When you think of idioms, you might usually think of sayings such as “a pretty penny”, or “an arm and a leg” or “as the crow flies”.  These idioms are expressions that have a figurative meaning in addition to what it literally means.  For example, if a bottle of wine costs an arm and a leg, it doesn’t literally mean that you need to pay for it with an arm and a leg.  It just means that it is expensive.

You generally do not need to know such idioms for the SAT.  What you do need to know are prepositional phrases.  For example, would you know which one is correct?

A: I can always count on you to come to my rescue.

B: I can always count for you to come to my rescue.

If you are familiar with English, you will automatically feel that something is ‘off’ with sentence B.  If English is not your strong suit, here is a very, very limited list of prepositional phrases to learn.  I would highly suggest adding to the list as you practice on Grockit .

• An essay consists of an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
• An essay comprises an introduction, a body and a conclusion.  (Note that “comprise” does not require a preposition)
• I ran into him at the basketball game.
• I ran away from home when I was 10.
• I showed up at school in a suit.
• She applied to Cornell University.
• She applied for a scholarship.
• He showed up unannounced on my doorstep.
• Compared to a desktop, laptops seem so much better.
• What is your excuse for skipping school again?
• What do you believe in?
• Can I count on you?
• I talked him into letting me stay.
• I need you to work with me if we are to get this done on time.
• I am looking forward to this vacation.
• I’m not sure I can rely on anyone but myself.
• She has fallen ill with a fever.
• I need time to recover from this fever. Illogical structure

ILLOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS

Illogical constructions have to do with figuring out what the subject of a clause is.  Let’s look at the following examples from Grockit .

By attaching raw meat to canvases and leaving it out in the elements to rot and discolor, the attempt that David Lynch has been making is to find aesthetic value in the grotesque.

What is the first clause in this statement?

It is “By attaching raw meat to canvases and leaving it out… to rot and discolor”.

Now figure out what that clause is talking about.  Who is attaching raw meat to canvases?  Is it the attempt by David Lynch?  Or is it David Lynch himself?  Clearly it has to be David Lynch that is doing the attaching so, “David Lynch” should come immediately after the clause and the comma.

With this in mind, which would you pick out of these answers?

A. the attempt that David Lynch has been making is to find

B. David Lynch has been attempting to find

C. the purpose of this effort by David Lynch is to find

D. David Lynch has had the purpose in his effort to find

E. the attempt that David Lynch has made is finding

I hope all of you automatically eliminated choices A, C and E because “the attempt” and “the purpose” are not subjects of the clause.  David Lynch is.

Let’s try another one.

Having not slept the night before, Ian’s errors while taking the test to get his license were careless.

The clause here is “having not slept the night before”.  So you should ask yourself, who didn’t sleep the night before?  Was it Ian’s errors?  Errors can’t sleep!  It was Ian.  So Ian must come immediately after the first comma.  Which of the following choices can you eliminate based on this knowledge?

A. Ian’s errors while taking the test to get his license were careless

B. Ian made careless errors while taking the test to get his license

C. there were careless errors in the test Ian took to get his license

D. Ian took the test to get his license while making careless errors.

E. the test Ian took to get his license had careless errors

Did you eliminate Choices A, C and E?  The errors and the test cannot have not slept the night before!

Another strategy in dealing with clauses and illogical structures is to ignore the clause. Generally, this means that you can ignore the clause that lies between two commas.  What do I mean?

Take this example:

John R. Peterson, a survivor of the attacks of 9/11, and later to work as a volunteer to help those who had lost loved ones on that fateful day.

“A survivor of the attacks of 9/11” is a clause that gives you further information about John R. Peterson.  It does not have a verb in it.  If you ignore this clause, whatever is said before and after the clause stand alone as a perfectly grammatical sentence.

In this case, does “John R. Peterson and later to work as a volunteer to help those who had lost loved one” sound grammatical to you?

Try putting “John R. Peterson” in front of the following choices:

A. and later to work as a volunteer to help those who had lost loved

B. later worked as a volunteer helping those who had lost loved

C. he later worked as a volunteer helping those who had lost loved

D. he later helped those who had lost loved ones, working as a volunteer

E. later working as a volunteer and helping those who had lost loved

“John and later worked…”, “John he later worked…” and “John later working…” all don’t make sense.  The only grammatical one is “John later worked as a volunteer…nul, “

Try practicing these two strategies (especially the first one), they come in very handy in the SAT writing section!