April 9, 2010 SAT is Puzzle-Lite for RocketCat!
By judiethcarol&rocketcatapril2010c http://www.coolrocketschool.org/
Look below for the visual quick solution. Remember: Rocketcat is a white deaf cat with one blue eye and one green eye. He sees the solution with one of his copyright strategies: RACECAR,CONNECT THE DOTS,PUZZLEPIECES, UPSIDEDOWN—and others. Today: PICTURE PUZZLEPIECES
Mathematics: Standard Multiple Choice
Read the following SAT test question, then click on a button to select your answer.
Each of 5 men played a game of chess with each of 5 women, and then each woman played a game of chess with each of the other women. How many games of chess were played?
A.20
B.25
C.35
D.45
E. 50
Speeding this up a bit, Rocketcat noticed that A. & B. were eliminated right away because A. Is too low and B. Is too low because this is the number of the games the men played without adding ANY from the women playing each other.
SECRET AT THIS POINT FROM ROCKETCAT: E. is obviously TOO BIG. It is double the 25 from 5 men playing all of the women. The number of the games of the women playing each other will be fewer.
VISUALLY (does anyone remember that Rocketcat is deaf?), 45 is too big also, as the first part of the number sequence with the women’s games is 4.
VISUALLY, Rocketcat solved this problem without using the official way –SEE BELOW—He made a sketch and eliminated all the incorrect answers within seconds of figuring that the first figure is 25 games.
Notice the part about the women playing each other. Don’t count any of the games twice! Draw a little sketch!! Knock out the number of games with men and women. Each man plays 1 game with each woman. That’s 25 games)
Women playing every other woman is going to be a lower total because some of the ‘pairs’ will be duplicates. Picture one woman playing all the others = 4 games. The second female has already played the first, so she plays the other 3=3 games.
The third female has already played the first, second, and third, so she plays two more games. And the next to the last female plays the last female for one more game. The pattern here is actually 4+3+2+1=10. Add those ten games of the women playing each other to the 25 games of the total played by all five men with the women, and you have 35. The answer is C—35.
BELOW IS THE OFFICIAL EXPLANATION. NOTICING THE PATTERN HERE WILL HELP WITH OTHER QUESTIONS OF THIS TYPE. THERE WILL BE QUESTIONS LIKE THIS ON THE SAT AND/OR OTHER STANDARDIZED TESTS. THIS TYPE OF QUESTION MEASURES ABILITY TO NOTICE PATTERNS.
Each man will play game of chess with each of the women. Therefore, each man will play 5 games. Since there are 5 men, a total of 25 games will be played between the men and the women. Each woman will play game of chess with each of other women. In counting the number of games played, it is important to avoid counting any game more than once. The first woman will play 4 games. The second woman has already played the first woman, so she will play additional games with the 3 other women. Similarly, there are 2 more games played by the third woman, and 1 more game played by the fourth woman. All the games played by the fifth woman have already been counted. So the women play a total of 10, or games with each other. Thus, a total of games of chess have been played.
Explanation and strategies preceding test question explanation in last paragraph are by judiethcarolcooper&judiethcarol&rocketcatApril2010c www.coolrocketschool.org
Friday, April 9, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
USE ROCKETCAT RACECAR STRATEGY ON SAT
Use Rocketcat’s RACECAR strategy on SAT Question April 8!
By judiethcarol&rocketcatApril2010c.
Rocketcat’s RACECAR strategy is the one for today’s SAT question for the day:
1. Read the title and directions (even though you KNOW what to do). The title reminds you that you are “IMPROVING” sentences.
2. Read the sentence watching for a way the underlined word could be improved.
3. Find the answer and mark it.
4. RACECAR the other eliminations. (RACECAR is the same frontwards and backwards. Race out the cars with defects.
Today’s sentence:
One time a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States president in 1972, Shirley Chisholm won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race.
Rocketcat note: This sentence clearly says that Shirley Chisholm was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States president in 1972, but it is not as clear that she won 152 delegates before withdrawing from that particular race.
The hint from SAT College Board says: Try turning the sentence around to notice the lack of clarity. Here is Rocketcat’s strategy for noticing something that could be read a different way: Pretend this sentence was pulled from a long paragraph about Shirley Chisholm. If the sentence followed another sentence, could it mean something different?
If so, find a word that would make it completely clear standing alone: improving the sentence.
As a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the United States president in 1972, Shirley Chisholm won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race.
Eliminate each of the other answers quickly, as you try them. They do not connect the word ‘race’ with the Democratic nomination …in 1972. Only ‘as’ makes this connection clear.
Rocketcat’s RACECAR strategy (backwards and forwards on the short passage, short answer Q&A, the palindrome effect) wins again!judiethcarol&rocketcatapril2010c.
One time a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States president in 1972, Shirley Chisholm won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race.judiethcarol&rocketcat2010-04-08c
By judiethcarol&rocketcatApril2010c.
Rocketcat’s RACECAR strategy is the one for today’s SAT question for the day:
1. Read the title and directions (even though you KNOW what to do). The title reminds you that you are “IMPROVING” sentences.
2. Read the sentence watching for a way the underlined word could be improved.
3. Find the answer and mark it.
4. RACECAR the other eliminations. (RACECAR is the same frontwards and backwards. Race out the cars with defects.
Today’s sentence:
One time a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States president in 1972, Shirley Chisholm won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race.
Rocketcat note: This sentence clearly says that Shirley Chisholm was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States president in 1972, but it is not as clear that she won 152 delegates before withdrawing from that particular race.
The hint from SAT College Board says: Try turning the sentence around to notice the lack of clarity. Here is Rocketcat’s strategy for noticing something that could be read a different way: Pretend this sentence was pulled from a long paragraph about Shirley Chisholm. If the sentence followed another sentence, could it mean something different?
If so, find a word that would make it completely clear standing alone: improving the sentence.
As a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the United States president in 1972, Shirley Chisholm won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race.
Eliminate each of the other answers quickly, as you try them. They do not connect the word ‘race’ with the Democratic nomination …in 1972. Only ‘as’ makes this connection clear.
Rocketcat’s RACECAR strategy (backwards and forwards on the short passage, short answer Q&A, the palindrome effect) wins again!judiethcarol&rocketcatapril2010c.
One time a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States president in 1972, Shirley Chisholm won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race.judiethcarol&rocketcat2010-04-08c
Rocketcat's RACECAR Strategy Wins SAT again!
One time a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States president in 1972, Shirley Chisholm won 152 delegates before withdrawing from the race.judiethcarol&rocketcatapril2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Today's SAT: Let People From Past Help You NOW!judiethcarol&rocketcat
Today’s SAT: Let People From The Past Help You Now!
By judiethcarol&rocketcat
Wow! Today’s SAT Q&A contains several strategies in one. These are all ways to enjoy studying (yes, that is what I said—ENJOY STUDYING) and to pull in points on the SAT test as surely as you are playing a game to win.
After you finish today’s SAT Q&A, check out the site below and look at the photo of Captain Robert Marshall Glass in all of his flying gear—the leather jacket, goggles—Reading this little story will get you set to answer several questions correctly on aptitude and other standardized tests.
Why is this true? Today’s sentence completion does not require that you know that the Red Tail pilots in World War II were in segregated sections of the military forces. You do not have to know that the battles they fought on behalf of the United States of America were in airplanes guarding the bomber planes that were flown by Caucasian pilots.
However, to be an outstanding scholar and to be a student who is going to use the freedom and knowledge won by those before you, take a few minutes to celebrate their victories! The Red Tail pilots loved to fly! They learned to fly airplanes before people traveled by plane as a way of transportation!
I once talked to a pilot from World War II who had worked for the railroad before he learned to fly an airplane. He served in the air force as a pilot and then returned to his career with the railroad after the war because he did not see a real future in being an airline pilot at that time! Think about this. These people are in their eighties now, but some of these people who flew in World War II are still alive today.
Maybe you can find someone in your own family to interview. Turn on a tape recorder and make your own oral history! The older generation can tell you things—even if they did not fly an airplane!
Using the bits of information chosen as subject matter by the test designers of the SAT for a little more investigation will enrich your ability to recognize ‘tone’ in other questions on standardized tests. The connotation (feeling, emotion) connected with the words in sentence completion is what leads you to the correct answer.
Too, reading more about individuals will give you perspective in answering questions on standardized tests relating to time frames. The SAT recently had a question containing information about a female scientist. Reading about her work reveals that she had to overcome obstacles that may not exist in most places today, including her own mother’s resistance to her going to college.
Her mother thought her daughter should think about marriage instead of college, and her parents influenced this female scientist very much. Her father was her mentor. When you read more about the individuals who lived during different time periods, you are able to put some of the other information into a perspective helping you to absorb the ‘connotation’ –the emotions and meaning behind the words. Often, these are the clues to getting correct answers. Fortunately, they are also the clues to getting a good education for your own benefit.
The more you know and the more you connect while reading every question on the SAT, including the mathematical questions, the more likely you are to recognize the correct answer. Connotation of the words is key in every question. The test designers are very careful.
Remember: denotation is the dictionary definition of the word (d,d,d).
Connotation, the feelings and emotions of the words, lead you to the answers on the standardized tests.
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airoverview.htm
Check out the photograph of Robert Marshall Glass
Captain, US Air Force
December 17, 1920 - January 24, 1955
Already a qualified pilot, Robert Marshall Glass was one of the highly skilled and committed young men to join the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen. Glass was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended public school. He graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Glass signed up at Tuskegee Army Air Field on January 28, 1943, and attended cadet school at Tuskegee. Charles "Chief" Anderson was one of his flying instructors at Tuskegee and Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was his commanding officer.
Glass served his country in World War II and during the Korean conflict. He was a senior pilot with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, EAME Campaign medal, American Campaign Medal, Distinguished Unit Citation and the National Defense Service medal. His last duty station was at Wright Air Development Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At the time of his death, Captain Glass was at the Air Command Staff School, Maxwell Air Force Base. His name is inscribed on the Memorial Honor Roll of the Air Force, Air Force Aid Society, Washington, D.C.
Here is how to ‘win’ when taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT):
1. Look at the ‘games’ ahead. Pretend you are a coach studying the plays that are the winning ones for the SAT test designers. Then, you can learn to manage the ‘plays.’
2. Notice the subject areas of the questions and get some more information in these areas. Usually, the information does not have to be familiar to answer the question, but your brain functions in a brighter, happier way when the information is familiar. Plus, it makes it interesting and helps in understanding the tone.
3. Always, the tone is part of the question in the SAT. The connotation of the words gives the clues to the answer. Knowing the words, including the feeling surrounding the words, helps to drive you right to the answer.
Do you know about the Tuskegee Airmen? Do you know about the Black American fighter pilots in World War II? Look at today’s question and notice how you can understand the answer to this question is a positive word even if you do not know about these pilots.
Still, isn’t it interesting enough to go look up some oral histories and listen to some of the pilots from World War II who flew the guard duty around the other pilots who were bomber pilots?
What motivates young men and women to learn to fly airplanes when flying is not the commercial way of transportation it is today? I am smiling as I read this SAT question because I transcribed interviews with the pilots and some of the other people who worked with them—many, many years later.
You see, during World War II, the Black American fighter pilots were segregated, and their experiences in the air force are unique, as a group, as well as individuals. Each has an interesting story to tell, and listening to their voices, years later, can make you smile, as well.
A group of Black American fighter pilots known as the Red Tail Angels has the ------- of never having lost any of the bombers it escorted on missions over Europe in the Second World War.
A. Onus
B. Distinction
C. Imperative
D. Potential
E. Assignment The answer is B. distinction!judiethcarol&rocketcatApril2010c
By judiethcarol&rocketcat
Wow! Today’s SAT Q&A contains several strategies in one. These are all ways to enjoy studying (yes, that is what I said—ENJOY STUDYING) and to pull in points on the SAT test as surely as you are playing a game to win.
After you finish today’s SAT Q&A, check out the site below and look at the photo of Captain Robert Marshall Glass in all of his flying gear—the leather jacket, goggles—Reading this little story will get you set to answer several questions correctly on aptitude and other standardized tests.
Why is this true? Today’s sentence completion does not require that you know that the Red Tail pilots in World War II were in segregated sections of the military forces. You do not have to know that the battles they fought on behalf of the United States of America were in airplanes guarding the bomber planes that were flown by Caucasian pilots.
However, to be an outstanding scholar and to be a student who is going to use the freedom and knowledge won by those before you, take a few minutes to celebrate their victories! The Red Tail pilots loved to fly! They learned to fly airplanes before people traveled by plane as a way of transportation!
I once talked to a pilot from World War II who had worked for the railroad before he learned to fly an airplane. He served in the air force as a pilot and then returned to his career with the railroad after the war because he did not see a real future in being an airline pilot at that time! Think about this. These people are in their eighties now, but some of these people who flew in World War II are still alive today.
Maybe you can find someone in your own family to interview. Turn on a tape recorder and make your own oral history! The older generation can tell you things—even if they did not fly an airplane!
Using the bits of information chosen as subject matter by the test designers of the SAT for a little more investigation will enrich your ability to recognize ‘tone’ in other questions on standardized tests. The connotation (feeling, emotion) connected with the words in sentence completion is what leads you to the correct answer.
Too, reading more about individuals will give you perspective in answering questions on standardized tests relating to time frames. The SAT recently had a question containing information about a female scientist. Reading about her work reveals that she had to overcome obstacles that may not exist in most places today, including her own mother’s resistance to her going to college.
Her mother thought her daughter should think about marriage instead of college, and her parents influenced this female scientist very much. Her father was her mentor. When you read more about the individuals who lived during different time periods, you are able to put some of the other information into a perspective helping you to absorb the ‘connotation’ –the emotions and meaning behind the words. Often, these are the clues to getting correct answers. Fortunately, they are also the clues to getting a good education for your own benefit.
The more you know and the more you connect while reading every question on the SAT, including the mathematical questions, the more likely you are to recognize the correct answer. Connotation of the words is key in every question. The test designers are very careful.
Remember: denotation is the dictionary definition of the word (d,d,d).
Connotation, the feelings and emotions of the words, lead you to the answers on the standardized tests.
http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/exhibits/tuskegee/airoverview.htm
Check out the photograph of Robert Marshall Glass
Captain, US Air Force
December 17, 1920 - January 24, 1955
Already a qualified pilot, Robert Marshall Glass was one of the highly skilled and committed young men to join the 332nd Fighter Group of the Tuskegee Airmen. Glass was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended public school. He graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology with a degree in mechanical engineering.
Glass signed up at Tuskegee Army Air Field on January 28, 1943, and attended cadet school at Tuskegee. Charles "Chief" Anderson was one of his flying instructors at Tuskegee and Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., was his commanding officer.
Glass served his country in World War II and during the Korean conflict. He was a senior pilot with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, EAME Campaign medal, American Campaign Medal, Distinguished Unit Citation and the National Defense Service medal. His last duty station was at Wright Air Development Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At the time of his death, Captain Glass was at the Air Command Staff School, Maxwell Air Force Base. His name is inscribed on the Memorial Honor Roll of the Air Force, Air Force Aid Society, Washington, D.C.
Here is how to ‘win’ when taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT):
1. Look at the ‘games’ ahead. Pretend you are a coach studying the plays that are the winning ones for the SAT test designers. Then, you can learn to manage the ‘plays.’
2. Notice the subject areas of the questions and get some more information in these areas. Usually, the information does not have to be familiar to answer the question, but your brain functions in a brighter, happier way when the information is familiar. Plus, it makes it interesting and helps in understanding the tone.
3. Always, the tone is part of the question in the SAT. The connotation of the words gives the clues to the answer. Knowing the words, including the feeling surrounding the words, helps to drive you right to the answer.
Do you know about the Tuskegee Airmen? Do you know about the Black American fighter pilots in World War II? Look at today’s question and notice how you can understand the answer to this question is a positive word even if you do not know about these pilots.
Still, isn’t it interesting enough to go look up some oral histories and listen to some of the pilots from World War II who flew the guard duty around the other pilots who were bomber pilots?
What motivates young men and women to learn to fly airplanes when flying is not the commercial way of transportation it is today? I am smiling as I read this SAT question because I transcribed interviews with the pilots and some of the other people who worked with them—many, many years later.
You see, during World War II, the Black American fighter pilots were segregated, and their experiences in the air force are unique, as a group, as well as individuals. Each has an interesting story to tell, and listening to their voices, years later, can make you smile, as well.
A group of Black American fighter pilots known as the Red Tail Angels has the ------- of never having lost any of the bombers it escorted on missions over Europe in the Second World War.
A. Onus
B. Distinction
C. Imperative
D. Potential
E. Assignment The answer is B. distinction!judiethcarol&rocketcatApril2010c
Draw A Little Train For Today's SAT!! IT's MATH!!
Draw A little train for Today’s Math Question. It’s Fast!
by judiethcarol&RocketcatApril2010c
The question asks what is the largest number of boxes that can contain the number 2 if there are 10 boxes in total, the highest number in any box can only be four and all the boxes together add up to the number 32?
2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 4
=32
Draw ten boxes. Start from the right putting in a couple of fours. 2x4=8 That leaves 8x2=16 Nope
Need more 4s Try 2 more 4x4 = 16 That leaves 6x2=12 12+16=28 Nope
Go for more! 6 little boxes x 4 in each one is 24. That leaves only 4 boxes to be 2=8.
24+8=32 AHA! Trial and error and visualizing is the fastest, most accurate way here.
There is a pattern, but you may see it before you know it. Count the number of boxes with 2.
The answer IS 4 BOXES CAN CONTAIN 2 TO REACH THE APOGEE OF HOW MANY CAN HAVE ONLY 2 WHEN THE MOST THE OTHERS CAN HAVE IS 4 AND 10 OF THESE BOXES ADD UP TO 32.
The numbers are low, and the reading passage is short. Today’s math question can be a ‘RACECAR’ question, so that you eliminate all the ‘wrong’ answers; but the easier way is to draw a little train!
What the test designer expects you to do is to recognize a pattern emerging; and, this is clearer for most of us with a visual.
judiethcarol&RocketcatApril2010
by judiethcarol&RocketcatApril2010c
The question asks what is the largest number of boxes that can contain the number 2 if there are 10 boxes in total, the highest number in any box can only be four and all the boxes together add up to the number 32?
2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 4
=32
Draw ten boxes. Start from the right putting in a couple of fours. 2x4=8 That leaves 8x2=16 Nope
Need more 4s Try 2 more 4x4 = 16 That leaves 6x2=12 12+16=28 Nope
Go for more! 6 little boxes x 4 in each one is 24. That leaves only 4 boxes to be 2=8.
24+8=32 AHA! Trial and error and visualizing is the fastest, most accurate way here.
There is a pattern, but you may see it before you know it. Count the number of boxes with 2.
The answer IS 4 BOXES CAN CONTAIN 2 TO REACH THE APOGEE OF HOW MANY CAN HAVE ONLY 2 WHEN THE MOST THE OTHERS CAN HAVE IS 4 AND 10 OF THESE BOXES ADD UP TO 32.
The numbers are low, and the reading passage is short. Today’s math question can be a ‘RACECAR’ question, so that you eliminate all the ‘wrong’ answers; but the easier way is to draw a little train!
What the test designer expects you to do is to recognize a pattern emerging; and, this is clearer for most of us with a visual.
judiethcarol&RocketcatApril2010
Draw A little train for Today’s Math Question. It’s Fast!
The question asks what is the largest number of boxes that can contain the number 2 if there are 10 boxes in total, the highest number in any box can only be four and all the boxes together add up to the number 32?
2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 4
=32
Draw ten boxes. Start from the right putting in a couple of fours. 2x4=8 That leaves 8x2=16 Nope
Need more 4s Try 2 more 4x4 = 16 That leaves 6x2=12 12+16=28 Nope
Go for more! 6 little boxes x 4 in each one is 24. That leaves only 4 boxes to be 2=8.
24+8=32 AHA! Trial and error and visualizing is the fastest, most accurate way here.
There is a pattern, but you may see it before you know it. Count the number of boxes with 2.
The answer IS 4 BOXES CAN CONTAIN 2 TO REACH THE APOGEE OF HOW MANY CAN HAVE ONLY 2 WHEN THE MOST THE OTHERS CAN HAVE IS 4 AND 10 OF THESE BOXES ADD UP TO 32.
The numbers are low, and the reading passage is short. Today’s math question can be a ‘RACECAR’ question, so that you eliminate all the ‘wrong’ answers; but the easier way is to draw a little train!
What the test designer expects you to do is to recognize a pattern emerging; and, this is clearer for most of us with a visual.
The question asks what is the largest number of boxes that can contain the number 2 if there are 10 boxes in total, the highest number in any box can only be four and all the boxes together add up to the number 32?
2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 4
=32
Draw ten boxes. Start from the right putting in a couple of fours. 2x4=8 That leaves 8x2=16 Nope
Need more 4s Try 2 more 4x4 = 16 That leaves 6x2=12 12+16=28 Nope
Go for more! 6 little boxes x 4 in each one is 24. That leaves only 4 boxes to be 2=8.
24+8=32 AHA! Trial and error and visualizing is the fastest, most accurate way here.
There is a pattern, but you may see it before you know it. Count the number of boxes with 2.
The answer IS 4 BOXES CAN CONTAIN 2 TO REACH THE APOGEE OF HOW MANY CAN HAVE ONLY 2 WHEN THE MOST THE OTHERS CAN HAVE IS 4 AND 10 OF THESE BOXES ADD UP TO 32.
The numbers are low, and the reading passage is short. Today’s math question can be a ‘RACECAR’ question, so that you eliminate all the ‘wrong’ answers; but the easier way is to draw a little train!
What the test designer expects you to do is to recognize a pattern emerging; and, this is clearer for most of us with a visual.
Monday, April 5, 2010
40% Missed SAT 'RACECAR' Question Today: Tutor Includes Lesson
April 5 Q&A Strategy Includes Sentence Correction LESSON from your Private Tutor
Answering today’s question correctly required less than one minute to do. Yes, I do study this type of structure; but the strategies I used to answer quickly and correctly are available to most of the people who tried this question and missed—over 40% at the time I am writing this.
So many test takers missed today’s question that I am going to take this opportunity to go over what to learn for this section of the test—not only the strategies to use but also the rules of grammar to know. The good news is that this is still not a long lesson, and you can make many more points on the SAT test.
More ‘good news’ is: When you learn to recognize and to correct these particular sentence errors, your own writing will be better. This is true even if you like to write in a ‘non-conformist’ format.
As with all talent, learning the traditional forms and practicing allows for meaningful deviation from the usual structure. With knowledge of the logical and clear format for sentence structure, too, you can convey your reasoning about ideas so that your viewpoint is understood by others.
Using my Rocketcat ‘RACECAR’ strategy, I read the title, the directions, and today’s question. I looked for predictable errors as I read the sentence. I found none.
I went back and looked at each underlined portion for ‘clues’ about potential errors (incorrect verb tense, subject-verb disagreement, pronoun-antecedent disagreement, incorrect form of a word), and I found no errors. I marked ‘NO ERROR’ quickly and glanced back over the sentence, as a whole, looking for an error.
There were none. I moved on. My application of the strategies I use took less than one minute.
In less than one minute, I used all of the strategies I teach for this type of question. Below, I am going over these strategies with you in relation to this type of question. It is true that reading this and learning this will take a little MORE than the minute I took answering today’s question.
I believe you can read and learn this strategy, once and for all time, in ten minutes. The knowledge will gain many points on standardized tests. The part that you cannot learn in ten minutes will take less than thirty minutes: reviewing the potential errors in the sentence error portion of all standardized tests, including the SAT.
These include:
sentence fragments,
run-on sentences,
spliced sentences (using a comma when a period or semi-colon Is required),
pronoun-antecedent disagreement,
incorrect form of descriptive word (adjective/adverb), subject-verb disagreement,
incorrect verb tense, incorrect ‘number’ of verb (singular when plural necessary or vice versa) or incorrect ‘person’ form of the verb (use of the form for ‘I’ or ‘you’ when the form for ‘he, she, or it’ is necessary—
and, an SAT favorite, lack of parallelism.
To practice writing in parallel form, pretend you are an advertising copywriter writing ‘bullets’ to advertise different things. Notice how difficult it can be to keep your bullets in ‘parallel’ form.
This product:
• Softens your hair
• Lightens the highlights
• Straightens the snags
This product:
• Entertains your children.
• Entices you to exercise.
So far, forty percent (40%) of the respondents to today’s question were incorrect. This means that two out of every five people who tried this question got it wrong!
Remember yesterday’s strategy: Do NOT argue for a particular answer. If your answer is what the designer of the question intends, you do not have to debate! The reasoning will be clear.
This is something that is [generally] true of the SAT test questions. Even if I know that another answer will fit the criteria of a question, I can realize which answer this question writer is expecting. THAT is the answer to give on the test!
Today’s question is entitled ‘Identifying Sentence Errors,’ and the DIRECTIONS clearly state what to do if there is no error.
The tiger usually hunts at night and feeds on a variety of animals,
Is there anything wrong with the descriptive word (adjective instead of adverb?): No ‘usually hunts’ is correct.
Now, I see this is a compound form (using ‘and’) so I am looking to find that the next verb is in the same form (tense, number, person: present, singular form, third ‘person/tiger’). Look at the verbs in relation to the subject (tiger hunts and, yes, feeds). So far, there is no error.
The tiger usually hunts at night and feeds on a variety of animals, but it prefers fairly large prey such as deer and wild pigs. No error.
Is ‘it’ in the correct form to be the pronoun with the antecedent of ‘tiger’? Yes, ‘it’ is the correct pronoun.
Okay, is there someone out there who gets tripped up on ‘No error’ because it is a sentence fragment? Forget this faulty reasoning. ‘No Error’ is NOT part of the sentence. It is the answer, but it is also the style of format for the question. The DIRECTIONS tell you that you are reading the sentence. The directions tell you EVERYTHING!
Again, I emphasize, sometimes the ‘wrong’ answer seems correct to a person who reads avidly. In the case of ‘sentence correction,’ the reason that a person who loves to read a wide variety of books will sometimes answer incorrectly is that he or she is relying upon what ‘looks’ or ‘sounds’ right.
Today, I will read from a variety of books. Within those books, sometimes on every page, I will find sentences with errors of the type you will need to be able to recognize to do well in this part of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. If I answered these questions according to what ‘looks’ or ‘sounds’ right, I would see and ‘hear’ many types of sentence error as correct because I see them every day in what I read. Even your textbooks will have some of these errors!
Advertisers love to use sentence fragments. So you may see a sentence fragment in large letters on a bus. One word with a period is not a sentence. It is true that there is a way to make an entire sentence with one word. The word ‘stop’ written with an exclamation point IS a complete sentence. This is because a complete sentence has to include a subject AND a verb. You can ‘understand’ the subject, especially in an imperative or exclamatory sentence when ‘You’ is the understood subject.
Do these sentence corrections for practice. In the sentence before this sentence, ‘You’ is the ‘understood’ subject. The teacher says to the students: You do these sentence corrections for practice.
Sentence fragments are not ‘correct’ when you are looking for errors in sentences. Even so, sentence fragments may ‘look’ or ‘sound’ right in your mind because today, in a bestseller, you read a sentence that looks like this: ‘Fired as surely as any old geezer without my looks and money.’ Within the context of prose, poems, instructions, news, we don’t always notice structure.
Where are the errors that these test-takers ‘found’ in today’s question? If they cannot tell me this, their choice should have been ‘NO ERROR.’ The ‘guess’ should be NO ERROR.
Today’s SAT question of the day is about sentence errors. The TITLE of the type of question you are about to read informs you what you will be reading the sentence to find: sentence errors.
Before taking the SAT, you should know that a way that the SAT asks questions to discover your ability to write correct sentences is to design a sentence so that you can find what is wrong to cause the sentence to contain an error. There are also ways that SAT test designers will include in your choices a method for you to indicate that there are no sentence errors.
Again, as I emphasize often, do NOT look for obscure errors that you can argue are errors. Look for the error that you know a test designer for the SAT will be measuring your ability to recognize and to correct. You can predict some of these and look for those as you read the sentence.
What makes this type of question and format ‘RACECAR’ Q&A for me may not feel the same for you. However, there are predictable possibilities for this style of question to allow you to manage the question in the same way that I do.
Remember that the SAT test is designed to measure your ‘aptitude,’ and this is a different type of measurement from what some tests are designed to measure. Therefore, there are not only certain types of sentence errors deemed ‘fair’ in judging aptitude rather than quality of past instruction and some other advantages of education, but there are also ways to evaluate a sentence on the SAT test, quickly, to find whether this question includes those errors.
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 1-RACECAR Q&A-Learn the potential types of error to be measured in this section on an aptitude test such as the SAT: subject verb disagreement, antecedent-modifier disagreement, incorrect form of descriptive word (adjective or adverb), split infinitive (a modifier inserted between ‘to’ and the ‘verb’ of the infinitive form: (Ex: to immediately find should be written as immediately to find or to find immediately).
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 2-RACECAR Q&A-Learn the various forms of directions ahead, and read EVERYTHING during the test—even though you know the way to follow these directions.
NOTE: WHY do I direct you to use the time to read the title and directions each time—even though you have studied the directions ahead to save time while pacing yourself on the test? These are short passages and short answer styles. Part of your strategy to do them correctly is to put your mind into the ‘frame’ of managing the Q&A accurately. Clue in your brain as you move into the question.
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 3-RACECAR Q&A: Read the question considering which types of error you could expect, checking the underlined portion to find the error or to notice a way you COULD correct an error by changing this portion.
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 4-RACECAR Q&A: When you find the error, immediately consider a way to correct the error by changing an underlined portion; mark that answer immediately; begin elimination of the other sections—by proving they are correct.
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 5-RACECAR Q&A: ‘RACECAR’ is a palindrome, reading the same left to right and right to left. Check forward, find the error, and mark the error. Check backwards (ONLY ON THIS ‘RACECAR’ style question with a fast format of brief passages, brief answers) to eliminate the incorrect answers.
• MOVE ON. Even if the question is a brief format, move on if you are puzzled. Choose the answer you ‘prove’ is correct, whether you feel confident or not. Once you have followed the checking strategy: MOVE ON.
• DO NOT ALLOW YOUR PACING TO BE SUBDUED OR SLOWED BY FINDING THAT YOUR BEST ANSWER IS ‘NO ERROR.’ Remember, you may start to ‘argue’ that you have found an error if you feel that ‘NO ERROR’ is never the answer.
NOTE: Somewhere on your SAT test, there is a high possibility of having at least one question that is in correct form, requiring you to choose the ‘No Error’ option.
Notice the form of allowing you this option. Some directions tell you to choose ‘A’ if the sentence remains the same as given (meaning there is ‘no error).
Some directions have E. as the choice for NO ERROR (as today’s question)judiethcarol&RocketcatApril2010c.
Answering today’s question correctly required less than one minute to do. Yes, I do study this type of structure; but the strategies I used to answer quickly and correctly are available to most of the people who tried this question and missed—over 40% at the time I am writing this.
So many test takers missed today’s question that I am going to take this opportunity to go over what to learn for this section of the test—not only the strategies to use but also the rules of grammar to know. The good news is that this is still not a long lesson, and you can make many more points on the SAT test.
More ‘good news’ is: When you learn to recognize and to correct these particular sentence errors, your own writing will be better. This is true even if you like to write in a ‘non-conformist’ format.
As with all talent, learning the traditional forms and practicing allows for meaningful deviation from the usual structure. With knowledge of the logical and clear format for sentence structure, too, you can convey your reasoning about ideas so that your viewpoint is understood by others.
Using my Rocketcat ‘RACECAR’ strategy, I read the title, the directions, and today’s question. I looked for predictable errors as I read the sentence. I found none.
I went back and looked at each underlined portion for ‘clues’ about potential errors (incorrect verb tense, subject-verb disagreement, pronoun-antecedent disagreement, incorrect form of a word), and I found no errors. I marked ‘NO ERROR’ quickly and glanced back over the sentence, as a whole, looking for an error.
There were none. I moved on. My application of the strategies I use took less than one minute.
In less than one minute, I used all of the strategies I teach for this type of question. Below, I am going over these strategies with you in relation to this type of question. It is true that reading this and learning this will take a little MORE than the minute I took answering today’s question.
I believe you can read and learn this strategy, once and for all time, in ten minutes. The knowledge will gain many points on standardized tests. The part that you cannot learn in ten minutes will take less than thirty minutes: reviewing the potential errors in the sentence error portion of all standardized tests, including the SAT.
These include:
sentence fragments,
run-on sentences,
spliced sentences (using a comma when a period or semi-colon Is required),
pronoun-antecedent disagreement,
incorrect form of descriptive word (adjective/adverb), subject-verb disagreement,
incorrect verb tense, incorrect ‘number’ of verb (singular when plural necessary or vice versa) or incorrect ‘person’ form of the verb (use of the form for ‘I’ or ‘you’ when the form for ‘he, she, or it’ is necessary—
and, an SAT favorite, lack of parallelism.
To practice writing in parallel form, pretend you are an advertising copywriter writing ‘bullets’ to advertise different things. Notice how difficult it can be to keep your bullets in ‘parallel’ form.
This product:
• Softens your hair
• Lightens the highlights
• Straightens the snags
This product:
• Entertains your children.
• Entices you to exercise.
So far, forty percent (40%) of the respondents to today’s question were incorrect. This means that two out of every five people who tried this question got it wrong!
Remember yesterday’s strategy: Do NOT argue for a particular answer. If your answer is what the designer of the question intends, you do not have to debate! The reasoning will be clear.
This is something that is [generally] true of the SAT test questions. Even if I know that another answer will fit the criteria of a question, I can realize which answer this question writer is expecting. THAT is the answer to give on the test!
Today’s question is entitled ‘Identifying Sentence Errors,’ and the DIRECTIONS clearly state what to do if there is no error.
The tiger usually hunts at night and feeds on a variety of animals,
Is there anything wrong with the descriptive word (adjective instead of adverb?): No ‘usually hunts’ is correct.
Now, I see this is a compound form (using ‘and’) so I am looking to find that the next verb is in the same form (tense, number, person: present, singular form, third ‘person/tiger’). Look at the verbs in relation to the subject (tiger hunts and, yes, feeds). So far, there is no error.
The tiger usually hunts at night and feeds on a variety of animals, but it prefers fairly large prey such as deer and wild pigs. No error.
Is ‘it’ in the correct form to be the pronoun with the antecedent of ‘tiger’? Yes, ‘it’ is the correct pronoun.
Okay, is there someone out there who gets tripped up on ‘No error’ because it is a sentence fragment? Forget this faulty reasoning. ‘No Error’ is NOT part of the sentence. It is the answer, but it is also the style of format for the question. The DIRECTIONS tell you that you are reading the sentence. The directions tell you EVERYTHING!
Again, I emphasize, sometimes the ‘wrong’ answer seems correct to a person who reads avidly. In the case of ‘sentence correction,’ the reason that a person who loves to read a wide variety of books will sometimes answer incorrectly is that he or she is relying upon what ‘looks’ or ‘sounds’ right.
Today, I will read from a variety of books. Within those books, sometimes on every page, I will find sentences with errors of the type you will need to be able to recognize to do well in this part of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. If I answered these questions according to what ‘looks’ or ‘sounds’ right, I would see and ‘hear’ many types of sentence error as correct because I see them every day in what I read. Even your textbooks will have some of these errors!
Advertisers love to use sentence fragments. So you may see a sentence fragment in large letters on a bus. One word with a period is not a sentence. It is true that there is a way to make an entire sentence with one word. The word ‘stop’ written with an exclamation point IS a complete sentence. This is because a complete sentence has to include a subject AND a verb. You can ‘understand’ the subject, especially in an imperative or exclamatory sentence when ‘You’ is the understood subject.
Do these sentence corrections for practice. In the sentence before this sentence, ‘You’ is the ‘understood’ subject. The teacher says to the students: You do these sentence corrections for practice.
Sentence fragments are not ‘correct’ when you are looking for errors in sentences. Even so, sentence fragments may ‘look’ or ‘sound’ right in your mind because today, in a bestseller, you read a sentence that looks like this: ‘Fired as surely as any old geezer without my looks and money.’ Within the context of prose, poems, instructions, news, we don’t always notice structure.
Where are the errors that these test-takers ‘found’ in today’s question? If they cannot tell me this, their choice should have been ‘NO ERROR.’ The ‘guess’ should be NO ERROR.
Today’s SAT question of the day is about sentence errors. The TITLE of the type of question you are about to read informs you what you will be reading the sentence to find: sentence errors.
Before taking the SAT, you should know that a way that the SAT asks questions to discover your ability to write correct sentences is to design a sentence so that you can find what is wrong to cause the sentence to contain an error. There are also ways that SAT test designers will include in your choices a method for you to indicate that there are no sentence errors.
Again, as I emphasize often, do NOT look for obscure errors that you can argue are errors. Look for the error that you know a test designer for the SAT will be measuring your ability to recognize and to correct. You can predict some of these and look for those as you read the sentence.
What makes this type of question and format ‘RACECAR’ Q&A for me may not feel the same for you. However, there are predictable possibilities for this style of question to allow you to manage the question in the same way that I do.
Remember that the SAT test is designed to measure your ‘aptitude,’ and this is a different type of measurement from what some tests are designed to measure. Therefore, there are not only certain types of sentence errors deemed ‘fair’ in judging aptitude rather than quality of past instruction and some other advantages of education, but there are also ways to evaluate a sentence on the SAT test, quickly, to find whether this question includes those errors.
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 1-RACECAR Q&A-Learn the potential types of error to be measured in this section on an aptitude test such as the SAT: subject verb disagreement, antecedent-modifier disagreement, incorrect form of descriptive word (adjective or adverb), split infinitive (a modifier inserted between ‘to’ and the ‘verb’ of the infinitive form: (Ex: to immediately find should be written as immediately to find or to find immediately).
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 2-RACECAR Q&A-Learn the various forms of directions ahead, and read EVERYTHING during the test—even though you know the way to follow these directions.
NOTE: WHY do I direct you to use the time to read the title and directions each time—even though you have studied the directions ahead to save time while pacing yourself on the test? These are short passages and short answer styles. Part of your strategy to do them correctly is to put your mind into the ‘frame’ of managing the Q&A accurately. Clue in your brain as you move into the question.
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 3-RACECAR Q&A: Read the question considering which types of error you could expect, checking the underlined portion to find the error or to notice a way you COULD correct an error by changing this portion.
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 4-RACECAR Q&A: When you find the error, immediately consider a way to correct the error by changing an underlined portion; mark that answer immediately; begin elimination of the other sections—by proving they are correct.
• Rocketcat’s Strategy 5-RACECAR Q&A: ‘RACECAR’ is a palindrome, reading the same left to right and right to left. Check forward, find the error, and mark the error. Check backwards (ONLY ON THIS ‘RACECAR’ style question with a fast format of brief passages, brief answers) to eliminate the incorrect answers.
• MOVE ON. Even if the question is a brief format, move on if you are puzzled. Choose the answer you ‘prove’ is correct, whether you feel confident or not. Once you have followed the checking strategy: MOVE ON.
• DO NOT ALLOW YOUR PACING TO BE SUBDUED OR SLOWED BY FINDING THAT YOUR BEST ANSWER IS ‘NO ERROR.’ Remember, you may start to ‘argue’ that you have found an error if you feel that ‘NO ERROR’ is never the answer.
NOTE: Somewhere on your SAT test, there is a high possibility of having at least one question that is in correct form, requiring you to choose the ‘No Error’ option.
Notice the form of allowing you this option. Some directions tell you to choose ‘A’ if the sentence remains the same as given (meaning there is ‘no error).
Some directions have E. as the choice for NO ERROR (as today’s question)judiethcarol&RocketcatApril2010c.
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