Over the course of more than a decade helping students just like you achieve higher SAT scores than they ever thought possible, I’ve noticed some pretty big disconnects between what the classroom teaches you and what this standardized test asks of you. A prime example is the SAT Writing and Language section.
My guess is that your high school teachers have primarily taught you grammar through a case-by-case, trial-and-error method. What I mean by that is: you write essays for English class and your instructor marks them up in red ink (or by using the Track Changes feature of your word processor). The teacher assumes that these corrections will lead you to naturally deduce the larger concepts that hold it all together. However, this system means you may not actually know the actual rules of grammar per se… like, the black-and-white, Option-A-is-“correct”-while-Option-B-is-“incorrect” RULES. Am I right?
For the past dozen years, almost ALL of my test prep students have told me that they hear my voice and “my” grammar rules in their heads while writing essays and papers. They also often say that what they’ve learned from me for the Writing section of the SAT has significantly improved their writing in ALL of their subjects at school (not to mention the writing that goes into their college application essays).
SAT Writing and Language Test Basics
So, what are these mysterious “rules” of which I speak? The ones that will magically and swiftly carry you to a perfect 400 possible points in the SAT Writing and Language Test (which then gets added to the 400 possible points for the Reading section)? Lucky for you, I’m breaking down all the content that you’ll need to learn to master this section in today’s post. But first, you need to understand the framework of the section:
1) How is the Writing and Language section of the SAT structured?
The SAT Writing section tests your ability to swiftly and accurately edit passages in grammatically correct—and rhetorically sound—ways. The section consists of 44 multiple choice questions that must be completed in 35 minutes for a regular-time test taker. The section is broken down into four passages, each with 11 questions. No passage is harder than another, and the difficulty level of the questions is random. You might have a hard question followed by an easy question. YOUR job is to accurately answer all 44 questions at a speed of about 8 minutes 45 seconds per passage. (Multiply that by 1.5 if you get extended time.)
2) What is the format of questions on the SAT Writing section?
Most questions in the SAT Writing and Language section are “underlined” questions, meaning that part of the passage is underlined, and the answer choices provide different options that could take the place of the underlined words. However, some questions are “boxed” (no words are underlined, but the part of the passage that’s being asked about is marked with a boxed question number), and some questions refer to the passage as a whole. In addition, certain questions will use the words “NOT” and ask you to find the answer choice that DOESN’T work. In short, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with these different question types—and always be aware of which one you’re working with come test day—to ensure you don’t make careless errors and get docked points!
3) Should you guess on the SAT Writing and Language section?
If you have trouble completing all 44 questions within the 35 minutes you’re allotted (for regular-time test takers), you’ll need a guessing strategy. Luckily, I’ve already given you my best SAT guessing strategies in this previous post.
What Grammar Is Tested on the SAT Writing section?
Here are all the grammar topics you need to master to earn a top score on the SAT’s Writing and Language Test.
The most important grammar rules for the Writing and Language section of the SAT
These are the basics you need to know before you can do anything else!
1) SAT GRAMMAR VOCABULARY
If you’re trying to identify the subject of a sentence—and not get thrown by a prepositional phrase—in order to correctly pair it with the proper verb conjugation…well, you first need to have an understanding of what a “subject,” a “preposition” and a “conjugated verb” ARE! Though you may not have to recite the labels of all the parts of speech to get a question right, you’ll still need to understand the differences between an “adverb” and an “adjective” to work accurately.
2) SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT
You need to understand how to identify the subject of a sentence or clause and correctly match it to the form of the verb that agrees with it in number (as in, singular or plural). In addition, you need to understand the eight major ways the SAT Writing section could try to trick you so you can’t locate the subject in the first place!
3) PRONOUNS
Did you know that a pronoun can be the subject of a sentence and that there are certain pronouns that can be used for things (but NOT for people)? For the SAT, you need to understand what a pronoun IS and how to correctly match it in case and number to the noun it’s taking the place of in the sentence. You’ll also need to know how to be consistent with pronouns in a passage, how to fix ambiguous pronoun references, how to use emphatic or reflexive pronouns, and how to correctly use relative pronouns.
4) VERB TENSE
You also need to know how to correctly use the most common verb tenses—past, present and future—as well as some of the less common ones: present progressive, present perfect, past perfect, and conditional tenses. In addition, you’ll be required to know how to incorporate irregular verbs correctly into a piece of writing.
SAT Writing: Complete Sentence Questions
Now that you know the basics, you need to be able to structure sentences that are complete…not fragments and not run-ons!
5) SENTENCE OR FRAGMENT?
Which clusters of words would actually form a sentence, and which would not? You will need to understand which grammar “bare necessities” form a complete sentence…and the combinations that only give you fragments and incomplete sentences and clauses. You’ll also need to understand Coordinating Conjunctions and Subordinating Conjunctions.
6) PUNCTUATION RULES
Once you can correctly identify which clusters of words can stand on their own and which cannot, you need to know the EXACT types of punctuation that you can use in each scenario. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish—combine two sentences, add extra information, combine one complete with one dependent clause, indicate possession, etc.—there are specific punctuation choices that work and that don’t work. My famed Punctuation Cheat Sheet breaks all of this down for you.
7) TRANSITION WORDS
You know all those words that help you process what you’re reading by giving you signals about the relationship between one sentence and the next? Words like “however,” “additionally” and “therefore”? These are Transition Words, and you need to understand the different types of them, all the possible words you may come across on test day, as well as how each one is used grammatically.
8) EXTRA INFORMATION
Is a word or group of words necessary for a sentence to be complete—or does it merely give us some details that are nice to have? You’ll need to identify which words are totally necessary to a sentence—and which are merely extra information—and learn to punctuate them correctly in order to earn a top Writing and Language score on the SAT!
How to Get a High SAT Writing Score with Advanced Grammar
After you’ve learned to correctly form complete sentences, you need to know the following advanced topics that govern how to pick the correct word/wording and how to phrase your sentences so that your writing is crystal-clear and concise.
9) COMPARISONS
Are you comparing a person, thing or action to another? Or to many others? Depending on the situation, the way you express it differs, and the words you use differ! You’ll need to know the ins and outs of comparisons, superlatives, and common word pairs to master the Writing section.
10) PARALLELISM
When you use common word pairs or list multiple items, you need to structure them the same way. For instance, “Nina likes singing, dancing and to swim” is WRONG on the SAT, but “Nina likes singing, dancing, and swimming” is correct. However, it gets more complicated than that on the SAT!
11) MODIFIERS
When you add extra information or an introductory phrase to a sentence, it modifies the noun it’s closest to. And if the noun it’s closest to isn’t the noun it’s talking about…you have an SAT grammar problem that you need to fix!
12) WORD CHOICE
On the SAT Writing section, “Word Choice” means much more than mere vocabulary: it means diction, idiom, and register. As in, do you know the difference between frequently confused words (like “illusion” and “allusion”)? Do you know which preposition goes with which verb or saying (why do we “listen to” instead of “listen on”?)? And finally, can you select the words that match the degree of formality in the passage?
13) REDUNDANCY
Redundancy is when you repeat something again and again and again after you already said or wrote it. (See what I did there??) And redundancy is WRONG on the SAT’s Writing and Language section! For a stellar score, you’ll need to identify when a sentence is redundant and fix it so it’s not.
14) EFFICIENT WRITING
Similar to Redundancy, the SAT tests your ability to edit passages for efficiency. What does that mean? It means that if a sentence is super long or clunky... it’s most likely WRONG. On the SAT, you’ll have to eliminate the clunkiness (and the passive voice!) to find the correct answer choice!
What Rhetorical Elements should you study for the SAT Writing section?
Many questions on the SAT Writing and Language Test aren't about grammar, punctuation or sentence structure at all. Instead, these questions are about the logical cohesion and flow of the passage as a whole. There are a few specific types of “rhetoric” questions that you’ll be tested on, so you need to understand how these questions work and understand your strategy for getting to the correct answer!
15) ADDING AND DELETING SENTENCES
Many SAT Writing questions will ask you if the writer should add a new sentence or delete a sentence that’s already in the passage. To answer, you’ll have to figure out if the sentence in mind is relevant. I show you my fool-proof system for answering this question type in this blog post.
16) “GOAL” QUESTIONS
Another SAT English question essentially asks you to play a game of “Simon says” with your editing. Your task is to follow directions, even if you don’t like it.
17) COMBINING SENTENCES
How do you effectively put two sentences together, so that they are not only joined with correct punctuation, but also with the correct transition or conjunction? Are both the sentences equal in importance, or does one take the backseat to the other? And more importantly, how do you use grammar, punctuation and word choice to reflect this? You’ll have to know the ins and outs to nab these points on the SAT Writing section!
18) LOGICAL ORDER QUESTIONS
There will also be questions on the SAT that ask you to figure out where a sentence or a paragraph should be placed, so that the paragraph and passage make logical sense! You can waste a lot of time on these questions…OR you can learn a system to do them efficiently!
19) INFOGRAPHICS
You didn’t think the SAT only asked about charts, graphs and tables in the Math sections, did you?! Nope, the SAT Writing and Language Test also asks you to edit passages according to the data found in an accompanying infographic—so that you select the answer that’s not only grammatically correct, but also factually correct AND relevant to the rest of the passage! At least one passage will have Infographic questions in it.
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So that’s WHAT you need to know for the SAT Writing section. But HOW are you going to master it all? Well, after years of teaching this stuff and getting fantastic scores (and college acceptances!) for my students, I finally wrote it all down in a concise, easy-to-read, captivating book that connects ALL the grammar dots so that you can ace the SAT’s Writing and Language Test! If you want to master ALL of the SAT Writing topics I just mentioned—as well as my proprietary tricks and strategies for all SAT Writing rhetorical question types—you can purchase my SAT Grammar Cram Plan here.
Alternatively, if you want to be taught by the master herself, you can find out how private tutoring with me works—and if I have availability—by contacting me here.
