On that note, today we continue with the fourth question type of the SAT Writing Error Identification questions: Illogical Comparisons.

This is a commonly missed error type that many students don’t even realize is tested on the SAT. However, once you learn this error type, it’s relatively easy to recognize and ensure you answer related problems correctly every time. So on to the learning…

Illogical comparisons errors are based on the old adage that states, “you can’t compare apples to oranges.” There’s simply faulty logic in this comparison; they’re too different to make a meaningful comparison of them. Aside from the fact that they’re both edible and that we as humans label them both as fruits, they have little else in common. An alternative, then, would be to compare apples to apples, or oranges to oranges. There are infinitely more meaningful comparisons to be made by comparing two apples or two oranges. But enough with the fruity metaphors. Let’s jump to an example:

Skateboarding in New York, (A) unlike California, (B) is usually (C) hampered by busy streets and (D) crowded sidewalks. (E) No Error.

Although it’s easy to understand what the writer of this sentence is trying to say (because we speak like this all the time in our daily conversations) there’s actually a fundamental error in this sentence. Although the point is clearly to compare skateboarding conditions in New York to those in California, what’s really being compared in this sentence is skateboarding (a sport or activity) in New York to California (merely a state).

This is what we call an illogical comparison:

Skateboarding vs. California

You can’t compare a sport to a state. It just doesn’t make sense. A more proper comparison would be the following:

Skateboarding in New York vs. Skateboarding in California

or

New York vs. California

Therefore, the correct answer here is (A). The sentence would be more properly rewritten as the following:

Skateboarding in New York, unlike skateboarding in California, is usually hampered by busy streets and crowded sidewalks.

So how do you make sure you don’t miss any of these error types? Well, any time you come across a problem that makes a comparison, make sure you check that it’s logically correct. It’s as simple as that. Don’t assume you know what the author means to say because it’s easy to read into her intent. Make sure that she is being precise with her words as to make the comparison logically. If the content of a SAT Writing Section question involves a comparison, 90% of the time there will be an Illogical Comparison error.

For more information on Illogical Comparison Errors on the SAT, get the Sparknotes Guide to the new SAT and PSAT.

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

First the basics. What is a Pronoun? Pronouns are simply general nouns that are used in place of more specific nouns. For example I may use the pronoun she when in place of a more specific noun Angela, or I may use the pronoun it in place of a more specific noun such as book, or hour, or any other thing. Listed below are the Pronouns that are regularly tested for proper usage on the SAT.

I’ll be referring to this chart throughout this post. While you don’t need to memorize this chart to answer Pronoun Questions correctly, it’ll help you to understand the various Pronoun Errors tested on the SAT.

Pronoun Errors Come in Four Varieties on the SAT:

1. Wrong Number (singular vs. plural) Errors – When dealing with pronouns, the term number refers to whether the pronoun is singular or plural. If you look at the chart above, you’ll notice that within each case (i.e. nominative case, objective case, and possessive case) there are both singular and plural versions for each person (i.e. 1^st Person, 2^nd Person, 3^rd Person). Wrong Number Error Questions are simply testing if you know when to use a singular or plural pronoun as necessary. To determine if a pronoun is in the proper number, you simple have to find its antecedent (that is, the person or thing that the pronoun refers to) and make sure they match; singular pronouns should refer to singular antecedents and plural pronouns should refer to plural antecedents.

Wow, that sounds way more complicated than it needs to be. The following example problem should clear things up:

Harvard’s lacrosse team performed (A) well throughout the 1990s (B) because (C) they were able (D) to recruit high quality athletes from various preparatory schools across the country. (E) No Error

The correct answer here is (C) they were because the plural pronoun they incorrectly refers to its singular antecedent team. The correct pronoun to use here would be the singular pronoun it – but that alone sounds a bit awkward. Perhaps replacing that phrase altogether with “its coaching staff” would improve the sentence even more.

2. Wrong Case Errors – The term case here refers to whether the pronoun is in the nominative, objective, or possessive case. A pronouns case depends on how the pronoun is used in the sentence. The nominative case (which is also referred to as the subjective case) should be used when the pronoun takes the role of a subject, the objective case should be used when the pronoun takes the role of an object, and the possessive case should be used when the pronoun takes the possessive form. Simple enough, right?

Wrong Case Pronoun Errors occur when a sentence has , say, an objective pronoun such as me, when it should be in the nominative case I, for example. Notice that the person and number are the same, but it’s only the pronoun case that’s used incorrectly. The pronoun case can be interchanged incorrectly from among any of the cases. Again, that explanation makes it sound way more complicated than it actually is, so why don’t we look at an example:

(A) Determined that we sleep eight hours a night, (B) my mother made (C) my brother and I turn all our lights out (D) at ten o’clock every night. (E) No Error

The correct answer here is (C) my brother and I because the nominative pronoun I should be in the objective case form me.

Two important tips should be noted about Pronoun Case Errors: Firstly, Pronoun Case errors show up on the SAT almost always as the second noun in a compound noun phrase. What this means is that the pronoun will show up with another noun usually joined by and. In the example problem above, the entire compound noun phrase is my brother and I. This is a very typical example of how this error shows up on the SAT. So the point to take here is that whenever you see a compound noun phrase with a pronoun, always check to make sure the pronoun is in the correct case.

A secondly, when you’re unsure in these cases if the pronoun is in the proper case, simply ignore the other noun in the phrase. This will make it a lot more obvious if the pronoun is in the correct case or not. If I were to use the same problem above as an example, I would do the following:

(A) Determined that we sleep eight hours a night, (B) my mother made (C) my brother and I turn all our lights out (D) at ten o’clock every night. (E) No Error

Now when you read through the sentence the phrase “my mother made I turn out the lights” sound very awkward, as it should since the pronoun is in the wrong case.

3. Pronoun Shift Errors – The term shift refers to an incorrect change in person within a sentence. As a general rule on the SAT Writing Sections, the person should remain the same throughout the sentence. The most frequent Pronoun Shift Errors occur on the SAT involving the third person term one and the second person pronoun you. Note that when the term one is used to refer to a hypothetical person, it’s the equivalent of the third person pronouns he or she. Take a look at the following example:

(A) If one wishes (B) to play piano (C) like a virtuoso, you (B) must begin by mastering basics like chords and scales.

Notice in this sentence both one and you are used almost interchangeably. The answer is clearly (A) If one wishes. The person should remain consistent throughout the sentence.

4. Ambiguous Reference Errors – Ambiguous Reference simply means that it is unclear what a pronoun is referring to. Sentences with Ambiguous Reference Pronoun Errors will have a pronoun that could refer to two different antecedents in the sentence; the sentence will have two different things or people in the same number and person making it unclear which one the pronoun is referring to. For example, if I were to say, “James and John went to the mall, and he bought a shirt,” who does the pronoun he refer to? Since he is a Singular 3^rd Person Pronoun, it could refer to either James or John, making the reference unclear. Of course, it won’t be that obvious on the actual SAT. A typical problem may look like the following example:

(A) Many writers rely (B) heavily on their editors (C) when publishing a book because (D) they are determined to present the best final product possible. (E) No Error

The correct answer here would be (D) they are because it’s unclear in the sentence whether the pronoun they refers to the writers or the editors because both of them are Plural 3^rd Person subjects.

*Tip:

As a general rule, because pronoun errors show up so often on the SAT Writing Sections, any time you come across a pronoun, make sure that it’s being used properly. You’ll be surprised how often the pronouns are misused not only on the SAT, but in your everyday lives.

For more information and practice with SAT Writing Pronoun Errors, Get the Sparknotes Guide to the New SAT and PSAT.

Post from: SAT Ninja: SAT Test Prep Expert

Even if you suck at writing, you can still achieve a very high score on the SAT Writing Sections with minimal preparation. That’s because the majority of the Writing Sections test for grammatical errors you learned very early on in school; I’m talking about rudimentary grammar here.

Although it may seem as though the SAT can test an endless variety of questions based on a vast array of topics, in reality the test-developers limit themselves to a few, very specific question types. This is especially true of the Writing Section of the SAT. Almost all questions in the Writing Section can be categorized into 10 fundamental grammatical errors. Furthermore, question within these categories often repeat the same formatting. The following is a list of the grammatical concepts tested on the SAT Writing Sections.

The 10 Fundamental Question Types on the SAT Writing Sections:

I. Subject-Verb Agreement

1. When Subject and Verb Are Separated

2. When the Subject SEEMS plural

3. When the Subject SEEMS singular

4. When the Subject Follows the Verb

II. Pronoun Errors

1. Wrong Number

2. Wrong Case (in Compound Noun Phrases)

3. Person Shift

4. Ambiguous Reference

III. Faulty Parallelism

IV. Faulty Comparison/Illogical Comparisons

V. Misuse of Adjective or Adverb

VI. Improper Idiomatic Expression

1. Infinitive vs. Gerund

2. Wrong Preposition after Verb

VII. Wrong Word

VIII. Wrong Tense

1. Basic Tense Shifts

2. Use of Past vs. Past Participle

IX. Irregular verbs

X. Double Negative

I’ll be going over each of these common SAT Writing question types and their variations, along with detailed strategies on how to conquer them over the next few days. But today, I’ll start with the first one:

I. Subject-Verb Agreement

Believe it or not, this is the single-most overlooked error on SAT Writing Sections. In fact, when I first took the SAT II Writing Test, the one question I answered incorrectly was a subject-verb agreement error question. Obviously it wasn’t because I didn’t understand the concept. Instead, I fell for some of the traps that the test makers use to disguise this error-type. So read my strategies carefully, so you don’t fall into the same traps.

Subject Verb Errors come in 3 Varieties:

1. When the subject and verb are separated – Actually, I lied. This shouldn’t be a category of its own because the subject and verb will always be separated for subject verb errors. But it’s important enough to note because this is one of the disguises that makes these errors so easy to overlook.

2. When the subject seems plural – In this variation, the subject will usually involve a collective noun (e.g. a team, a class, an organization, etc.) where the subject will represent a group of people making it appear to be plural, but will actually be a singular subject. Take a look at the following example:

The team (A) of researchers, technicians, and interns (B) have (C)worked hard during the (D) three-month project. (E) No Error

Did you spot the error? It’s pretty easy when I separate this sentence for you from all the other different Error Types, eh? As you probably noticed, the correct answer is (B.). The actual simple subject in this sentence is “the team,” a singular collective noun, so the verb have should be in the singular form has.

An easy way not to fall into the trap of overlooking this error is to cross out the portion of the subject that follows the preposition – in this case of.

The team (A) (of researchers, technicians, and interns) (B) have (C) worked hard during the (D) three-month project. (E) No Error

This should make it clearer that the simple subject of the sentence is simply team.

2. When the subject seems singular – This is the opposite variation of the last error. Sentences that test for this error will usually have to separate subjects (often both singular) that are conjoined by and making the overall subject plural. Take a look at the following example:

The new library on campus (A) dedicated to the former university president and the student recreation center (B.) built on the old lot (C) was funded (D) by private endowment. (E) No Error

In this example, there are two subjects, each individually a singular noun – the library and the student recreation center – that are joined together by and, so the verb was should actually be in the plural form were.

3. The final type of Subject-Verb Agreement error occurs when the subject follows the verb. In most standard sentences, including the examples above, the subject comes early in the sentence followed later by the verb. However, on every SAT, there will be at least one sentence that test for subject-verb agreement in which the verb comes first. In these cases, you have to identify that the verb matches the subject that comes later in the sentence. Take a look at the following example:

The band (A) has been played on the radio for years, (B) but only recently (C) has the less polished tracks from their first album (D) become known. (E) No error

You’ll notice here that that the correct answer is (C) has because the singular verb has does not correctly match the corresponding subject tracks that comes later in the sentence. The correct form of the verb should be the plural have.

Important Tips!

There are two things to note about subject-verb agreement errors:

1.) It’s almost always the verb that is incorrect, not the subject. If you look back at the examples above, you’ll notice that the subject that corresponds with the verb usually isn’t even a choice, and therefore by default, you can only chose the verb as the correct answer.

2.) Subject-Verb Agreement errors almost always involve the most basic verbs. The questions will almost always test for the usage or is vs. are; was vs. were; or has vs. have. You would think that this would make this question type even easier with this being the case. However, the fact that these questions involve the most basic verbs only makes it more likely that you would overlook this error. To make sure you don’t fall into the trap, every time a Error Improvement question on the SAT Writing sections has is, are, was, were, has, or have as a choice, double check to make sure it they match the subject.

That wraps it up for this first error type. Make sure you check up on this blog over the next few days as I go over each of the different question types on the Writing Sections.

Post from: SAT Ninja: SAT Test Prep Expert