Grockit SAT ACT Prep

Learn more about Grockit's SAT and ACT test preparation

Improving Sentences Posts

SAT Writing—Improving or Revising Sentences

By posted June 22, 2011

Some SAT Writing questions will ask you to improve or revise sentences within a passage. The test-makers may ask you if you want to change a word or two, insert another word at some point in the sentence, or even delete the sentence entirely. Getting lots of test prep will be important for mastering this question type. Go to Grockit to play interactive games and get help from trained instructors. You’ll also be able to chat with others who are studying for the test. It’ll be a great way to prepare for the test. But, to answer any improving or revising sentences question, remember the following tips:

  1. Know the passage’s purpose. Although you might be able to answer some improving and revising sentences questions without knowing the main idea of the passage, for most knowing the passage’s purpose will be very helpful.
  2. Understand the sentence’s context. It’s very important to know what comes before and after the sentence asked in the question. If the sentence seems out-of-place, deleting it will be an easy choice. If the sentence needs some readjusting to fit, find the best answer to make it fit.
  3. Know transition words. There are words that indicate the thought process of the passage will continue in the same direction; there are other words that indicate the thought process will change. Remember the following words to help on test day:
    1. Words indicating the same thought process—and, also, in addition, moreover, furthermore, and as well as.
    2. Words indication a changing thought process—however, on the other hand, still, although, though, nonetheless, and on the other hand.

Now, try to use these strategies while attempting to answer the sample question below:

(1) Childhood is not merely a period of physical and mental development but a social concept that has changed greatly over the centuries. (2) Today childhood is much longer than it once was. (3) It is defined as the twenty years after birth during which children are nurtured and prepared to be adults when they are older. (4) Thus, modern children receive schooling and are prevented from working until almost the age of twenty, and this is several years after they have reached the physical maturity of adults. (5) Prior to the nineteenth century, by contrast, childhood as a period of nurturing ended almost as soon as children could walk. (6) Children were considered adults, given the according responsibilities, and put to work from an early age.

Which answer choice would most improve sentence 3?

It is defined as the twenty years after birth during which children are nurtured and prepared to be adults when they are older.

  1. Delete it.
  2. Change “children” to “they”.
  3. Change “during which” to “where”.
  4. Insert “Therefore,” before “it is defined.”
  5. Delete “when they are older”.

Try this question for more SAT improving sentences practice!

Can you figure out which answer’s correct? First off, the sentence is important since it defines what childhood is. For this reason, we can eliminate A. Now we have to figure out which of the options to improve the sentence fits best in context with sentences 2 and 4. Should “children” be switched to “they”? It shouldn’t because “children” hasn’t been used before this point in the passage, only the term “childhood.” How about changing “during which” to “where”? There’s nothing wrong with the use of “during which,” so we can also eliminate C. Should we insert “Therefore” at the beginning of the sentence? We could, although it doesn’t seem necessary since the two sentences as they are flow together well. Let’s keep it for now. Can we delete “when they are older”? Yes, we can since the phrase “adults when they are older” is redundant. Now we can eliminate D and choose E as our answer.

As you can see, knowing the rules of writing and utilizing process of elimination are so important for SAT Writing questions. Make sure you head over to Grockit to get all the practice you need. You’ll get to study with others preparing for the test and even get help from trained instructors.

No Comments »

SAT: A Process for Improving Sentences

By posted March 10, 2011

Improving Sentences questions are especially challenging because they can feel like you just have to “know” which sentence is best. Keep in mind that out of 5 sentences, 4 of them MUST have an error. Even a subtle style error, such as passive voice or redundancy, is enough to disqualify an answer choice. Here’s a process to keep you focused on these questions!

1. Determine if there is an error. If the sentence sounds correct to you, put a star (*) next to it, and check the answer choices anyway. Don’t assume that there is no error simply because you didn’t spot one on your first read. Go through each answer choice carefully, looking for a better option. If B, C, D, and E each have an error, then the correct answer is (A). Choice (A) will always repeat the sentence.

2. Circle what sounds funny. What is it about the sentence that sounds like an error? Is there an incorrect idiom, a misplaced modifier, a pronoun with no clear antecedent? Circle the error and make a prediction for how you would fix it. For example, if the sentence is a run-on, you might think of adding a semicolon or making one clause dependent.

3. Watch out for new errors! More than one sentence may correct the error. To use our run-on example again, let’s say choice (B) adds a semicolon, and choice (D) makes one clause dependent. Which is correct? There is probably a secondary error hiding in one of those two choices. It’s not good enough just to fix the main error; the correct answer must be 100% error-free!

Find out how you can try Grockit free for 3 days with unlimited access to group and solo practice sessions, advanced skill data with insight into your strengths and weaknesses, and predictive scoring.

Read more »

No Comments »

Idioms – What’s in a Name?

By posted November 30, 2010

Even though Idioms are one of the most-tested concepts on the SAT, they are also one of the least well understood. This is because Idioms are not governed by grammatical rules the way that other parts of speech like Nouns and Verbs are governed. An Idiom is simply an expression. It is something that native speakers of a language can recognize, but is often challenging for those learning English as a secondary language.

Some common Idioms are fun metaphorical expressions like “hitting the hay” or someone having “a chip on his shoulder.” A non-native speaker might be wondering why anyone would beat up a pile of straw or have a potato chip sitting on his/her shoulder, but we know that they are groups of unrelated words that take on new meanings when grouped together.

While the SAT will NOT be testing such Idiomatic expressions like those just mentioned, there are two main types of Idioms they will test.

The first are common two-part Idioms:

Not only…but also

INCORRECT: Not only did we see the Eiffel Tower, but we saw the Louvre.
CORRECT: Not only did we see the Eiffel Tower, but also we saw the Louvre.

Try this SAT Improving Sentences practice question and test your skills today!

Read more »

1 Comment »

Ambiguous and Vague Pronouns

By posted September 27, 2010

Readers tend to hate vague writing. Why read something when it’s impossible to figure out what the author means? I’m not talking about the seemingly incoherent ramblings of modernist literature–those authors have earned the right to be eccentric. I’m talking about vague and ambiguous pronouns, a pesky error you’ll often find on SAT Writing questions. First, let’s look at a simple example of an ambiguous pronoun:

Jessica met with Susie after she had lunch.

You might read this sentence and automatically correct the pronoun ambiguity. For some reason, you might think that Jessica had the lunch. Some of you might think Susie had the lunch. The truth is, there is no way of knowing. The pronoun “she” is ambiguous because it has no clear antecedent: it can refer to either Jessica or Susie.

How do we fix this problem? Simple. Just replace the ambiguous pronoun with the noun it should refer to. Let’s say the author meant for “she” to refer to Jessica:

Jessica met with Susie after Jessica had lunch.

If you want to exercise your writing skills a bit, you might make it a bit more elegant by cutting back on these clunky nouns:

After having lunch, Jessica met with Susie.

That was a simple example. There was no reason why “she” would refer to either Jessica or Susie. What if the pronoun isn’t so obviously ambiguous? What if there seems to be a logical antecedent even though the pronoun is grammatically ambiguous? Check out this example:

John gave his little brother a toy for Christmas that he played with constantly.

Wouldn’t it make sense that “he” refers to the little brother? The toy is his gift, after all. So, “he” must refer to the little brother, right? Well, not exactly. Though it makes sense that the little brother played with the gift he received, it is possible that John is just a selfish older brother. Perhaps, after having given the gift, John realizes just how awesome the toy really is, so he hogs it. Notice that, by trying to figure out the correct antecedent of “he,” I’ve wasted a lot of time and energy. We should not have to speculate on the correct antecedent of a pronoun, nor should e have to make up ridiculous stories to justify our choice. In this sentence, “he” is ambiguous. Period. Here’s a possible fix:

John’s little brother constantly played with the toy that John gave him for Christmas.

Now that we’ve looked at ambiguous pronouns, let’s check out vague pronouns. Unlike ambiguous pronouns, which refer to one of two or more pronouns in a sentence, vague pronouns do not have identifiable antecedents in the sentence. Rather, the antecedent of a vague pronoun is implied, but not stated:

They say that a bad cough, if left untreated, can have a detrimental effect on lung function.

While you won’t raise any eyebrows for using this vague pronoun in everyday speech, the SAT will deem it a grammatical error. When we use the construction “they say,” we don’t really have an antecedent in mind for “they.” We mean to imply that the thing “they say” is common knowledge, or that we’ve heard it somewhere but cannot identify who said it. For the SAT, though, this construction is wrong. To improve it, find a logical antecedent for “they” and replace the pronoun:

Doctors say that a bad cough, if left untreated, can have a detrimental effect on lung function.

or

Experts say that a bad cough, if left untreated, can have a detrimental effect on lung function.

The strategy for catching ambiguous and vague pronouns is simple: every time you see a pronoun, identify its antecedent. If you are stuck between two pronouns, or if you cannot find the logical antecedent in the sentence, then you must fix or identify the problem.

No Comments »

SAT Writing: Verb Tense

By posted May 12, 2010

Verb tense is often a simple error to spot on Writing multiple choice problems, but when it comes to harder problems, you really should know the ins and outs of verb tense.

It’s easy to spot errors like “I will play basketball yesterday.” We know that such a sentence is logically impossible, and to fix it, we simply change the future tense to the past tense: I played basketball yesterday.

Many problems, however, aren’t so simple. To master these, it’s best to learn the different tenses in English–the ones most often tested on the SAT–and their function.

First, let’s take a look at the simple tenses:
Simple Present: The man runs. (He’s running right now)
Simple Past: The man ran yesterday. (He ran in the past)
Simple Future: The man will run tomorrow. (He will run in the future)

You may be thinking “duh,” but it helps to organize your knowledge of tenses–even the easy ones.

Here are the perfect tenses. The perfect tenses are a bit more complicated.

Test yourself with this SAT Writing question!

Read more »

No Comments »

Idioms on the SAT

By posted April 23, 2010

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

Prep for the SAT with this Grockit writing question!

Read more »

1 Comment »

Idioms on the SAT

By posted March 30, 2010

On the SAT Writing, an “idiom” is a recognized grammatical construction that is a rule simply because of tradition. The idiom constitutes the ultimate tautology: we say something a certain way because, well, that’s how we say it. It’s a bit like when you ask your parents why they enforce a certain rule, and they answer “because I said so:” even though the answer does not satisfy your question, you must still obey the rule. Idioms, the “because I said so’s” of the grammar world, are no different, and the SAT Writing is no more forgiving.

On the SAT Writing, most of the idioms you will face will involve preposition usage. Why do I listen “to” the radio instead of listen “at” the radio? Simple–because I said so. Or, more precisely, we say “listen to” because that is how English speakers have said it for hundreds of years. We like it that way, and we are not willing to change. Got it? We’re a stubborn little bunch, aren’t we?

For some students, idiom errors can be the easiest to spot on the exam. To these students, an idiom error sticks out like a sore thumb. When they read something like “listen at the radio,” they hear dissonance. The only way to restore grammatical harmony is to replace the grating “at” with the soothing “to.” Balance is restored.

Not everybody thinks this way. For many who learned English as a second language, and even for those who have a purely logical–as opposed to intuitive–understanding of language, idiom errors are extremely difficult to detect. After all, there is no logical explanation for why we say “listen to” instead of “listen at.”

Put your skills to the test with this SAT Writing question from Grockit!

Read more »

No Comments »

Gerunds on SAT Writing

By posted March 8, 2010

A common writing mistake is thinking that gerunds are verbs. GERUNDS ARE NOT VERBS. Gerunds typically involve using a verb (in the -ing form) as a noun. Just because it looks like a verb + “ing”, does not mean it is a verb. Often times, SAT questions try to take advantage of this misconception by giving you sentences with gerunds but no verb. For example, Listening to his ipod, John skiing down the slope.

As a noun, gerunds can either be the subject or the direct object of a sentence. Let’s use the verb “to read” as an example. The gerund of “to read” is “reading” and it can be used as a subject in a sentence like
Reading Shakespeare is compulsory for every high school in America.
Or it can be used as a direct object in a sentence like
I enjoy reading Shakespeare in my English class. (Here, the verb is “enjoy” and the object is “reading”)

Now that you know how to use gerunds, you need to bear in mind three main types of mistakes involving gerunds.

Mistake 1
The first is the one mentioned in the first paragraph – the presence of a gerund but a lack of a verb. Using the previous sentence as an example, Listening to his ipod, John studying for the SAT should be Listening to his ipod, John skiis down the slope.

This mistake is a little harder to spot when there is a modifying clause that has a verb in it. For example, Sarah walking down the street, her head bent in thought. Just because there is a verb “bent” in the sentence does not make the sentence grammatical. The main clause in the sentence is “Sarah walking down the street” and this lacks a verb. The second part, “her head bent in thought” describes Sarah and is a modifier. For the sentence to be grammatical, it would have to be Sarah walked down the street, her head bent in thought.

Test yourself with this Grockit SAT Writing question!

Read more »

No Comments »

SAT Writing: Excessive Wordiness

By posted February 22, 2010

Notice anything wrong with the title of this article? No, there are no spelling or grammar errors. Technically, nothing is “wrong” with the title, but it could be improved: remove the word “excessive,” and the title will no longer be wordy. I know what you’re thinking. How can a single adjective–and a seemingly appropriate one at that–add wordiness? Simple. The word “excessive” is unnecessary and redundant. Since “wordiness,” by its very definition, denotes an excess of words, the phrase “excessive wordiness” means “an excess of an excess of words,” which is pretty ridiculous. This is the way you should be thinking to catch wordiness on the SAT.

Nearly every Improving Sentences question will contain an answer choice guilty of wordiness. It is your job to pick the most concise and clear answer choice that retains all necessary information. This point cannot be emphasized enough. Somehow, many students believe that, when it comes to writing, more is better. This fallacy may have been inadvertently encouraged by minimum word counts for school essays. If you happen to believe in this fallacy, I’m here to disabuse and enlighten you.

Wordiness comes in the form of unnecessary words (words that can be deleted to aid the clarity of the sentence), redundancies (words that simply repeat what has already been stated), and clunky phrases that could be easily reduced to single words.

See if you can improve this sentence from SAT Writing!

Read more »

No Comments »

Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement on the SAT

By posted December 3, 2009

For Sentence Error ID questions, we know that we should automatically search for the subject of the sentence and its corresponding verb, but we should also look for pronouns and their antecedents. An antecedent is the noun or pronoun to which a pronoun refers. In the simple sentence, “John forgot to finish his homework,” John is the antecedent of the possessive pronoun his. Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in person, gender, and number; for the SAT, though, you only have to worry about pronoun number.

Errors with pronoun number are very common in English.

Here’s a mind-blowing example of a common pronoun/number error:

ex. Is everyone happy with their grades?

Can you spot the error? If you can, you’re probably in the minority of English speakers. If corrected, this sentence would read:

ex. Is everyone happy with his or her grades?

Why should the possessive plural pronoun their become the possessive singular pronoun his or her? Simple: “Everyone,” believe it or not, is a singular pronoun. After all, do we say “everyone is happy” or “everyone are happy?” Though it seems to refer to a whole bunch of individuals, “everyone” is really saying “every one,” or in other words, “each individual.” So the next time you’re stuck on the pronoun/number problem with “everyone,” go ahead and substitute “each individual” for this tricky pronoun. Sure, it’s painfully robotic, but does this sentence—“Is each individual happy with his or her grades”—slightly ease the burden on your brain?

Try this sentence error SAT writing question!

Read more »

1 Comment »

« Older Posts