The SAT Prep Black Book(156)

The Big Secret: There are 3 bizarre patterns that help us identify the correct answers in situations where it’s not clear.



Here are the rules for these questions:

oThe SAT grammar concepts from the Identifying Sentence Errors questions still apply to these questions. The right answer must be grammatically okay.

oBut SAT style also counts on these questions. Sometimes you’ll have two or more choices that are grammatically okay, and then you’ll need the style patterns (see below).

oDon't pick a choice that fixes one problem but creates another.

oChoice (A) is always the same as the sentence.



Here are the 3 patterns:

oShorter is better, all other things being equal.

oFewer words ending in “-ed” or “-ing” is better, all other things being equal.

oFewer words that are under 5 letters long (“that,” “and,” “as,” “in,” “by,” how,” and so on) is better, all other things being equal.



Here's the general Improving Sentences process:

oRead entire prompt sentence.

oRead the answer choices and eliminate any with grammatical mistakes.

oIf you’re not instinctively sure which choice has the best SAT style, then determine which choice follows the most of the 3 patterns above.

oRead the entire sentence with your preferred answer choice in place of the underlined portion to make sure it’s good.

oMark your answer or skip the question.



For examples of these principles in action, please see the Blue Book solutions in this Black Book.





Overview and Important Reminders for Improving Paragraphs on the SAT Writing Section


For these questions, you’ll be given a short, poorly written composition, and asked questions about how the composition could be improved. In general, the questions will ask about changes that could be made to individual sentences, ways to combine two sentences into one, or additions or subtractions that could be made to individual paragraphs.





The Unwritten Test Design Rule For Improving Paragraphs on the SAT


For the most part, the rules for Improving Paragraphs are essentially the same as the rules for Improving Sentences, because most of these questions are questions that could have appeared as Improving Sentences questions. The only questions you’ll have to deal with in this section that are really new are the ones about adding and deleting sentences, so the rule below bears mentioning:





SAT Improving Paragraphs Rule: Ideal Paragraphs


According to the SAT Writing section, the best paragraphs mention each concept in the paragraph more than once.

So whenever you’re asked if a sentence should be deleted from a paragraph, choose to delete a sentence if the sentence introduces a topic that isn’t mentioned elsewhere in the paragraph. And whenever you’re asked if a sentence should be added, choose to add the sentence that will restate the most ideas in the original paragraph, or that introduces the fewest new concepts to the paragraph.





Recommended Step-By-Step Approach To Improving Paragraphs On The SAT


This is the recommended process for SAT Improving Paragraphs questions. Note that it incorporates the processes for the other SAT writing multiple-choice questions, and has some similarity to the Passage-Based Reading process.





1. Identify the type of question you’re dealing with.


Remember that the Improving Paragraphs questions are sort of a combination of Improving Sentences questions and Passage-Based Reading questions. Many of the questions are almost exactly like Improving Sentences questions, and those can be answered using almost exactly the same approach as the normal Improving Sentences questions.





2. Consider the Improving Sentences approach, but be careful of small changes.


Use the Improving Sentences approach on the appropriate questions, but be careful—there are certain things you have to look out for. For example, there may not be an underlined portion of the sentence to fix; instead, any portion of the sentence might be changed, or the entire sentence could be replaced with a similar sentence that has the same effect. Still, the goal with these questions will be to find the optimal “SAT-ideal” sentence: the one that avoids the most “bad” patterns and uses the most “good” patterns. So you’re looking for things like correct grammar, fewer short words, and so on.

There’s another very important difference you need to be aware of! For Improving Paragraphs questions, the best way to deal with a sentence may be to delete the sentence entirely. If the question asks you to add or delete a sentence from a paragraph, remember that the “SAT-ideal” paragraph repeats each concept at least once. This means you should choose to delete (or not to add) sentences that discuss concept that aren’t anywhere else in the paragraph, while sentences that stick to the same concepts as the rest of the paragraph should be added or kept.