Post from: SAT Ninja: SAT Test Prep Expert

Certain sets of words in a sentence, or the general design of a sentence, often require parallel construction in order to nicely balance the sentence. This is what Parallelism Errors on the SAT test for – balanced sentence structure. Parallelism Errors show up very frequently on the SAT in two general forms:

1. Unbalanced lists – simply put, each word or phrase of a sentence that comes in listed fashion should be in the same grammatical form, whether they all be nouns, noun phrases, verbs, or verb phrases. The classic example of this error looks something like this:

As a multi-talented performer, Madison enjoys singing, dancing, and to play the piano.

You’ll notice in this over-simplified example that the first two listed verbs singing and dancing are in the gerund form (a gerund is simply the noun form of a verb ending with –ing), but that the final phrase to play the piano uses the infinitive form of the verb. To fix this, you could simply change the infinitive to play to match the two gerunds as written below:

As a multi-talented performer, Madison enjoys singing, dancing, and playing the piano.

Now that you understand the concept, let’s look at an example that may more likely show up on an actual SAT test:

Teachers and students (A) agree that developing good writing habits (B) is (C) not only important but also (D) of necessity to achieve academic success. (E) No Error

The correct answer here would be (D) of necessity which does not correct balance the adjective important. Instead, the phrase of necessity should simply be replaced with the adjective necessary. Try re-reading the sentence with this replacement.

2. Word-Pair Parallelism Errors – Word Pair Parallelism refers to certain correlative words that should always be used in conjunction with other specific words. For example, the word either should be used in conjunction with or, and neither with nor. The following is a list of the word pairs you’ll find tested on the SAT:

either…or…

neither…nor…

both…and…

not only…but also…

not only…but…

as…as…

Let’s look at an example:

Neither his wife’s pleas (A) or the (B) doctor’s advice scientific evidence (C) was enough to (D) convince him to quit smoking. (E) No Error

The correct answer is (A) or because neither cannot be used in conjunction with or, as listed above. Simply enough. Let’s move to another example:

(A) Few people (B) were aware that the famous opera singer was also as (C) accomplished a composer (D) than any.

The correct answer here is (D) than. The phrase should be more properly written as: as accomplished a composer as any.

As simple a grammatical concept as this is, these Word-Pair parallelism errors show up quite frequently on the SAT, especially the either…or and neither…no pairs.

For more information on SAT Parallelism Errors on the Writing Sections, get the Sparknotes Guide to the New SAT and PSAT.

Post from: SAT Ninja: SAT Test Prep Expert

I think by now most people realize that proper preparation can help anyone improve his or her score.  When the SAT was first introduced in 1926, the letters S-A-T used to stand for Scholastic Aptitude Test. The common belief back then was that the SAT could test an individual’s innate intelligence, or aptitude; studying or preparing for the test was thought to be pointless.  Then in the 1950s test prep industry pioneer Stanley Kaplan began coaching a small group of students for the SAT from his basement.  When his students began to regularly produce exceptional scores, people began to recognize that the test could be beat.  It wasn’t until 1994 that the test makers conceded that the SAT could be prepared for and changed its name to the Standardized Assessment Test.  However, even this name didn’t stick for long as the SAT people released an official press release in 1996 stating that the SAT does not stand for anything.  After undergoing some major changes in March of 2004, the test came to be referred to for a short period as the New SAT.  Today, it’s simple referred to as the SAT Reasoning Test.

2.  The SAT tests a student’s intelligence.

Hogwash.  While I’ve already addressed this myth somewhat above, it’s worth noting that there are still research studies out there that seem to suggest a correlation between SAT scores and IQ.  However, the tests used to measure IQ use the same one-dimensional, standardized methods used on the SAT.  Human intelligence transcends any performance measured on a standardized or “objective” test.  History has shown time and again that some of the most intelligent and successful people do very poorly in academic settings.  It’s only after they leave school, or perhaps because they do, that they begin to show the world there brilliance.  Renowned educational consultant and pioneer in the development of innovation and creativity, Sir Ken Robinson gave a great speech recently on the amazing success of some people who were thought to be failures in the classroom.  It’s an inspiring video worth checking out: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66.

But I digress.  On to the next myth…

3.  The SAT can ask any question as long as it relates to reading, writing, or math.

That would pretty much include everything.  This is often the most daunting notion for students.  It seems like the SAT covers so much that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and give up on studying altogether.  The truth is, the CollegBoard (the company that develops the test) limits itself to few very specific concepts.  But it’s not enough to simply know these concepts.  In fact, you know most of these concepts as they’re generally taught to students very early in their school lives.  The key to succeeding on the SAT is knowing how to apply these concepts by learning how the test developers think.

4.  You should prepare for the SAT the same way you prepare for any other academic test.

If they were the case, then most straight-A students would get near perfect scores.  The truth is, only a very select few (<1%) actually get perfect scores every year.  There would be no point to the SAT; academic institutions would simply just give you a score based on your GPA.  But the reality is, most A-students, who have proven they no how to study for test in their classes, don’t get anywhere near perfect scores.  Studying for the SAT is different because you need to not only know the concepts, but how to apply them the way the test developers want you to apply them.  This requires you to learn how to think how the test makers think, and this is what I teach here on my blog.

5.  You can’t prepare for the essay.

Almost everyone that I know who has received high scores on their essays (either an 11 or a 12) – both among students that I have taught and my own peers – went into the test knowing what they were going to write.  Sure the “topic” prompt changes with each test, but the overall format and expectations are the same with every test.  This makes for a very predictable scenario that allows you to prepare about 80% of the essay before you even see the test.  I’ll get into this in more detail in another post.

6.  You can improve your math and writing score, but you can’t improve you Critical Reading Scores.

This myth is similar to the myth that the SAT tests for innate intelligence, but again, that it’s simply not true.  In fact I would say that for those of you who don’t normally fair well on the Critical Reading Sections of the test, particularly with the reading passages, this section is perhaps the easiest to improve your scores.  The reason for this is that while the SAT Writing Sections and Math sections put a little more weight on the concepts themselves, the Critical Reading Sections are the most predictable in terms of finding what the developers of the SAT want.  So most student who claim that they can’t improve their Critical Reading score are probably approaching their preparation from the wrong angle.  Again, it’s all about learning to think like the test developers.  Stay tuned because this is what my next post is about.

7.  It is better to leave a question blank than to guess.

It’s true that you lose a quarter of a point when you get an incorrect answer whereas you don’t lose anything if you leave a question unanswered.  BUT, you gain a full point for every question answered correctly!  So, if you’ve read the question, and spent any time trying to figure it out, take a guess guess; it could make up for four incorrect questions elsewhere on the test.  You should absolutely guess if you can eliminate at least one of the answer choices because the odds will be in your favor.

Post from: SAT Ninja: SAT Test Prep Expert