The author always cares (the answer probably isn’t “apathetic” or “indifferent”)

When it comes to SAT question types, tone and attitude questions are routinely among the most predictable in terms of which answers are likely to be both correct and incorrect. When you take them apart, the vast majority of tone questions boil down to “positive vs. negative,” and then to what degree.

Furthermore, incorrect answer choices are highly patterned. Certain words almost invariably signal wrong answers. Many of these fall into the infamous “extreme” category (e.g. “furious” and “awed”), but others are at odds with the framework of the test in other ways. And answer choices that indicate a lack of interest on the author’s part fall squarely into this category.

Think of it this way: pretty much on principle, professional authors choose to write about their subjects because they care about them. By definition, they are engaged with what they are writing about. Otherwise, they wouldn’t write about it! So while an author may have a clearly negative attitude toward a subject, or write in a neutral (analytical, detached) tone, almost never will they simply not care. As a result, answers such as “apathetic” and “indifferent,” which suggest a complete lack of interest, are almost always incorrect.

This also goes for P1/P2 relationship questions. Paired passages are selected for the test specifically because they have some sort of relationship — most often a conflicting relationship — to one another. If the authors were indifferent to one another’s subject matter, the passages never would have shown up on the test in the first place.

The primary exception to this rule comes in fiction passages. Fictional characters, unlike authors, can very well demonstrate a lack of interest in something during the course of a passage. If the text clearly indicates that is the case, you can and should pick an answer reflecting that fact.

 

How to work through Error-Identification questions, part 2

Here are some examples of how to work through Error-Identification questions.

Example #1:

In 1965, Betty Friedan’s publication of The Feminine

Mystique has marked a turning point that resulted in

improved labor rights and working conditions for

women. No error

Strategy:

The big “clue” in this question is the date 1965, which tells us that this is probably a tense question. So that means we’re going to start by checking the tenses of any underlined verbs, which in this case means choice (B), “has marked.”

Now, any finished event or action in the past (e.g. the publication of The Feminine Mystique, which occurred once) must be referred to by a verb in the simple past: “marked,” not “has marked.”

So the answer is (B). Notice that working from the clue made it unnecessary to even check any of the other answers.

Example #2

The findings of an astronomy team overseen by

researchers at Stanford University has confirmed many

of Einstein’s strangest predictions about the nature

of gravity. No error

Strategy:

Since there’s no obvious clue in this sentence, we’re going to start by looking for the option most likely to be incorrect. In this case it’s choice (B). it could either be a subject-verb agreement question (because you can say either “has confirmed” or “have confirmed”) OR a tense question.

Since there’s no date or time period, however, we know right away that tense probably isn’t the issue. So we’re going to check the subject. It’s “findings,” which is plural; “has” is singular, so right there you have your answer.

This is a classic subject — prepositional phrase — verb question. It’s tricky, and so it would probably show up close to the end of a section.

Example #3

The snakehead fish, a rapidly reproducing predator, has so

voracious an appetite that it can wipe out entire schools of

fish and destroy entire ecosystems when placed outside

its native habitat. No error

Strategy: Again, here, there’s no obvious error, so we’re going to check in order of what’s most likely to be wrong.

The first thing we notice is the word “its.” That’s usually a very dangerous word in this section, so we’re going to start with it. In this case, it refers to “the snakehead fish,” which is also singular, so “it” actually checks out.

When a word that is commonly wrong turns out to be right, that’s a hint the answer might be “No error.” But we have to check out everything else just to be sure.

We’re going to check choice (D) next because it’s a verb in the present tense and is therefore also a top error candidate.

Choice (D): there’s nothing to suggest that “destroy” is in the wrong tense; it’s also parallel to “wipe out” (it can wipe out…it can destroy), which means there’s no problem.

Now we move to the other options.

Choice (A): “rapidly” is adverb, so we stick in the adjective: “a rapid reproducing predator.” No — an adverb is necessary to modify “reproducing,” which functions as an adjective.

Choice (B): “so” might sound a little funny, but it’s half of a word pair, and here is correctly paired with “that.” It’s fine.

Which means that we’ve demonstrated the answer must be (E).

How to work through Error-Identification questions, part 1

Every time I hear someone advise SAT-takers to “just try to hear the error” on Error-ID questions, I get the overwhelming urge to smack them. This kind of thinking overlooks one exceedingly important fact: many Error-ID sentences are precisely constructed so that you won’t hear the error!

Sure, you can use your ear on a lot of the essay questions and on some of the medium ones, but on the hard ones… you’ll get trampled on. If you want a score above the 500s, you have to actually know what you’re looking for (unless, of course, you’re a 99th percentile outlier, in which case you probably don’t have to be reading this).

If you don’t immediately pick up on an error, you must work from the underlined words and phrases themselves. Particular types of underlined words often suggest particular types of errors, and if everything does indeed check out, you can pick option E with something resembling confidence.

While I’m not going to go through the entire list of everything that could possibly be wrong with Error-ID questions (you can find that list here, along with examples), I am going to cover only the most frequently occurring errors. So here goes. In order of what you should check:

1) Underlined Verbs

An underlined verb can have two possible errors: subject-verb agreement and tense.

If a verb is in the present tense, start by checking the subject. Make sure you cross out any potential distractions such as non-essential clauses and prepositional phrases, and make sure you identify the entire subject. If you don’t take the time to do this, you risk missing the fact that you’re dealing with a compound subject (two singular nouns joined by and).

If the agreement is ok, see if the tense works. Although there could theoretically be a lot of different errors involving tense, there really aren’t most of the time. The main thing to remember is that verb tenses and forms should remain consistent (or parallel) throughout a sentence unless there’s good reason for them to change.

The inclusion of a date or time period often indicates a tense question, so if you see one, check tenses first. Remember: any finished event that occurred in the past (e.g. the Civil War) must be talked about in the simple past (“it happened,” not “it has happened”).

Gerunds and infinitives (e.g. “to go” and “going”) get switched, and “would” and “will” get switched, so if one of those is underlined, plug in the other one and see if it works better.

2) Pronouns

Next to verb errors, pronoun errors are most likely to occur. If a pronoun is underlined, check to make sure that it “matches” the noun it refers to.

Singular pronouns (like “it” or “its”) must refer to singular nouns, and plural pronouns (“they” or “their”) must go with plural nouns.

If the word “it” appears, check it first because it’s most likely wrong.

“One” goes with “one”

“You” goes with “you”

Any singular person goes with “he or she,” never “they”

Keep in mind that about 1/3 of all grammar questions deal with either verbs or pronouns, so if there’s no problem with either of these things, there’s already a decent chance the answer will be E.

If a collective noun (jury, team, agency, city, school, country, etc.) appear, chances are that’s what the question is testing: collective nouns are singular, so check both subject-verb and pronoun agreement.

3) Lists

All of the items in a list must be the same: noun, noun noun; verb, verb, verb, etc. If a sentence includes a list, there’s a good chance there’s an error in it.

3) Adjective and Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs are switched only with one another. If an adjective is underlined, stick in the adverb (e.g. if “calm” is underlined, stick in “calmly”). Adverbs themselves are almost never wrong.

4) Faulty Comparison

Compare people to people and things to things (e.g. The novels of Jane Austen are more widely read than those of Charlotte Bronte, NOT: The novels of Jane Austen are more widely read thanCharlotte Bronte)

Always be on the lookout for expressions such as “more less/less than” that indicate things that are being compared, especially toward the ends of sections.

Also look out for a mention of artists and authors. They tend to be included in faulty comparisons.

5) Word Pairs

“Either…or,” “Neither…nor,” “As…as” and “Not only…but also” are the most common words pairs on Error-IDs. They tend to only be included when there’s something wrong with them, at least on easy-medium questions.

6) Prepositions and Idioms

This is the one place you do have to trust your ear. If a preposition sounds wrong to you (e.g. “She is familiar in the paintings of Marc Chagall), it probably is.

7) More vs. Most

If the word “more” is underlined, see how many things are being compared. If it’s two, you’re fine; if it’s more than two, you need “most.” (e.g. “Between the dog and the cat, the dog is more outgoing but the cat is more independent” BUT “the cat is the most independent of all domestic animals.”)

8) Noun Agreement

Plural subject = plural noun

Look for the phrase “as a + profession” (writer, director, entomologist…)

Steven Spielberg and James Cameron are recognized as the directors (not: the director) most responsible for producing hit action movies.

So no, this isn’t everything that could possibly show up, but if you don’t see one of these errors, don’t twist yourself into knots looking for something that probably isn’t there.

The SAT and phonics

The SAT and phonics

 

Catherine Johnson’s recent post over at Kitchen Table Math got me thinking about a relationship that’s I’ve been curious about for a while: namely, that between exposure to phonics and the ability to figure use roots to figure out unfamiliar words on the SAT.

One of the things I’ve begun to notice recently is that I can generally distinguish between kids who were taught to read using a whole language approach and those taught to read using phonics. Almost invariably, the kids who were taught using whole language have considerably more difficult breaking words apart and examining their component parts. I tend to see this much more prominently when I tutor French or Italian — often a student will read the first couple of letters in a word and then simply guess what the rest of it says, which is an absolute disaster in French — but I see it when I tutor the SAT as well, albeit in a more roundabout way. (more…)

Know what you don’t know

Know what you don’t know

If you read that title and thought, “well how could I possibly know what I don’t know — the whole point is that I don’t know it?” then let me explain that contradiction a little more fully.

People often don’t quite realize that the SAT is a reasoning test in more ways than one. The questions themselves are of course designed to test reasoning ability, but so is the construction of the entire test. That quarter-point penalty for wrong answers isn’t there by accident: it basically exists to make sure that people who like to guess but have no idea what they’re doing aren’t unduly rewarded for their audacity (that’s the non-mathy version — for those of you who want the statistics, look it up;) Various sources of course have various responses to this arrangement: guess if you can get rid of one answer. No, guess if you can get rid of two answers! And so on. (more…)