Rocketcat's patent RACECAR strategy wins again on the SAT queToday’s SAT Is Back to Rocket cat’s PATENT RACECAR STRATEGY
Our favorite questions: Language Arts!By judieth&Rocketcat (NOTE—Read to the end for a mini-lesson re irony and humor that will also win points on standardized tests.)
Rocketcat says: Use the RACECAR strategy on the short and sweet ride through a sentence that tells you the answer on the way.
Sentence completion means that you are COMPLETING the sentence in tone so pay attention to the connotation of every clue. Connotation=feeling, emotion, implication of the words
RACECAR –a palindrome—the same word forwards and backwards.
We use this strategy on the short passages, completion sentences, and underlined portions –all of the formats of the language arts section plus some of the formats in other sections.
When we do NOT use this strategy is when time is wasted in eliminating all the incorrect answers. That is true of many math questions. Once solved, you can check the math question itself rather than eliminating all the other wrong answers. Even in the math section, eliminating two of the other answers will be a quick way to check that you are answering the correct question. Answering the correct question is a key element in the mathematics section of the test.
Here’s the RACECAR strategy as it works smoothly:
Read the title and instructions quickly—to put your brain into the mode of this type of question.
You are looking for ‘SENTENCE COMPLETION’ (Title) and you will:
(DIRECTIONS): Choose the word or set of words that, when inserted in the sentence, best fits the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
Okay, what is the SAT measuring here? Your aptitude for completing a sentence with the BEST word is being measured. The measurement is of your ability to solve the logic of the question.
Now, read the sentence thinking of what word, in the simplest form you can imagine, YOU would fill in:
Because he felt intimidated in his new position,
VISUAL: Cast a male actor: This male (he) felt (emotion) intimidated (emotion-fear-timid) in his new (unknown—fear of unknown) position (he has a new job—either new where he works or in a different position where he works)—FEEL IT!!!—and SEE the movie of this sentence in your mind…Here is a man who is feeling fear or anxiety in a new position…
Because he felt intimidated in his new position, he was ________ divulging his frank opinions of company proposals.
I would put ‘wary of’ in this spot. I’m looking for a word that describes being cautious and reserved before blurting out every opinion of the company’s policies.
Now, I look for a word like the one I think goes there:
A. Scurrilous about (Nope—This is negative enough but it reflects upon his own character rather than his concerns about policy…We don’t have any reason to think our man is ‘scurrilous’
B. Candid in—(Nope—our new guy on the job has no space to be ‘candid’ yet. He’s not feeling outspoken.)
C. Chary of—(Yes, I’m not familiar with this word; but it has the right connotations plus the correct form. My choice was wary of…chary sounds cautious, too)
MARK THIS ANSWER ON THE ANSWER SHEET.
We have already eliminated A&B. Now, RACECAR, to eliminate the other wrong answers—the part we only do on the fast answer questions:
D. Fervid about-(No, he is intimidated, so he is not feeling ‘fervid’ about ranting on about his opinions.
E. Precipitate in (No, this just does not make sense).
A. No. B. No. C.YES D.No E. No
Whether you are Nancy Drew, a Hardy Boy, or a scientist in the field, detection uses all your sensory powers and your emotional intellect. Make the connections to your clues about the feelings behind words. The connotation leads to the correct answers.
Here’s a little poem by Dorothy Parker. Dorothy Parker had a certain type of wit. On a past GED (graduation equivalency diploma) test, the test-takers were asked which of the following words best describes the overall mood of the speaker in this poem. Is the ‘mood of the speaker’: embarrassed, sarcastic, romantic, angry, or sad?
Let me show you how it speeds things up if you know the type of writer Dorothy Parker was, which I do. I am looking for this poem to turn in tone or mood. Watch this happen:
One Perfect Rose
A single flow’r he sent me, since we met.
All tenderly his messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet—
One perfect rose.
I knew the language of the floweret;
“My fragile leaves,” it said, “his heart enclose.”
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.
Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.
Dorothy Parker, “One Perfect Rose,” from Collected Poetry, 1926
Mood?
1. Embarrassed
2. Sarcastic
3. Romantic
4. Angry
5. Sad
Note: This is the way the answers are on the official test question that was used. In general, though, learn that this could even be called ‘ironic’ in literary terms. Literature questions often involve passages of irony: 1) dramatic irony –the reader or audience knows something the characters on the stage do not know; 2) situational irony—the woman sells her long fine hair to buy her beloved a chain for the watch he pawned to buy combs for her hair (Gift of the Magi by O’Henry); and 3) verbal (see above poem)judiethcarol&rocketcatApril2010c.
stion for the day. The RACECAR is fast, sleek, smooth, and correct!
