Category Archives: Grammar

How can I improve my SAT score in two weeks?

Posted by stacey

Magic trick to getting higher SAT scores

The final SAT of this school year is less than 2 weeks away.

How can you make the most of your time and improve your SAT score between now and the June test? Here are my top tips.

General Strategy

  • Skip the hard questions.
    (Until you reach the 600s.) Why? Because they are vampire bunnies that will lower your score. Where are those hard questions located? It depends.

Math

  • Show your work.
    For reals – write EVERYTHING out. Bad things happen in your head. The SAT is designed to kill your short term memory, so don’t rely on it at all.
  • Re-read the question.
    AFTER you’ve solved the question, but BEFORE you look at the answer choices, re-read the question.

 Critical Reading 

  • Critical reading is just a math section without numbers.
    Solve the question before looking at the answer. For the vocab part – write in your own words in the blanks before looking at the answers. For the reading passages – read the question, go to the passage to find the answer, THEN look at the answer choices to find the answer that matches your understanding. (See – it’s just like solving a math problem.)
  • Switch over to the dark side!
    Approach each of the five answers with the mindset of “This is a wrong answer because…” and then *find evidence in the passage* for why it is wrong. Only one of the answers won’t have evidence proving it wrong – ergo that must be the right answer.

Writing

 

Do you have any other great study tips? Leave them below!

 

Related posts

SAT Study Tips

 

 

Filed Under: Grammar, Math, Reading, Strategies

The YUNiversity of Righteous Grammar

Posted by stacey

The importance of grammar

Need to learn some grammar rules for the SAT test? (Here’s a chart of the most common grammar topics.) Want to laugh your a** off while doing so?

Here are my favorite posts from The YUNiversity:

 

 

Filed Under: Grammar, Vocab

Grammar: Its vs It’s

Posted by stacey

cousinit

When do you use “it’s” versus “its”? One is a contraction and one is a possessive. My students have a lot of trouble remembering which is which. This is not tested directly on the SAT, but it’s a pet peeve among a lot of English teachers (the good folks who will be grading your essay.)

Contractions

You already know that you can shorten words using contractions.

For example, instead of saying “She is throwing the ball” you can combine the she + is = she’s and say “She’s throwing the ball.”

The same thing works with “it.”

For example, you could say “The dog’s running after the ball.” Or you can replace dog with “it” and say “It’s running after the ball.”

So any time you have “it’s” it means

it +is = it’s

Possession

Here’s another way you use the apostrophe s ( ‘s.)

The dog’s ball rolled into the street.

In this sentence, the ‘s is indicating possession – the ball belongs to the dog.

You could also say

Its ball rolled into the street.

Notice that the possessive form of “its” does not have an apostrophe. (If it did – it would mean it+is)

Everybody knows the alphabet

Which one has the apostrophe?

A is the first letter of the alphabet.

C comes before P in the alphabet.

Therefore contractions come first:

Contraction:  It’s = it is

P comes later in the alphabet

Possession: Its (no apostrophe)

So if you ever see an apostrophe, remember which letter is closest to A.

Other examples

The Oatmeal also has another irreverent explanation of apostrophes.

Filed Under: Grammar