Does the SAT Writing Section Really Count?

The Short Answer: Yes and No.

The Long Answer: While Writing does not count as much Critical Reading, it still does count at most schools (they wouldn't require it otherwise, and schools that don't take Writing into consideration tend to explicitly say so), so it's advisable to take the section seriously. If you're scoring in the 700's on CR and in 500's on Writing, which is unlikely but theoretically possible, you can't assume that admissions officers will be willing overlook the lower score because "it's just not that important." Everything is important if you're trying to decide between five -- or ten -- similar applicants. They probably won't take the time to read your essay, or even care about the essay score unless it's exceptionally low by their school's standards, but the overall score will definitely count for something, however small. Most likely, it will simply serve to confirm the impression they've gotten from the rest of your application. 

At the most selective schools, a good score (750+) won't necessarily help you, but a bad score can definitely hurt you. It's considered a given that you'll score above 700 at absolute minimum; if English is your first language, anything below that is a warning sign. And at some less selective schools, a good writing score can actually help quite a bit. The majority of colleges -- even test-optional ones -- love to brag about their scores, and so if you're not applying to Harvard and just can't stomach trying to pull your Critical Reading score up, you can still help yourself by focusing on Writing. The good news is that Writing is comparatively easy to prep for; the bad news is that you still have to put in the time.

A Tip For SAT-Takers: Don't Fight the Test

One of the most-common issues that many SAT-takers face, particularly in Critical Reading, is the seeming randomness of many of the answers. While I do agree that the College Board occasionally does in fact come up with a set of answers choices that are uniformly awful, this is actually a pretty rare occurrence.

I say this because I have had countless conversations with students about why their (incorrect) answer was truly the right one, or why such-and-such answer could not possibly be correct. While I admire their conviction, my response, uttered from the bottom of my heart and with the greatest possible affection, is 'Get Over It.'

My second response is: If you don't like the answer, call the College Board and take it up with them. Or better yet, walk over to the offices across from Lincoln Center, and ask to speak to the person in charge.

Your job, dear SAT-taker, is to figure out WHY the College Board's answer is the RIGHT answer, and why your answer is WRONG. In other words, you have to learn to think like your enemy. Resistance is futile and will get you nowhere.

The SAT is different from every test you have ever taken in school. Here's why:

• There is no extra credit
• There is no partial-credit
• The College Board does not care if the right answer was your second choice
• The College Board does not care if the answer you picked made sense to you
• The College Board does if 'that's not how you would have said it'
• You cannot go to the College Board and wheedle a higher grade

So suck it up and deal;) It's good practice for the rest of your life. Sometimes there isn't any extra-credit there either.

Just a public service announcement.

ACT vs. SAT Part 2: Which Test Should I Take?

Although a number of schools and tutors suggest that students take both the SAT and the ACT before deciding which test to focus on, most high school juniors don't have a lot of time to study for two tests, never mind one! So if you're trying to figure out which test is better for you, and you don't want to put yourself through the agony of sitting through 6+ hours of practice tests, here's a shortcut.

Of course some people will do brilliantly on both tests, but if you're a "lopsided" student (like I was), naturally better at either English or Math, here are some tips.

Take the SAT if:

• Your verbal skills are significantly stronger than your math skills: the SAT only covers through Algebra II; the ACT covers through Trigonometry

• You're a naturally good standardized tester who's good at spotting traps in questions

• You have a strong sense of logic

• You're good at seeing "big picture" ideas and deal well with abstraction

• You have a large vocabulary and read extensively on your own

• You're willing to spend time figuring out how the College Board wants you to think

• You're a masochist (just kidding!)

Take the ACT if:

• You're much stronger in Math than you are in English: if you're ok at English but great at Math, ACT English is usually a lot more manageable than SAT English.

• You don't have a large vocabulary and don't have months to spend memorizing vocab. words

• You're a fast reader. This is very important: the biggest issue that most students have with ACT Reading Comp. is the time limit. Even if you don't read a lot on your own, chances are you'll do decently if you can get through all four passage/question sets.

• You're a straightforward, detail-oriented thinker

• You don't want to bother strategizing about how to lose the fewest points: SAT takes off .25 points for every question you get wrong, ACT takes none

The SAT: Overview of Structure and (Verbal) Content

There are a lot of myths about the SAT. My goal here is to provide a general overview of the exam (its structure, the kind of material that is tested, what you can do to prepare for it, etc.) and perhaps dispel some of those myths.

Structure

Since 2005, the SAT has been comprised of three components: Writing, Critical Reading, and Mathematics The full test consists of 3:45 minutes of actual test material (only 3:20 of which is graded) and is broken down as follows:

1) Writing: 3 Sections

• 1 Essay: 25 minutes (always the first section)
  
• 25 Fixing Sentence questions; 18 Error-Identification questions; 6 Fixing Paragraphs questions
• 1 25-minute section
  
• 1 15-minute section (always the last section)
  

2) Critical Reading: 3 Sections

• 2 25-minute sections: 5-8 sentence completions, 19 passage-based questions each
  
• 1 20-minute section: 6 sentence completions, 13 passage-based questions
  

3) Mathematical Reasoning

• 2 25-minute sections, 20 questions and 18 questions respectively. The section with 18 questions contains 10 multiple choice and 8 grid-ins
  
• 1 20-minute section, 16 questions.
  

4) Experimental Section

In addition, there is one experimental section that is used for research purposes only by the College Board and that is not graded. This section can be Critical Reading, Writing, or Math, and will last 25 minutes. Although you will not be told which section is experimental, it is relatively easy to figure out whether it is Critical Reading, Writing, or Math since there will be extra material covering that subject. It is likely, however, that you will not be able to determine which section contained extra material until you have completed virtually the entire test.

Do not ever assume that a section is experimental simply because you find it more difficult. If you skip questions or do not try as hard and the section is not, in fact, experimental, you could end up losing a significant number of points.

General Content

Contrary to common belief, the skills that the SAT tests are not particularly exotic. In fact, the SAT is primarily a test of fundamental mathematical, reasoning, and grammar and composition skills. Let me reiterate this: the SAT tests only Math and English skills for which no specialized knowledge is required beyond what students can be reasonably expected to have gained from high school Math and English class. Most of the Critical Reading Passages are at a reading level similar to that of the New York Times, and Math only tests through Algebra II.

The SAT tests these skills in such a way, however, that makes it insufficient to study by simply memorizing information -- you must understand not only rules, but also their underlying principles and how to apply them to material that you have never seen before. Beyond simply familiarizing yourself with the test, then, studying for the SAT requires that you solidify these underlying skill-sets.

As I am entirely unqualified to discuss the math section, I will cease to mention it further. As for the rest...

Critical Reading

Sentence Completions

Most test-prep guides assume that the Sentence Completion section is a vocabulary test. While this is mostly true, it is also true that this section exists to test your ability to infer the meanings of words from their context, and to spontaneously use the “clues” given in the sentence to figure out the correct answer, even if you are completely unfamiliar with some of the words given as possible answer choices.

What this means: Of course it is in your best interest to learn as many vocabulary words as possible. Make lists, flashcards, whatever helps you to memorize words. When you read for English class, keep a dictionary nearby and look up every word you don’t already know, even if the meaning seems clear given the context. If you encounter it on the SAT, in a situation where the meaning isn’t quite so clear, you risk losing valuable points. For a list of the top SAT that you are less likely to encounter in everyday life, please refer to the entry entitled "Top SAT Words" (March 2009, http://ultimatesatverbal.blogspot.com/2009/03/most-common-sat-vocabulary-words.html).

While a good vocabulary will certainly help you, however, it’s not enough on its own. In order to be successful here, you have to be a flexible thinker, capable of applying your grammatical knowledge and sense of logic to sentences designed to confuse you. To outsmart the test, you need to be able to recognize the key phrases included in the sentence in addition to the literal meaning of the words.

Passage-Based Questions

Critical Reading passages come in five lengths and formats:

• Single Short Passage (10-20 lines, 2 questions)
• Single Medium Passage (50-60 lines, 5-7 questions)
• Single Long Passage (65-90 lines, 9-12 questions)
• Short Passage 1/Passage 2 Comparison (5-7 questions)
• Long Passage 1/Passage 2 Comparison (10-12 questions)

Critical Reading passages can also generally be sorted into the following categories:

• Minority/Female Experience
• Science
• Social Science
• Humanities
• Autobiography
• Prose Fiction

And Critical Reading Questions generally fall into the following categories:

• Literal comprehension
• Vocabulary in context
• Main point
• Tone and Style
• Inference
• Underlying Assumption
• Relationships between ideas (Passage 1/Passage 2)

For more information, see the Critical Reading Overview: http://ultimatesatverbal.blogspot.com/2010/02/critical-reading-overview.html

Writing

The Writing section tests your ability to compose persuasive prose, and to recognize and fix common grammatical errors. It is divided into a twenty-five minute essay and three kinds of multiple choice questions: Error-Identification, Fixing Sentences, and Fixing Paragraphs.

Multiple Choice

The multiple-choice questions Writing questions comprise what is probably the most straightforward section of the test. Even if you have not studied grammar extensively in school, the SAT tests a fixed number of rules that, once mastered, are quite easy to recognize. The principle areas tested are as follows:

• Pronoun Usage
• Sentence Fragments
• Subject-Verb Agreement
• Diction (Correct Word Usage)
• Verb Tense
• Parallel Structure
• Comparisons
• Prepositions
• Comma/Semicolon Usage
• Conjunctions

For the full list including the exact rules tested on each section, please see the posts "Writing, Error-Identification" and "Rules for Fixing Sentences."

For more information about the essay, please see the posting entitled, "Writing the SAT Essay."

Tips for Sentence Completions

If you have a relatively strong vocabulary, Sentence Completion questions can be an easy way to score points. Careful, though -- often the words themselves won't be terribly difficult, but the SAT does not always test the most obvious meaning of a word. There are a couple of strategies I like to use for this section, and I find it's most effective to employ them in combination with one another.

1) Identify and circle/underline the key words or phrases: sentences will always contain built-in clues to either the definition of one or both words, or to the relationship between the words.

Transitional words such as Although, However, and Furthermore are important because they will tell you the relationship between the words. Look for words that clearly indicate good things or bad things. Look for colons -- they signal explanations and definitions.

2) Try to fill your own words into the blanks. If you do this and one of the words is contained in an answer choice, check it first. There's no guarantee that it'll be right, but there's also a decent chance that it will.

Very often, the second blank is easier to figure out than the first. Start with it.

If filling in your own words takes too long...

3) Simply try to determine whether the words are positive or negative. If you know the second blank must be negative, for example, go through each answer choice looking *only* at the second blank.

If it's negative, keep it; if it's positive cross out the entire answer. If you're not sure, keep it in to be on the safe side.

Repeat for the first blank.

By now you should have gotten rid of at least two answers, sometimes three answers, and if you're really lucky, four answers.

Plug the remaining options in and see which one makes the most sense.

4) If the sentence gives you absolutely no clues as to whether the words should be positive or negative (this happens on occasion), try to determine the relationship between the words.

Are they the same (both positive or both negative), or are they opposites (one positive, one negative)?

Go through the answer choices looking *only* at the relationship between the words. If you can get down to two or even three answers, plug them in and check them in context.

Where do critical reading passages come from anyway?

One common belief about the reading passages that appear on the SAT/ACT is that they are written specifically for the exam -- this assumption is mostly false, but it does contain an element of truth.

One on hand, reading passages are always taken from pre-existing sources and are often written by well-known authors of both fiction and non-fiction. There is a heavy emphasis on contemporary prose non-fiction, and works composed prior to the 20th century are relatively rare as compared to works written in the past twenty or thirty years. In other words, the SAT does not include works written Shakespearean language. What is does include, however, is short snippets of text -- often about unfamiliar subjects such as archaeology or cultural anthropology -- that are written in the kind of dense academic prose that is typical of college-level reading but that many high school students will never have encountered before.

On the other hand, while the basic source material for the passages is always pre-written, the College Board does take certain liberties in editing it. Sentences are often eliminated or condensed, and portions may be re-written in order to fully develop arguments in the space of 75 or so lines.

The following is a list of authors and works that have appeared on recent SATs. While there is of course no way to predict exactly what books the SAT will excerpt its passages from, there are certain authors (e.g. Temple Grandin and Michael Pollan) whose works have shown up on multiple exams. They are the exception rather than the rule, however, and multiple passages from the same exact same source are unlikely to show up twice. The materials and authors included on this list, however, should give you an idea of the kinds of texts you will encounter on the SAT.

Non-Fiction

• Temple Grandin, Animals in Translation
• Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma, The Botany of Desire
• Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down
• Philippe E. Wamba, A Family's Journey in Africa and America
• Carol Strickland and John Bosman, The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern
• Donald Sassoon, Becoming Mona Lisa: The Making of a Global Icon
• James Trefil, A Scientist in the City
• James Dickey, Deliverance
• Esmeralda Santiago, When I was Puerto Rican
• Robert Hamlett Bremner, Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History
• Jules Feiffer, The Great Comic Book Heroes
• Drew Hansen, The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation
• Michael Eric Dyson, I may not get there with you: the true Martin Luther King
• Author N/A, More Word Histories and Mysteries: From Aardvark to Zombie
• Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Fiction

• Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club
• E.M. Forster: A Room with a View
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Hundred Years of Solitude
• Charlotte Brontë: Shirley: A Tale
• Charles Dickens: Great Expectations 

Suggested Further Reading

Periodicals:

• Scientific American
• National Geographic
• The New York Times
• Boston Globe Ideas
• The Wall Street Journal
• The Economist
• Humanities Magazine
• Wilson Quarterly
• The New Yorker

For access to a wide variety of serious online publications, see Arts & Letters Daily (http://www.aldaily.com)