by Erica L. Meltzer | Mar 30, 2011 | Blog, SAT Critical Reading (Old Test)
Very often, test-takers get stumped on “tone” or “attitude” questions because they look at each answer choice individually and ponder whether it could fit the passage. In other words, they try to fit the answer to the reading — always a bad idea.
Very often, test-takers get stumped on “tone” or “attitude” questions because they look at each answer choice individually and ponder whether it could fit the passage. In other words, they try to fit the answer to the reading — always a bad idea.
The process for breaking down tone questions is actually pretty simple: the first thing you always want to determine is whether the author’s attitude is positive or negative.
Say, for example, you’re dealing with a passage about the California gold rush, and you see the following question:
In lines 47-51, the author’s attitude toward the process of “staking claims” could best be characterized as:
(A) skeptical
(B) vitriolic
(C) approving
(D) elated
(E) ambivalent
The first thing you need to do is to figure out whether the author considers “staking claims” a good thing or a bad thing.
If it’s a good thing, you can automatically eliminate anything that is either negative or neutral, in this case A, B, and E. If it’s a bad thing, you can get rid of C and D.
Notice that we don’t care about the actual words at this point, only whether they’re good or bad.
Let’s say that the author considers “staking claims” a good thing, so we’re left with C and D.
In general, extreme answers tend to be wrong (if the tone of the passage were too obvious, you wouldn’t have to read closely, and the test would be too easy!), so right away, you know that there’s about a 90% chance the answer is C.
But unless you’re absolutely certain, go back to the passage and check!
by Erica L. Meltzer | Mar 29, 2011 | Blog, Grammar (SAT & ACT)
Transition questions tend to be one of the trickier kinds of questions that show up on both the SAT Writing and the ACT English sections. Unlike straight-up grammar questions, they don’t present obvious errors that can be easily caught by ear. Instead, they require you to (gasp!) think.
Transitions can be divided into three major categories.
Continuers include and, furthermore, moreover, and in fact, which tell us that an idea is continuing on in the same direction it began
Contradictors include but, yet, although, despite, nevertheless and however, which tell us that the an idea is being contradicted or moved in a different direction
Cause and Effect include so, therefore, and consequently tell us that something is happening as a result of something else.
On the SAT, you will be dealing primarily — but not exclusively — with and, but, however, and therefore; on the ACT, you will encounter a much wider variety of transitions, and such questions will appear far more frequently. The essential technique for making sure you get these questions right is the same on both tests, however: whenever you see a transition underlined, you need to take your pencil and cross it out. It is important that you physically cross it out, not just imagine you’re crossing it out. Then, examine the relationship between the two clauses (same idea or different ideas) before you look at the answers.
Original sentence: People who are happy to be alone are often viewed as as odd or threatening, and research suggests that spending time by oneself is necessary to interacting well with others.
Cross out transition and consider clauses separately
1) People who are happy to be alone are often viewed as odd or threatening
2) Research suggests that spending time by oneself is necessary to interacting well with others.
Determine relationship: Contradiction
Plug in correct transition: People who are happy to be alone are often viewed as as odd or threatening, but/yet research suggests that spending time by oneself is necessary to interacting well with others.
Or: People who are happy to be alone are often viewed as odd or threatening; however, research suggests that spending time by oneself is necessary to interacting well with others.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Mar 27, 2011 | ACT English/SAT Writing, Blog, The New SAT
This is one of the most important shortcuts you can know for the ACT® English Test and the SAT® Writing Test, and it can save you a huge amount of time. You can expect to encounter several punctuation questions testing it in one form or another on any given exam.
Comma + and/but = Period = Semicolon
These three constructions are grammatically identical, so if more than one of them appear in answer choices, you can automatically eliminate all of those options. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Mar 26, 2011 | Blog, SAT Critical Reading (Old Test)
Many test-takers find Passage 1/Passage 2 comparison questions to be among the most difficult on the SAT. Keeping track of multiple arguments and points of view can be challenging, and for this reason it is very much to your advantage to break the process into manageable chunks.
The single most important thing you can with Passage 1/Passage 2 comparisons is to treat them like single passages for as long as possible. That means:
1) Read Passage 1
2) Write the tone and main point
3) Answer Passage 1 questions
Then, when you’re done:
1) Read Passage 2
2) Write the tone, main point, and the relationship to Passage 1
3) Answer Passage 2 questions
And finally, when you’re done with Passage 2, answer the questions that ask about both passages (if they appear before questions asking about only one of the passages, skip them and come back later). Make sure you reiterate the relationship between the two passages before you begin the comparison questions.
While long Passage 1/Passage will always have questions asking about the two passages individually, short Passage 1/Passage 2 may not.
The first thing you should do when you encounter short Passage 1/Passage 2 is therefore to skim through the questions and see whether there are any that deal with only one passage. If there are, read that passage first.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Mar 25, 2011 | Blog, General Tips
When you take a standardized test, you are your own worst enemy. From what I have observed, many test-takers score lower than they should simply because they second-guess themselves and change right answers to wrong ones. Believing that the answer they chose was too obvious and thus a trap, they talk themselves out of a perfect logical selection and go for something less obvious — and wrong — instead. Almost never do I see students change incorrect answers to correct ones when they go back over a section, only the other way around. So I’m going to propose something a little radical: don’t check your work.
I know this probably flies in the face of what you’ve always been been told: make sure you leave some time at the end of every section to go back and check….right? But for many students, working this way can do more harm than good. Please do not misunderstand me: I am not at all suggesting that you just whip through the questions without thinking twice about them and then stride blithely off, confidently assuming you’ve gotten everything right. This only works if you are willing to work very, very carefully the first time through; to go just a little bit slower than you think is necessary (assuming that time isn’t a problem); and to break down the questions piece by piece and reason your way through them meticulously.
True story: One of my students never scored as well as he should have on ACT English because every time he checked his work, he changed wrong answers to right ones. So finally I just told him to stop checking his work.
When he came home from the ACT, his mother asked him if he’d checked his work on the English section. He said he had. “Don’t lie to me,” his mother responded. “Ok, fine, I didn’t,” he admitted, “but only because Erica told me not to.”
When his mother called and told me that, my first thought was, “Oh s–t, if he blows it, his mother is going to be furious.” I won’t deny that it crossed my mind that perhaps I should have made him check his work after all.
But then got his score back.
And the English was a 35.
