probably the opposite)

How to make educated guess • Context clues help you decide: two types of context clues in general: synonym extensions(words that add or carry the same type of meaning in the blank as a previous idea) or contrasts (words that reverse the meaning of an expected word in the blank • Use connotation of words and go with your “feeling” about a word to make a guess as to its meaning; you can eliminate words on the basis of whether they seem positive or negative in their associations • With sentences that have two blanks, work on eliminating choices for one of the blanks and then choosing from answer choices that are left

Studying for Sentence Completions • Start reading more challenging sentence structures (New York Times, college textbooks, older authors Shakespeare, William James, Virginia Woolf) • Start a Study Plan to learn top 500 SAT Words (the SAT HIT LIST) – Flashcards – Vocab prep books – Online vocab sites satvocabulary. com, vocabularyuniversity. com, – Learn common Greek/Latin word roots, prefixes, suffixes to break down more formal literary words into parts and deciphering their meaning

Let’s use some strategies to practice sentence completions

Strategies for Reading Comprehension • Remember: Reading Comprehension questions are arranged CHRONOLOGICALLY according to the passage not according to difficulty (why is this good to know? ) • Critical Reading is difficult on two counts: 1) time is extremely limited 2) types of reading passages can be challenging in either the way they are written or the content (usu what you would expect to read in a collegelevel textbook) • Process for Crit Reading – Look at question stems FIRST to determine what you are looking for – Read passage (sometimes only first paragraph to understand the purpose, first beginning sentences for each body paragraph, and the last paragraph) – Use your understanding to answer multiple choice

Strategies • Read selectively: Read first paragraph, first 2 -3 sentences of each succeeding paragraph and last paragraph. You don’t have to read entire passage to get the right answers • Know the 5 different types of questions and probability of getting them correct – Main idea (central thesis) – Author’s purpose (tone) – Specific detail questions – Inference questions – Vocabulary in context questions

More strategies • Start with a passage/subject you are familiar with (each section will have three or four major critical reading passages) or the passage that has the most points to get • Use a highlighter • Trust your “gut”: first instinct is usu. 65% correct, only change answer if you are 80% sure you made a mistake • For passages where you compare together, keep a mental map: how are these two similar and different, how do author’s voice, tone change, if these passages were people, how would they be talking to one another—are they having a fight, are they agreeing with one another

One last strategy: Odd man out • When using POE, remember to look at answer choices and see if there is any duplication; if most choices seem negative, then the answer should be the one that is different from the rest • LET’S PRACTICE

Improving Writing • Understand the directions for this part of exam • SAT tests three levels of writing: sentence level, word level and paragraph level • For sentence level, it tests for correctness of expression (complete sentences, sentences without redundancy, or dangling modifiers)Basically it tests Can you find what is wrong with the sentence and fix it? • This part of the test is difficult because 1) you might not recognize the errors in usage or writing 2) you do not know how to correct the initial error without making another error

Process for Improving Sentences • Read sentence first paying attention to underlined part • Can you spot the problem from the beginning? If you can then you will be able to find the correct answer choice • Remember: if you can’t find error, looking at the differences in the answer choices can help you find the problem and fix it

Strategies for Sentence Improvement • Choose answers that are short, sweet, and to the point without repeating information or words • Read the sentence and substitute answer choices OUT LOUD, usu. Your ear will hear if there is a mistake or sentence sounds convoluted • Know the four types of sentences and the punctuation esp commas to set them apart • Know the common error editing checklist – – – – Subject-verb agreement Tense consistency Pronoun-noun agreement Parallel structure Run ons and sentence fragments Adjectives vs. adverbs Dangling and misplaced modifiers

POE Strategy for Sentence Improvement • To distinguish among similar answer choices, make sure the one you choose does not create a new problem or error even if it corrects original problem • Choose the active vs passive voice

Study sites • Great grammar sites and writing labs you can practice and get info about usage and grammar are: • OWL Purdue lab • Grammar. ccc. comnet. edu (Connecticut Community College writing site) • Hunter College Writing Lab