Comma before preposition = Wrong! (ACT)

One of the most common grammatical errors on the ACT English section is the use of a comma before a preposition (a "time" or "location" word such as to, from, with, at, in, on, before, after, etc). This construction is always incorrect, and any answer that contains it should automatically be eliminated. To illustrate:

Correct: There are a number of interesting items on the restaurant's menu.

Incorrect: There are a number of interesting items, on the restaurant's menu.

Collective Nouns = Singular

Collective nouns are one of the SATs favorite ways to trick you -- even though they refer to groups made up of multiple people, they are always singular.

Common examples of collective nouns:

Jury, Team, City, Country, Agency, Company, Committee, School, University

Whenever one of these words appears in a sentence, you need to check both the verbs and the pronouns that it corresponds to. If either of these is plural, you've found your error.


Subject-Verb Disagreement 

Correct: The jury has finally returned a verdict after many days of deliberation.

Incorrect: The jury have finally returned a verdict after many days of deliberation.


Pronoun Disagreement 

Correct: The jury finally returned its verdict after many days of deliberation.

Incorrect: The jury finally returned their verdict after many days of deliberation.

If, on the other hand, a group noun appears in a sentence in which all verbs and pronouns are correct, the answer is likely to be "No Error."

Look out for Subject Verb Agreement on the SAT

Subject-Verb Agreement is the most commonly tested error on the Error-Identification section of the SAT, and you should always be actively looking for disagreements.

Whenever you encounter a sentence that includes underlined verb in the present tense, you should always start by checking its subject.

Remember, though, that subjects and verbs are rarely placed next to one another. Usually there will be some form of distractor clause between them, either a parenthetical clause (e.g. The bill, which has received support from many senators, are expected to be passed today) or a prepositional phrase (The bill proposed by the senators are expected to be passed today). 

2 Errors with Neither...Nor (SAT)

There are two kinds of errors related to Neither...Nor on the SAT.

1) Word Pair

Neither always goes with Nor. If it's paired with anything else, it's wrong, end of story.

Correct: Neither the politician nor his assistant wanted to speak to the press about the breaking scandal.

Incorrect: Neither the politician or his assistant wanted to speak to the press about the breaking scandal.


2) Subject-Verb Agreement

Here's the rule: Neither (Singular Noun) Nor (Singular Noun) = Singular Verb.

Correct: Neither the politician nor his assistant has been willing to speak to the press about the breaking scandal.

Incorrect: Neither the politician nor his assistant have been willing to speak to the press about the breaking scandal.

On the SAT, only two singular nouns used with Neither...Nor will be incorrectly paired with a plural verb. Plural nouns do not appear. 

Three Passages, Not Four: Dealing with time on ACT Reading

The single biggest problem that I have observed among ACT-takers is that they never have enough time to finish the entire Reading section. 40 questions in 35 minutes is a lot, and if you're a slow reader, then it can be deadly. 

My advice: skip one of the passages. 

If you know you generally hate Prose Fiction, plan to skip that passage; if Science is usually awful, skip Science, etc. If you don't have a preference, skim through the four when you first get the test and see which one looks least interesting. 

Now I realize what you're thinking: how can I possibly get a decent score if I omit a quarter of the section? 

Here's how: first, you're not going to omit it completely. You're going to pick a letter (A, B, C, D) and fill it in for every single answer for that passage. Statistically, you are guaranteed to get at least two questions right, usually three, and sometimes even four (although I wouldn't bet on the last one). 

You now have approximately 11 minutes and 30 seconds to spend on the remaining three passages. If you can use that extra time to get, say, 9/10 questions correct on each one, that already gives you 27 points. Add three more points from the omitted section, and that gives you a raw score of 30, which is usually equivalent to about a scaled score of 27 -- not bad if you've been stuck at 23 or 24. 

Now, let's say you have a fantastic test and get 10/10 right on the other three passages. That's a raw score of 30. Plus three points from the omitted test = raw score of 33 = scaled score of 30. That's right, a 30. 

I will admit that this strategy can be a little risky -- if it backfires, you can end up with a much lower score than what you started with, and sometimes that does happen initially. But it's important to stick with it because eventually, I promise, it will pay off. Sometimes it's the only chance you have to seriously increase your Reading score. 

Why is SAT Reading different from other kinds of reading?

The kind of reading the SAT asks you to do is probably unlike any other kind of reading you've ever been asked to do. It's almost certainly different from the kind of interpretive reading you're asked to do in English class.

For starters, the SAT is a test about arguments, not a test about literature, and your own personal interpretation of the texts you are asked to read matters not one little bit. In fact, the only thing that matters is the author's intention: what point she/he is attempting to make in a given piece of writing and, just as importantly, how she/he conveys that point by using specific words, argument structures, and rhetorical strategies (such as metaphor, analogy, anecdote, repetition, etc.)

The skill that the SAT requires is therefore something I like to call "functional reading," which simply means that you are reading primarily  to determine the point of the passage and the function that various words, phrases, and pieces of information play within it (Do they support the point, or do they contradict it? Do they emphasize an idea or question it? Strengthen it or cast doubt on it?) Everything else is more or less irrelevant.

And contrary to what the College Board would have you think, reading this way is an acquirable skill, not an innate ability. It just takes some getting used to.